castleofargh
Sound Science Forum Moderator
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2011
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I was planning on doing this as a reviews, but there really isn't a review section for that kind of gizmo. so if there is a more fitting place for this, please moderator wherever you are, move it there
.
what is it? A little acoustic coupler with a cone opening.
Wait what? Ok, a little microphone to record the sound from your IEM. ^_^
is it complicated? yes and no.
-to do A measurement, you stick your IEM in it, plug the jack into your computer amp or headphone out. Plug the 3.5mm jack of the microphone in the mic input of your computer, get ARTA or whatever software that will let you fool around with measurements in a loop, select the proper input and output in the software, and there you go. If you're using ARTA, there is a pretty effective video on Vibro's website to show you how to do a measurement in no time.
-to do a calibrated measurement that looks like online graphs, it might take more efforts.
"So if I buy it, can I become the next Tyll with my blog outerfidelity.com?" Well not just yet no. sorry.
without having much information about the microphone, and with no high end ADC, it's a little hard to do more than just frequency response measurement. and even then it's recommended for a limited frequency range.
I bought the Veritas after reading about it on innerfidelity. TBH my mindset at the time was “oh that looks like a fun geeky toy, it costs the same as the last cheap copter I crashed in my room after 10mn of first charging it”. I really didn't expect much and while I was a little disappointed not to get a reliable calibration file(more on that later), I ended up spending more than a week wasting all of my free time and most of my sleep time(which is usually a lot!) Making measurements and learning a few things about IEMs in the process.
So somehow,to me it's worth it. But that's because I'm a geeky nerd, and because I had about 10 IEMs, many many tips and a few resistors to play around with.
I imagine the guy with 1 IEM doing a measurement, maybe a few more to see how reliable it is, maybe still a few more with different tips, and "… ok what's on TV?".
So my take on this, it's a fun toy, it might even be used for seriouz bizznezz (within reason), but it's not for everybody and would bore many.
I made no picture because there really isn't much to show. Just go there http://vibrolabs.com/pages/veritas-guide and check the videos, you'll see all you need to see.
I believe the best way to give an idea about what you can do, is by showing examples of a few ideas I got. I used room EQ wizard instead of ARTA, simply because I already knew the basics of that software(yeah lazy reason). But I did use ARTA a few times and got the very same measurements so it doesn't change what you do on the measurement side of things(both can be used for free BTW).
1/ making a measurement:
I did just like the video on how to use ARTA is showing, and measuring my etymotic HF5 gave this:
when I was expecting something like this:
Not the best first impression.
After trying a lot of IEMs, it was clear that I needed to make a calibration profile on my own for the microphone. And did it using headroom or innerfidelity or M.R.O as references for what my final measurement should look like with different IEMs(funky stuff when they all have a slightly different graph of the same IEM).
So I made a .TXT file like a boss with values like this
10,-5.2
12,-3.8
13.5,-2.8
15,-2.5
18,-1.3
20,-1
22,-0.7
25,-0.5
etc
each time with the frequency and then the “gain” difference. As you can guess it's not the funniest thing to do with one's life, but you can take comfort in thinking that it's not the kind of stuff you'll do everyday.
And after messing around I ended up with the compensated measurement that looked like this:
pretty happy with this because it fits reasonably in with most IEMs I've measured vs online graphs, I can now get on to do the real "fun" stuff:
Measuring different tips:
What a mess! you can mask some in REW, that's only to show you how strong I am in tips
First surprise to me, even if it was to be expected, I prefer and tend to use mostly the T100 and etymotic olives(the sport comply foam just doesn't isolate enough). And they show about the same signature. But now I also know that I could try to use other tips and EQ the signature a little.
Then I measured my etymotic MK5(you'll see a lot of etymotic in there, they're cheap and isolate like crazy so I have them). I use the MK5 with a white damping filter added in it because I find it tames the mids a little, but I could never really see what it really did to the sound:
White line is the original MK5, and the cyan line is with the white filter(who's in first base who). clearly the white damping filter goes right back on! my eyes agree with my ears ^_^.
