Testing audiophile claims and myths

[FunkyBassMan]

My personal hell is living.

Well it shouldn't be. Your piece "Ritual" is awesome. Transmits tremendous energy with a great sound, cool pulse and polyrhythms. Had never heard anything quite like it. It's also a great example of the complexity of the piano sound with both percussive elements and ringing elements and how recording a piano really depends on the piece being performed. If you ever record this again, I'd recommend 4 mics - A/B over the low and mid hammers and an XY pair out in the reverberant space somewhere, maybe near a corner to reinforce the bass rumble. I bet the piece would sound very powerful recorded in such a way.

(edit: now that I think about it, a couple under the soundboard might sound great too)

 

[Ryokan]

I think a cup of tea is in order.

 

[Syan25]

I really don't know. But I'm getting fired tomorrow from my job and I have bills to pay. Fear is the biggest enemy of man. When I go in tomorrow, I know it's my head on the guillotine. All I ever wanted was to make music and sculpt sound into aural visions/journeys...it didn't matter if anyone listened to them...just that I had created them. And yet, I've lost so much in life to achieve so little. And success was one step forward, two steps back. Never having a steady flow of good. I'm just tired of it all.

 

[Ryokan]

I really don't know. But I'm getting fired tomorrow from my job and I have bills to pay. Fear is the biggest enemy of man. When I go in tomorrow, I know it's my head on the guillotine. All I ever wanted was to make music and sculpt sound into aural visions/journeys...it didn't matter if anyone listened to them...just that I had created them. And yet, I've lost so much in life to achieve so little. And success was one step forward, two steps back. Never having a steady flow of good. I'm just tired of it all.

I started learning to play the piano, a family friend who teaches also helped but lives too far for tuition to be regular so I gave up. I knew it was going to take a lot of work and practice which I wasn't prepared to do especially working full time. Big respect to anyone who can play the piano, I know it can be very hard for musicians to make a living from it. I knew of someone who was successful making music and 'jingles' for adverts but it took years before their break through came.

 

[Davesrose]

I really don't know. But I'm getting fired tomorrow from my job and I have bills to pay. Fear is the biggest enemy of man. When I go in tomorrow, I know it's my head on the guillotine. All I ever wanted was to make music and sculpt sound into aural visions/journeys...it didn't matter if anyone listened to them...just that I had created them. And yet, I've lost so much in life to achieve so little. And success was one step forward, two steps back. Never having a steady flow of good. I'm just tired of it all.

Sorry you are going through this. If it's any consolation, I was trying to hold on to a job I wasn't really enjoying but it paid the bills. Eventually I did just accept it wasn't worth holding on, tried to focus on marketable skills, and got a job with 2x the income. Occasionally, in retrospect, leaving a job could be a godsend.

 

[BobG55]

I really don't know. But I'm getting fired tomorrow from my job and I have bills to pay. Fear is the biggest enemy of man. When I go in tomorrow, I know it's my head on the guillotine. All I ever wanted was to make music and sculpt sound into aural visions/journeys...it didn't matter if anyone listened to them...just that I had created them. And yet, I've lost so much in life to achieve so little. And success was one step forward, two steps back. Never having a steady flow of good. I'm just tired of it all.

Sorry to hear that Syan. Life is definitely hard at times. I hope you have close family/ friends which will support you emotionally during these troubled times. I wish you nothing but the very best and that something good is waiting for you in the near future.

 

[Syan25]

Viva la musique!

 

[Ryokan]

These iem's sound great now (today) with regular tips, you sure it's not down to burn-in, even a tiny bit?

 

[Davesrose]

These iem's sound great now (today) with regular tips, you sure it's not down to burn-in, even a tiny bit?

How do you evaluate burn-in? If it's how they sound at any given time, our perceptions are always changing. Audio is like my profession with graphics/video-I may be less focused if I'm in a bad mood or feel hungry. Critical judging of color can also be slightly different with monitor calibration or color balance of ambient light (with critical color grading, you can have an ambient sensor attached to your computer to adjust its white balance based on your room environment). Then when it comes to remembering every detail of a perception: our brains aren't really capable of that. They have specific organelles that filter different stimuli for us to focus on "important" elements (for example, how we naturally filter out ambient voices if we're conversing in a crowd). Your evaluation of a headphone can change with how engaging you find that particular music track. The only measured burn-in I've seen with headphones is that transducers can settle after many hours. The FR curve will go down maybe up to a dB. Can't see how anyone could observe that over time...especially as the whole FR curve still has the same shape Then when we get into cable burn-in: don't think there's been any measured evidence of a cable changing conductivity over time (at least one that's insulated). Conceptually, I would think that a cable's conductivity would only change if it's becoming corroded.

 

[gregorio]

These iem's sound great now (today) with regular tips, you sure it's not down to burn-in, even a tiny bit?

We can’t be absolutely certain, it depends on the construction/design but we can be fairly sure. Burn-in to audible levels is most likely to occur with bigger transducers/drivers, so with speakers rather than with HPs/IEMs. I can only speak to manufacturers of studio monitors but most of those whom I asked will just say “no” or even laugh at the question. Only one ever had anything much to say on the subject and that was just to say that if burn-in did occur, it would only take a few seconds and would be so small it probably wouldn’t be audible. Of course with HPs/IEMs, the pads/tips can wear and compress over time, thereby changing their position when worn and potentially their perceived FR.

A far bigger/more obvious change to perceived FR is changes to perception itself (as @Davesrose stated); due to mood, physiological changes or simply where/how you’re focusing your listening, so this is the most likely cause.

G

 

[Davesrose]

Of course with HPs/IEMs, the pads/tips can wear and compress over time, thereby changing their position when worn and potentially their perceived FR.

I think there can be some real changes if you switch from the old pads and new ones immediately. One headphone I have that I like is the Focal Elex: kind of notice a lot of folks say differences between some of Focal models is just earpads. While ear pads can contribute to FR and soundstage, wouldn't have equated it to "great" gains.

 

[KinGensai]

Thoughts on this? Seems relevant to the discussion.

 

[gregorio]

I think there can be some real changes if you switch from the old pads and new ones immediately.

Sure, and I’m sure that’s audible in at least some cases. Likewise with IEM tips, wear is likely to affect the fit and a relatively tiny difference in the quality of the seal for example can have a relatively large effect on the perception of FR. And again, an immediate change is going to be more obvious than a change occurring over weeks/months.

G

 

[Davesrose]

Thoughts on this? Seems relevant to the discussion.

So from what I'm seeing about the video: if we measure the signal as is, there's no line difference. Lets instead add lots of impedance than the FR goes down. Sorry, I'm kind of dismissing some of this video saying with authority about there being audible sound (especially after adding impedance adapters)

 

[Davesrose]

Sure, and I’m sure that’s audible in at least some cases. Likewise with IEM tips, wear is likely to affect the fit and a relatively tiny difference in the quality of the seal for example can have a relatively large effect on the perception of FR. And again, an immediate change is going to be more obvious than a change occurring over weeks/months.

G

Well I think more than some few cases (due to audio curves being modern headphone simulations) being different. I'm not involved with these simulations, but know there are a few for headphone types. Pretty sure we both agree that these are all things we should try to promote as analogue yes