Audio Science Review Review

Discussion in 'Audio Science' started by purr1n, Aug 30, 2020.

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  1. Melvillian

    Melvillian Friend

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    The thing about bass is that the guy two cars over is the one getting the hearing damage.
     
  2. Empyah

    Empyah Facebook Friend

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    Care to elaborate?
     
  3. Degru

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    https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s-diana-v2-review-headphone.19291/post-638385

    Amir is now saying that the noise isolation box that Jude puts his rig in boosts bass because the sound isolating foam does not absorb such low frequencies.

    BRB, gonna build a bass booster listening box so my open backs can have more bass..

    I'm pretty sure the amount of bass emitted from the back of the headphones at that distance is not audible or possibly measurable, let alone loud enough to affect measurement after it gets reflected.

    But Amir knows best, he did put a cardboard box over his 45CA once after all.
     
  4. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    So?? Thanks to him i fixed my HD800's bass problem:

    [​IMG]

    I call it ABBB, Amir's bass boost box.
     
  5. Mont789

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    Looks like Amir did nothing to check if his high THD level was just luck or a artifact, Seems very touchy today about doing 110db tests. Not the first time he got made Jude's tests like the one abut the HD800.

    Also, Reddit on fire too with the blind faith ASR posters. Downvoting anything that isn't head fi bad.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2021
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Can anyone get a Diana to me? @Bloom @E_Schaaf?

    Amir does have a good point in that the isolation box is stupid at the high SPLs they are running to get the results. I did think it was funny that Amir goes into "signal processing" e-peen, because all measurement packages including free or cheap ones such as REW or ARTA do this "signal processing". I can see the enclosure as a good thing if the house is rickety.

    The arguments don't fly because the Diana, like most other orthos are actually closer to sealed system. Amir says open back, but this is a huge misunderstanding. Open back doesn't mean open baffle where sound can leak in. Even if sound (bass) did leak in, bounced in from the walls of Jude's enclosure, it would not have been significant. How much bass do you hear when your spouse is listening on headphones right next to you in bed?

    Amir's high THD was the result of poor seal. Poor seal means lower bass response in the fundamental, but usual response in the second, third harmonics (multiples) of the fundamental because these harmonics are above the rolloff point. This ratchets up the THD numbers.

    The Diana was known to be placement dependent and fidgety anyway. This would have been a fair assessment.

    I just wished Amir would take a bit more time instead of rushing. Then again, his MO has always been to do hatchet job reviews on pricier products - it feeds the plebs - none of whom would ever be able to afford stuff like this. Appeals to the worst in people, i.e. envy.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2021
  7. Josh83

    Josh83 Friend

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    Haha. Same thing happened to me there when I was arguing with Amir’s claim that only he can do subjective reviews because he has elite hearing, unlike mere mortals.

    Hell, I’m a pinko class warrior. (Up with the plebes! Down with ORFAS!) What pisses me off about Amir is that he’s not doing them any favors by lying to them. His Topping shilling is causing people to waste their money. A reviewer who really cared about budget-minded audiophiles would 1) be honest about the good high-end stuff (so that they can audition it and see what good stuff sounds like), 2) highlight the punching-above-price budget stuff, and 3) advise readers how to best allocate their scarce budgets (with an eye towards reliability and customer service). He’s steering people to spend $500+ on unreliable Topping AIOs when they could buy the budget Schiit stack, the HD6XX, and still have money to spare. It’s unconscionable.
     
  8. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    The seal of the earpad also changes how the driver is damped, which changes how the diaphragm moves. I’m guessing this is where most of the added distortion is coming from. When the pads are sealed, there is a sealed chamber between the driver and your ear, and when the driver pumps out pressure waves, this seal pushes back against the diaphragm causing it to move with less excursion. When you open the pads it probably starts flapping around like mad, looking at the FR change.

    the one sided magnet may contribute to the change being more dramatic than other orthos because there is less magnetic control over the diaphragm. But just a guess.
     
  9. Melvillian

    Melvillian Friend

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    Was half joking. At my house, if someone is watching a movie and the sub-woofer is on, it's very loud in some of the other rooms. Much louder than it is in the room where the sub-woofer is placed.
     
  10. Mont789

    Mont789 Acquaintance

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    Just got nuked from there with no warning & immature non answer in the ban message. Couldn't post there without someone getting sore if you questioned anything there.
     
  11. Thad E Ginathom

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    ISTR that Amir himself got banned once.
     
  12. Mont789

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    Just re read the HE400i review, So if their high THD at 100db it's a fail but when it under 1% below 90db suddenly they shift the goalposts?. It insane how many are still damage controlling Amirs Abyss review where he got no seal, Don't they know how fragile the drivers are to pressure changes. Now Reddit is full of people who suddenly overnight experts on planar tech.
     
  13. Pancakes

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    No, they don't. I've asked a few of the disciples to explain how a diaphragm interacts with its surroundings. Radio silence.
     
  14. Mont789

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    I've noticed that too, but in my case it just a ignorant wall of text why Speakers are king instead of answering how headphone drivers work. But by there logic any headphone that <1% at 95db should in theory be cleaner than any Speaker, Since they can reach 12% for bass it fun watching them fail to counter that bit.
     
  15. Degru

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    Last edited: Jan 18, 2021
  16. theveterans

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  17. bboris77

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    I think it is part of his spiel - he gains the trust of his audience by picking a very cheap piece of equipment and then "empirically proves" using massaged measurements that this marvel of engineering outclasses equipment that costs 100 times more. This serves to reinforce his implication that audiophiles are idiots who buy into myths that they are being sold by manufacturers and are willing to convince themselves that something sounds better because it costs more. The real purpose of this type of review is to establish trust between himself and the reader and set himself up as their savior and messiah of scientific-based approach to audio reviews. He did the same thing when he started measuring DACs, headphone amps and speakers. He then eventually and seamlessly moves into recommending more and more expensive gear that measures just slightly better than the perfectly transparent cheaper gear, where in reality, according to his own logic, it is completely pointless to purchase a $699 DAC when a $99 DAC sounds exactly the same.

    What I find very interesting is the direction that he is moving with headphone measurements. It seems that he is trying to convince his audience that every headphone needs a bit of EQ and that is a necessary evil. So far, he has established that both the HD800S and this cheap headphone need some EQ to sound their best. Perhaps Topping or SMSL are just about to release an equalizer?
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    His MO is apparent. Establish $99 gear of favored brands is better than $2000 gear via borked measurements or measurements which do not matter. Then slowly promote favored brands as they introduce $149, $299, $499, $799 and up gear. The $799 is then suddenly well justified because said brand has "established engineering" chops. Well, until said brand has its $149 amps explode headphones.

    We knew this was going to happen when he started into headphones.
     
  19. elsordo

    elsordo Acquaintance

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    Don't have anything to add about ASR since I've only browsed the site a handful of times but I do want to say that I love my JBL 306's despite the shitty class D amp. They apparently have a "big" dip around the crossover point as well but I've never been able to hear it. I only paid $200 open box for the pair and for that price I think they're a hell of a deal. They got bashed a bit in the first couple pages, so just wanted to defend them. For cheap monitors they sound really good and I don't play them loud enough very often to worry about blowing the drivers.
     
  20. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    No one bashed the LSR306s. I love mine, especially considering the price. You misunderstand.

    What was bashed was Amir's ears (obviously he can't hear "bad" SINAD amps or only selectively hears them) and Amir's "objective" methodology (over-reliance on SINAD, crapping on amps that weren't made from chips, or didn't have 1000db global feedback, double-standards, etc.).
     
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