I also checked my 2 pairs of HF5 to see if they were identical:
L and R are the left and right earpieces. I've arranged them like this to make the difference obvious. But you may notice that the differences are pretty consistent on the left and right of the same IEM. Pseudo burn in(they're both more than a year old and both were used a lot so...) or simply that etymotic tries to match the drivers even on the hf5? or random luck? IDK
But now I know better than to just blindly believe that all IEMs of one model will sound exactly the same.
Then I played with a few resistor adapters I had to see how it would affect the signature depending on the impedance response of the IEM. I already know the electricity behind it, and have made a little excel file to estimate changes when I have both the FR graph and the impedance graph. But now I can test it for myself:
so now I can say with both theory and practice how my HF5 will become brighter with added resistor. The same way the ER4 becomes brighter when turned into the ER4S by adding a resistor to the cable.
BUT being an EQ junky, of course there was one thing I really had wished to be able to do for a long time, and I suspect a few of you would like to do it too. Making sure my left and right earpieces are matched:
not too bad, but could be better. I don't know for ARTA but REW let you simulate the use of an EQ and estimates in real time(or not) the changes in frequency response(and phase but not very relevant for this use). So I used that and trying to keep the EQ minimal not to create more of a mess than there is to correct, I ended up with this:
could be still improved but I'm very happy with this already. And that's measured while using easyQ vst(also free) in foobar. It has a left and right EQ so I went for that one, and have converted a few albums with the VST in it so that the balance would be on my DAPs. I'm still trying and TBH I can't really tell the difference. And that doesn't take care of the imbalance of my own ears, but I do feel like I've conquered audio in my head and can drop the mic like a boss.
You could do those stuff with any microphone and some duck tape to try and seal the space for the IEM to keep its bass. It would surely need some work but it would work. So the Vibro Veritas product isn't a revolution or anything, but it can simplify things. for a guy like me that has no ties with audio professionals doing recordings, knowing what kind of microphone I should have, what device to plug it in etc, that was simply too much for me. so while I had wanted to do some measurements for a long time, I clearly owe it to the vibro veritas this time.
And as you can see, all you need are some IEMs and strange ideas to enjoy and maybe benefit from it.
I'm very glad I bought one.
+ Let you actually measure your very own IEMs!
+ 99$ expensive for a toy, cheap for a measurement tool.
+ The mini jack works into a basic computer mic plug, so no need for recording equipment.
- Will most likely need calibration so you must have at least 1 IEM that has online measurements available. Else that may limit what you can do with your measurements. Like using them to make an EQ, it can make sense only if you know what the graph is showing. I went to try copying RAW measurements(I'm used to that), so I readily know what I need to change to get the kind of signature I love. If I was stuck to the first measurement without calibration, it would need a lot of time and a good deal of experiments to achieve the same kind of EQ.
- The jack works into a computer mic plug, but doesn't work on my focusrite 2i2 when it's a device specifically built to record microphones and instruments, oh irony ^_^.
- Some silicone tips just wouldn't stay in place, so you need to find the right size of tip, or maintain it in place with the play-doh smurf paste provided when you buy a Veritas.
- For customs, it might not always be possible to measure the sound at the right distance from the eardrum/microphone. Like if your ear canal turns a lot then you may not be able to push the shell as deep as you would want to. It's a minus, but maybe I should blame the ear canals that bend too much? Still very much manageable to get a measurement, just not THE measurement at perfect distance to see how the trebles really are.
- from the webpage you can read this warning:
In practice you can do better than that, but I would still suggest not to get your hopes too high about the precision in the trebles. With rather short frequency wavelength like trebles, any kind of change can make several DB of difference, pushing the IEM slightly deeper, your ear canal being bent in a particular way. Or simply because the manufacturer's confidence stops at 10khz on the microphone you're using.
So while I can get readings at 20khz or even above, when I'm trying to show how an IEM really measures I will mostly use the measurements I've done up to 10khz. maybe 15khz at times just to show if a massive roll off is final or just a short blip. but that's probably it. And I recommend like Luke on his webpage to keep the 100hz-10khz accuracy in mind.
what is it? A little acoustic coupler with a cone opening.
