Audio Science Review Review

In the acoustic lab I have an ACO Pacific SPL logger to track exposure every time the sound system is in use. Very necessary for answering to OSHA and NIOSH, especially for visitors. Helicopter liftoff at 115 dB SPL shakes the building, often to the dismay of the cubicle denizens. Of course we haven't been running much during Covid-19. Even at a lower listening level of 85 dB SPL average, it is uncomfortable to be in the room without hearing protection.

There you go again @ultrabike , being all logical and using science. When is 94 dB SPL ≠ 94 dB SPL?

The genius suggesting 2V peak for headphones with sensitivity of 97 to 103 dB/V will result in 103 ~ 109 dB SPL peak. Assuming music with a very good dynamic range of 10 dB Peak to Average will result in an average listening level of 93 to 99 dB SPL. Not good for long term hearing health. Feh. Somebody is deaf or clearly doesn't understand the science of hearing. Either way the suggestion is absurd.

 

I wonder if ASR even understands there giving out dangerous information?.

 

Every time amir talks about levels I get flashbacks to ear raping sound checks. I swear I can almost feel my eardrums spasming.

Bugs the hell out of me, too. Hearing damage is no joke.

But fortunately I think it will only take one or two knocks for most to learn, at those levels anyway.

 

Swear I've got very mild tinnitus from having ear rape blasts from bad software playing without warning. Seems to only show if i got no sleep, hungover or have my ER4's in for bit with no audio..ugh.

 

I've said this selfsame thing a few times on here before:

ONE stupid event where I was too close to the speakers during soundchecks and having to mingle with (cute) B-list celebrities for work without hearing protection, not even IEMs, while a loud hard rock band was playing because I was called in out of the blue resulted in tinnitus that still bugs me to this day. My only gratitude is that the ringing is nowhere near as loud as it was immediately after, which was at an intensity that could drown out nearby speech.

f**k that idiotic ear-killing noise. Also: f**k McCormick.

 

I have tinnitus in my left ear dating all the way back to the 1970s. One blast of a 5" deck gun when I was stupid enough to be too close . Which accounts for me never posting evaluations of gear...

Rob

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones...ted_audio_community_forum/?sort=controversial

What a mess...

 

Actually, are we even sure he knows how to use an SPL meter? Hearing loss aside that would explain a lot.

I have mild tinnitus in both and that's never stopped me. What matters is getting ears on enough stuff to form an opinion and be able to compare/contrast. I think it'd be cool to read opinions from people who know that their hearing isn't 10Hz-30kHz 120dB SINAD

 

In my younger days I have a set of homebuilt speakers using Fane units, those could play LOUD.... We're talking real 93dB/1W sensitivity and I listened probably too much to them with loud rock music, and now it's clear that my hearing is a little damaged, can't hear shit above 15 Khz....
But can still hear enough to say that there are a big difference between the HD650 and HD800S unlike what our friend at ASR claim.... I first had the HD650, that was good, but then I (or more like my company) got the HD800S (for testing , the HD800S is so much better than the HD650....

 

35% THD with Harman bass EQ. Apparently that's totally fine, because speakers that aren't even built to reproduce those frequencies have more distortion in that area. OK then.

I do hope he finds an acceptable way to measure this and makes it a routine part of his future measurements, though. Too many people blindly recommend Harman EQ and nobody ever measures what the headphone behaves like afterwards.

 

ASR: the ultimate forum for discussing how to subjectively evaluate unrepeatable objective audio measurements! Fun Fun Fun! Audio Audio, Audio!

 

Maybe that’s how Amir makes uninvolving, insipid, boring-ass Topping and SMSL gear sound amazing and exciting - crank that baby WAAAAY up! Sounds incredible!

 

Too bloody right... And I speak as in after the event.

But, whilst I'm sure that, back in hippie days, we listened loud (on speakers), I don't recall ever having either ringing or temporary hearing loss from music at home. It was only after going out to rock concerts that that happened. And it was worst in those small venues where the audio was crap anyway.

Just comparing what A*** is saying, compared to folk here who are actual professionals or equally qualified and experienced, makes ASR seem perverse, if not perverted.

 

Though I want to say, atleast in head-fi, the majority of the noobs are in Chi-fi threads, and generally in threads of gear costing no more than $200, which is logical since those users are simply not well experienced.

Generally, the members that have heard a lot of cheap and expensive gear, are knowledgable.

However, on ASR, it doesn’t matter how much experience they have, or how much expensive gear they’ve listened to, they rely so much on measurements, that they can’t distinguish actual differences in listening.

Or, if the difference from one headphone to the next is way too obvious, they say they hear a difference, but can only describe the difference the measurement is showing.

 

That is a pretty typical enlightened comment on HD800S from ASR:
"LightninBoy
Active Member
Yesterday at 9:45 PM
#198
Based on objective measurements - $1400 dollars for garbage FR, lots of bass distortion and equaled if not bested by a much cheaper model. If these were speakers they would be nearly universally criticized. Why do headphones get a pass?"

It just never occurs to those folks to listen to anything before making sweeping statements.

And the review of HD800S..just for fun I applied his bass EQ to HD800s. I use it with no EQ for instrumental music and with slightly flattened @sorrodje old HD800 settings for metal, rock etc..
So listening to this very nice jazz double bass, you should realize pretty quickly that it is enough extension and impact even without EQ, with +3dB and some tuning around it it may be a bit more "attractive", but I certainly do not need any more, maybe slightly less.

But if you push it to +12dB, HD800S just does not go there. It does not distort much, yes there is some boom, at least at my level of hearing. Above 5-6dB in this range I just have no impression of any lower clean extension of more impact. But it affects lower midrange and it does not sound anymore like HD800S it sounds like shit.
The chain is Bryston, all the way down, so it is pretty neutral.
I think Amir has no problem setting EQ to match his Harman curve, his problem is hearing wtf this is doing to his music.

I want him to get into IEM measurements, and bump CA Vega like +6dB in the lower bass. That should sound "perfectly neutral "

 

There are so many morons like that posting there, that only pick what looks good on a chart. And his comment was liked by a poster that told me MH755 can beat $1000+ headphones with EQ.

 

Can we go back to the part where ASR tests speakers using only one speaker? That kinda blew my mind when I read about it (on this thread), so I tried to learn more about it by asking on Reddit. It was all quite civil, and I found out that single-speaker testing is, indeed, a thing. It appears that Harman does this for ranking speaker preferences, though I didn’t find evidence this is done for imaging. I’m puzzled how imaging can be done by a speaker in the complete absence of the other channel. Can someone more knowledgeable here shed some light on this?