sorry, such a refernce thing never happned on the earth. any gear has colors and sounds diffrent.
as KG said, "there is no such a thing as normal".
I understand that we wil
never reach this "perfection" that I may seek. I also understand that a lot of the "perfection" I may be paying for is
mostly inaudible. However, I am
not talking about headphones or speakers. I'm talking about the DAC and the AMP portion of a stack. These two components can
quantitatively be measured by many individuales and can therefore be
quantitatvely assessed for change in comparision to a
baseline, and also have these assessments
verified by other individuals using
measurement instruments (RMAA, electrical scopes, frequency analyzers, etc.). When we express these changes in
numbers, we can
evaluate the dirrerence, deviation, whatever you'd like to call it from this baseline. These baselines exists for
measurementes like freq response, the various types or noise, cross talk, Dynamic range, etc. and often sit at
absolute zero, or negitive infinity. These
exist in theory, however,
in application, can only be approached within some bounded error. This
error bound decreases as our technology progresses.
I stand by KG compeltely from a
qualitative prespective;
There is no "Normal"; Humans all percieve sound
differently; Everything is relative; Hakuna matata. I also understand that audio (and
music, as its more relevant subset in this context) is a
qualitative experience. I myself own a set of Alpha Primes which
color audio like hell and they do so beautifully. However, I must come full circle and say that we actually can quantitatively analyze audio as well.
A sound wave is a pattern that can be defined by a mathematical function (however complidated, unnecessecary, and pointless it may seem to most of the audio community), and
as long as we can define something methematically, we can assess it mathematically and compare and evlauate it quantitatively; Regardless of whether "perfection" exists (yet) or not.
ANY headphone are already phisically EQed. accordinglly you have no reason to dislike EQer.
As for "having no reason to dislike their EQ" - I
strongly disagree. Almosts every audiophile you talk to will have
positive things to say about one manufacturer or one of their products and a
negative things to say about another. It is the existance of this
qualitative bias that has lead to the growth of the audio industry, as well as most other industries in the world. We have
choices in, manufacturers, product lines, price ranges, physical models, design philosiphies, and
even Beats vs Bose (Yes, I know to some of you I just swore twice in that sentence there) simpy because
individuals have the right and the psychological ability to "dislike their EQ".
1EQ(headphone) x 1EQ(EQer) = 1EQ
its simple equation.
The equation is actually:
EQ_headphones * EQ_custom = EQ_total
Where EQ_custom can reperesent the multiplied EQ of your source, DAC, AMP, and anything else you'd like to put in the stack, including a little 16ohm resister (Cheers Etymotic, incredibly well played in reference to the ER4P vs the ER4S).
My point is that your sound is a combination of everything in your stack. It is
not just some EQ you cannot change and have to accept as it is. It is also something you can
control and
understand more throughly by
minimizing the EQ effects of certain parts of your stack, especially your DAC and AMP.
). It's not the most portable (dac is usb powered so it'll drain your phone, and the amp can only be better powered if you have the dac in a separate chassis), but it's amazing to use on campus for me for example. It's audibly very VERY close to studio reference gear, so I absolutely love it.