Wait what? Ok, a little microphone to record the sound from your IEM. ^_^
is it complicated? yes and no.
-to do A measurement, you stick your IEM in it, plug the jack into your computer amp or headphone out. Plug the 3.5mm jack of the microphone in the mic input of your computer, get ARTA or whatever software that will let you fool around with measurements in a loop, select the proper input and output in the software, and there you go. If you're using ARTA, there is a pretty effective video on Vibro's website to show you how to do a measurement in no time.
-to do a calibrated measurement that looks like online graphs, it might take more efforts.
"So if I buy it, can I become the next Tyll with my blog outerfidelity.com?" Well not just yet no. sorry.
without having much information about the microphone, and with no high end ADC, it's a little hard to do more than just frequency response measurement. and even then it's recommended for a limited frequency range.
I bought the Veritas after reading about it on innerfidelity. TBH my mindset at the time was “oh that looks like a fun geeky toy, it costs the same as the last cheap copter I crashed in my room after 10mn of first charging it”. I really didn't expect much and while I was a little disappointed not to get a reliable calibration file(more on that later), I ended up spending more than a week wasting all of my free time and most of my sleep time(which is usually a lot!) Making measurements and learning a few things about IEMs in the process.
So somehow,to me it's worth it. But that's because I'm a geeky nerd, and because I had about 10 IEMs, many many tips and a few resistors to play around with.
I imagine the guy with 1 IEM doing a measurement, maybe a few more to see how reliable it is, maybe still a few more with different tips, and "… ok what's on TV?".
So my take on this, it's a fun toy, it might even be used for seriouz bizznezz (within reason), but it's not for everybody and would bore many.
I made no picture because there really isn't much to show. Just go there http://vibrolabs.com/pages/veritas-guide and check the videos, you'll see all you need to see.
I believe the best way to give an idea about what you can do, is by showing examples of a few ideas I got. I used room EQ wizard instead of ARTA, simply because I already knew the basics of that software(yeah lazy reason). But I did use ARTA a few times and got the very same measurements so it doesn't change what you do on the measurement side of things(both can be used for free BTW).
1/ making a measurement:
I did just like the video on how to use ARTA is showing, and measuring my etymotic HF5 gave this:
when I was expecting something like this:
Not the best first impression.
After trying a lot of IEMs, it was clear that I needed to make a calibration profile on my own for the microphone. And did it using headroom or innerfidelity or M.R.O as references for what my final measurement should look like with different IEMs(funky stuff when they all have a slightly different graph of the same IEM).
So I made a .TXT file like a boss with values like this
10,-5.2
12,-3.8
13.5,-2.8
15,-2.5
18,-1.3
20,-1
22,-0.7
25,-0.5
etc
each time with the frequency and then the “gain” difference. As you can guess it's not the funniest thing to do with one's life, but you can take comfort in thinking that it's not the kind of stuff you'll do everyday.
And after messing around I ended up with the compensated measurement that looked like this:
pretty happy with this because it fits reasonably in with most IEMs I've measured vs online graphs, I can now get on to do the real "fun" stuff:
Measuring different tips:
What a mess! you can mask some in REW, that's only to show you how strong I am in tips
First surprise to me, even if it was to be expected, I prefer and tend to use mostly the T100 and etymotic olives(the sport comply foam just doesn't isolate enough). And they show about the same signature. But now I also know that I could try to use other tips and EQ the signature a little.
Then I measured my etymotic MK5(you'll see a lot of etymotic in there, they're cheap and isolate like crazy so I have them). I use the MK5 with a white damping filter added in it because I find it tames the mids a little, but I could never really see what it really did to the sound:
White line is the original MK5, and the cyan line is with the white filter(who's in first base who). clearly the white damping filter goes right back on! my eyes agree with my ears ^_^.
