Serious

Checked with two chip-amps, GO2A and M4 headphone out. I doubt I'm clipping the amps at those levels. Is the HD600 magnet structure nearing its limits at those levels? And if so, is the AirPods Max' driver really that much more linear than the HD600?

Actually, the values could be off, this is not relative to the harmonic, but instead relative to the fundamental. Takes more work otherwise.

Might have to compare against the Audeze Penrose aswell. The rtings measurements look similar enough that I'm sure I'd love the tonality on that thing, too.
PM-3 with HA-2 is another interesting comparison. From what I've heard so far, kinda on even footing.

I’m sure they sound good but the price tag kills it for me. I use my AirPods Pro all the time, so convenient and useful.

Ive had AirPods max since they released and basically haven't listened to any other headphones since I got them. Sure they don't sound as good as a well amped HD800SDR, but they sound damn good and are so convenient. these days its just them or speakers for me

Cuz bass is goooooood.

So then I trace the HD650 graph and it ends up looking like this with the same compensation curve:
https://i.imgur.com/wfod6tp.jpg
LOL

Honestly, I'll make a thread about this. This is just too ridiculous not to mention. And here I was thinking the 5128 would actually be good. Maybe a curve with more upper mid gain, but then the upper mids on the other headphones aren't that suppressed, are they?

Thread is here:
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/b-k-5128-hats-measurement-discussion.11221/

I think the mid has some D3 around 1kHz, otherwise really not too bad if crossed high enough. Subjectively they handle high volume levels surprisingly well, but using them nearfield certainly helps. They're not big drivers and they don't sound as effortless as big drivers.

@skem have you found a unity horn desktop speaker?

lol no. It was a reference to a discussion Serious and I was having elsewhere. I am thinking about larger speakers.

I always thought the resonance was a cantilever bending mode, but that may not be it. Not sure.

I always thought of a fresh needle as having a burr on it that needed to be removed, like a newly sharpened knife. Not exactly, but in the beginning it's so sharp it grabs and doesn't glide across the surface of the record smoothly. Just my thought, could be wrong.

A few decent pics of worn vs new stylus https://tinyurl.com/ya47t9w5

Tbh I do want to add an update to the ambient noise thread soon and I hope afterwards we can all go out of it a little friendlier. But it's still going to take a while until then. Have been gathering data on and off for a while, but I still need to gather some more before I can present it.

Also Marv I'm glad you mentioned hearing noise in many common mics + preamps. I do too, but the U47 recordings I heard really make me wonder if that even matters. I feel it manages to resolve more plankton despite being noisier than other mics. Or maybe it's placebo.
Some of my favorite recordings are quite noisy, yet capture so much plankton. I guess that's what no denoising does.

why so serious?

Cymbals now simply sound rounded vs sounding weirdly sharp and nasty when the material still has good output to the CD limit. Makes me think driver extension past 20kHz matters. Time to try it on "Hi-Res" content.

https://i.imgur.com/8S31XLO.jpg
Still using the same unshielded cables in my noisy room.

They look so good though

Yeah, the EMI is likely way less bothersome to me than the actual audible buzzing they emit, anyway. Maybe we'll get 480Hz refresh OLEDs at some point.

https://imgur.com/a/bqSAO3Q
Here's an album with the measurements. CRT looks far worse than the Plasma TV here, but note that it was much closer for this measurement.

@Cspirou Not to forget Ken Rockwell, besides being really weird once you learn more about photos, also reviews audio gear and Shilla the DT880 hard.

That might have been a factor in my getting one a few years ago >.>

ASR is Donald Trump @ the Nato conference. Fake news/Egos/OneSided (Topping!).

I've seen users in audio groups on Facebook share the comparative measurement "recommendation" charts updated from time to time on ASR as authority/evidence backing their own recommendations. Me telling them I've owned something (or its similar predecessor) recommended and well ranked on the chart and that it sounded horrible falls on deaf ears. I like to think this is why we resist.

I even heard a difference between a 24bit -96dB white noise file and digital silence in a quick blind test. Anyway, back to listening to 16/44.1.

It's almost worth buying a set of EARS to get a clear idea of listening levels.

EARS aren't even a good idea for that. I'd just get a cheap SPL meter.

Very intrigued! Can't wait to read your next update.

Yeah, the XO parts for the PAP crossover haven't arrived yet, so it'll have to wait until then. Maybe this weekend. I'll try to make graphite resistors, too.

https://i.imgur.com/omiGhy5.jpg
Awaiting crossover parts, as is impressions are not positive.

? Air choke?

Haha. Well, all I really did was aggressively clean the belt (and pulley) with isopropyl alcohol until it left no residue. Went from 0.3% too fast to about 0.06% or so.

well, looks like Fostex doesn't smudge their FR plots as much as before!

@numbercube the limited runs all seem to have less smoothed graphs, but even with the usual smoothing that'd look pretty bad.

every 4"+ widebander's FR with low Rms looks bad, doesn't it? but for 70000 Yen, the FE103A better have the lowest distortion ever...

I could definitely hear the alarms. Some poorly-made dog whistles, too. Other times I would "perceive" something, and knew it to be related to hearing, though it's hard to call it hearing since it was so far outside the normal range.

And yes, CRTs were always annoying, and similar to the ultrasonic alarms.

As for measuring your ability to hear it, I don't think typical audio speakers are a good choice, since they're not really designed to faithfully reproduce those frequencies. You'll need a specialized high frequency transducer to ensure that it's not emitting harmonic noise you're perceiving instead of the frequency under test.

Yep, especially since I just used my Voxativs. There are cheap plasma tweeters on eBay that I'm sure will have the bandwidth required, but I don't think they're low distortion.

@GoodEnoughGear that *might* be it, but I'm pretty sure I had all that switched off (and Follow Source Frequency, which the author in a forum post says should leave tracks entirely unmolested, switched on), yet 32 bits were apparently still being presented to the Dragonfly. I'll test more today.

@bixby @Serious it seemed the opposite to me, I think because the effect on dymamics and transients made it seem like UAPP's FR was tilted warmer. Maybe my particular chain...

From Neutron, UE900s (quad BA with an upper mid to lower treble hole) seems brighter, modded HFW A1 (single DD, more neutral) seems slightly warmer. I think increased dynamics & speed are responsible. Settings are such that both players should be passing data unaltered to the USB DAC. Hmm...