Compensation/calibration curves to assist us newbie measurers?

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by MF_Kitten, Mar 24, 2016.

  1. MF_Kitten

    MF_Kitten Banned per own request

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    I have a measurement mic that I use to get an idea of what my headphones are doing, and I do some EQ based on that to smoothen and even out their frequency response. However, my setup is like the opposite of what Tyll does.

    I use a miniDSP UMIK-1, and I just kinda squish it between the earpads real hard and hold it while it runs the sweep. I know, it's horribly inaccurate, but surprisingly enough my results are pretty good! The final frequency response is most of the way towards a professionally done headphone measurement, and if you apply heavy smoothing, you've got a very good indicator of how the headphone is voiced in more rough terms. This mic is perfect for measuring what's going in a room with speakers, but headphones are a WEIRD case by comparison!

    Now, what would be VERY handy is if we could devise a way to make correction curves that compensate for the lack of a professional measurement rig, by comparing a homemade measurement to one made using proper gear (though also homemade, of course haha!), and using EQ correction to make it as similar to the proper one as possible. Then you could apply that to future measurements to get closer to an accurate measurement.

    Does anyone want to help me work out an easy way to do this? Obviously everyone won't have the same headphones to compare, but we could recommend specific starter rigs and methods, with accompanying compensation curves to make it work optimally. I just want the average joe (well, at least the averagest joes that end up coming HERE) to become a little more empowered.
     
  2. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    I did this before I made my measurement rig. Some results were quite stellar but I think the measurements would either exacerbate some things or hide other things. What I did for my compensation curve was use Purrin's HD650 measurement and match mine to it. I literally took my measurement and his and overlayed them in Photoshop. I made the compensation curve based on the differences shown. Now all of my measurement look more or less exactly like Purrin's measurements.
     

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