[TheVinylRipper]

In a thread that ended up being about intermodulation distortion, Daroid said:

Quote:

Quote: Originally Posted by Daroid View Post Proper IMD tests for headphones, i'll promise you, regardless of costs are not a pretty sight. The same goes for speakers. I still think that IMD and THD measuremenst should never be made on anything but amplifiers, and not the transducers themselves. This is due to: As a speaker designer; the THD and IMD won't tell you exactly what the culprit is when a transducer is tested - is it the amp? microphone? room? speakers? slight off axis measurement? Measuring in a closed system with no transducers tells you exactly what is wrong and what part of the circuit might be the culprit. At least, one would have an idea, if it was designed from scratch, and know the datasheets for any non-linear devices. Apart from that, i think another problem might be a dampening issue. Unfortunately the impedance curve of the HD6X0/HD580 is anything but 300 Ohms at the audible frequency range. Sennheiser have not stated anywhere what dampening factor would be ideal - i.e. stated the desired output impedance from the amp. Really unfortunate. All headphones are voiced with different output impedances. I think i have found that the HD650 is best suited with a <5 Ohm output impedance in order to have a good bass and treble response. On the other hand the HD25-1 truely sucks with <5 Ohm. At 50-75 Ohm output impedance, the bass is not overpowering, no boominess is present, and does actually sound very refined and detailed. That explains why i still use the output of my RME with the HD25-1 directly.

I think this indicates that a variable output impedance amp might be a good idea to investigate.

Would it be possible to put a digital feedback loop around an amp with a full duplex sound card?

 

[nikongod]

why add complication?

the gears are built to sound a certain way with what is available, let it run with what is available.

if you are unhappy with the soundin your system identify what does not please you and change it. your ears are clearly quite exceptional, picking a messed up amp/source/driver/whatver out of the chain should be no problem.