I also checked my 2 pairs of HF5 to see if they were identical:
L and R are the left and right earpieces. I've arranged them like this to make the difference obvious. But you may notice that the differences are pretty consistent on the left and right of the same IEM. Pseudo burn in(they're both more than a year old and both were used a lot so...) or simply that etymotic tries to match the drivers even on the hf5? or random luck? IDK
But now I know better than to just blindly believe that all IEMs of one model will sound exactly the same.
Then I played with a few resistor adapters I had to see how it would affect the signature depending on the impedance response of the IEM. I already know the electricity behind it, and have made a little excel file to estimate changes when I have both the FR graph and the impedance graph. But now I can test it for myself:
so now I can say with both theory and practice how my HF5 will become brighter with added resistor. The same way the ER4 becomes brighter when turned into the ER4S by adding a resistor to the cable.
BUT being an EQ junky, of course there was one thing I really had wished to be able to do for a long time, and I suspect a few of you would like to do it too. Making sure my left and right earpieces are matched:
not too bad, but could be better. I don't know for ARTA but REW let you simulate the use of an EQ and estimates in real time(or not) the changes in frequency response(and phase but not very relevant for this use). So I used that and trying to keep the EQ minimal not to create more of a mess than there is to correct, I ended up with this:
could be still improved but I'm very happy with this already. And that's measured while using easyQ vst(also free) in foobar. It has a left and right EQ so I went for that one, and have converted a few albums with the VST in it so that the balance would be on my DAPs. I'm still trying and TBH I can't really tell the difference. And that doesn't take care of the imbalance of my own ears, but I do feel like I've conquered audio in my head and can drop the mic like a boss.
You could do those stuff with any microphone and some duck tape to try and seal the space for the IEM to keep its bass. It would surely need some work but it would work. So the Vibro Veritas product isn't a revolution or anything, but it can simplify things. for a guy like me that has no ties with audio professionals doing recordings, knowing what kind of microphone I should have, what device to plug it in etc, that was simply too much for me. so while I had wanted to do some measurements for a long time, I clearly owe it to the vibro veritas this time.
And as you can see, all you need are some IEMs and strange ideas to enjoy and maybe benefit from it.
I'm very glad I bought one.
+ Let you actually measure your very own IEMs!
+ 99$ expensive for a toy, cheap for a measurement tool.
+ The mini jack works into a basic computer mic plug, so no need for recording equipment.
- Will most likely need calibration so you must have at least 1 IEM that has online measurements available. Else that may limit what you can do with your measurements. Like using them to make an EQ, it can make sense only if you know what the graph is showing. I went to try copying RAW measurements(I'm used to that), so I readily know what I need to change to get the kind of signature I love. If I was stuck to the first measurement without calibration, it would need a lot of time and a good deal of experiments to achieve the same kind of EQ.
- The jack works into a computer mic plug, but doesn't work on my focusrite 2i2 when it's a device specifically built to record microphones and instruments, oh irony ^_^.
- Some silicone tips just wouldn't stay in place, so you need to find the right size of tip, or maintain it in place with the play-doh smurf paste provided when you buy a Veritas.
- For customs, it might not always be possible to measure the sound at the right distance from the eardrum/microphone. Like if your ear canal turns a lot then you may not be able to push the shell as deep as you would want to. It's a minus, but maybe I should blame the ear canals that bend too much? Still very much manageable to get a measurement, just not THE measurement at perfect distance to see how the trebles really are.
- from the webpage you can read this warning:
In practice you can do better than that, but I would still suggest not to get your hopes too high about the precision in the trebles. With rather short frequency wavelength like trebles, any kind of change can make several DB of difference, pushing the IEM slightly deeper, your ear canal being bent in a particular way. Or simply because the manufacturer's confidence stops at 10khz on the microphone you're using.
So while I can get readings at 20khz or even above, when I'm trying to show how an IEM really measures I will mostly use the measurements I've done up to 10khz. maybe 15khz at times just to show if a massive roll off is final or just a short blip. but that's probably it. And I recommend like Luke on his webpage to keep the 100hz-10khz accuracy in mind.
