Headphones Frequency Response: Challenges & Solutions

Discussion in 'Measurement Techniques Discussion' started by samvafaei, Jun 19, 2017.

  1. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
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    Just for kicks I measured the Philharmonic Audio Affordable Accuracy w mic and with mic+coupler:

    Mic only:

    coupler_vs_no_coupler.png

    Err... I don't think I can correlate easily that gain between 1 kHz and 4 kHz with what I hear. LOL! Possible this happened because the coupler was not perfectly flat against the sponge, curved a little and produced that gain. May have to think some more about this, and redo it again.
     
  2. Serious

    Serious Inquisitive Frequency Response Plot

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    This. This is also why I don't average my in-ear measurements. It might make the measurements look less smooth, but this also keeps accuracy higher up to a certain point.
    I actually took measurements like this, but I'm not sure if I still have them. Generally what sounds best measures best and generally the position that's most comfortable is also the best sounding one. But this also depends on the headphone. HD800 with its larger cups will show greater change than the HD600.

    That looks about right to me. The coupler acts as a baffle, so depending on its size you willl see such a rise in FR. Sometimes the coupler can help with getting better CSDs because it helps get rid of reflections that are from behind the microphone.
     
  3. samvafaei

    samvafaei New

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    I've given my definition of soundstage here, and also talk a bit about how I measure some aspects of it here. The interpretation of the results on our website still needs some work, but I don't think I'm too far. Curious to hear your thoughts on it.

    Having measured more than 120 headphones on more than 5 people, I've come to the conclusion that most people don't really know how to put headphones on. Even some of those who use headphones on a daily basis. But they get progressively better at it after giving them some pointers and showing them results of their measurements. So I would still say that doing averaging on humans is the way to go, but 5 human subjects with 5 reseats (25 in total) is the minimum acceptable sample pool size. There's too much variance caused by glasses, long hair, head width, weirdly shaped ears...
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Do you know many times at meets we see people put HD800s on reverse! Nevertheless, I'd like to shoot for positional measurements according to experienced users. I know there is sort of an anti-consumer strain here, but meeting the needs of our own members is paramount.
     

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