Mrspeakers Ether C Measurements

Nick or I will put a loaner thread up in a bit. I need to leave my desk soon as I've just received a secret mission for work.

 

Will be curious to see if you find a root cause, but, on the other hand, sometimes measurement rigs just don't behave. Hopefully Audeze wasn't too unhappy.

 

Update: Did not know these were configured wrong for stock damping as they arrive out of the box. Will need to re-evaluate and re-measure! Sorry! Am keeping original post so that no one makes the mistake of trying to listen to these without front damping.

SNEAK PEAK INITIAL ETHER C MEASUREMENTS EVEN THOUGH THESE HAVE BEEN OUT AND AVAILABLE FOR SALE FOR A WHILE AND PROBABLY BOUGHT BY TOO MANY SHUT UP OK JUST EAT YOUR FOOD LIKE A BIG BOY​

One take, left channel, curiosity got the better of me. Will post more measurements with front damping tweaks some other day.

Let's start simple with FR, THD, and CSD.

FR might look OK at first...but notice how the whole upper-bass/lower-mid region is depressed. Can anyone say thin and disconnected sounding?

What the heck is that nipple at 1KHz?

Everything after 2KHz is bumped up about 3-4dB relative to the mids. Yay, brightness, with a couple more nipples thrown in there!



Let's see if CSDs tell us anything...

Overall kind of rough and dirty looking, though not the worst...it's that 1KHz and 2.5KHz ringing combo that will get ya! Sounds like a banshee.



Let's go back and look at an ENHANCED, ZOOMED view of the frequency response, in case the large scale above made it look flatter than it really is. Combine with CSDs. Maybe you can see why the tone and timbre are all fucked up on these.



Still not clear enough? Let me add some hand-drawn notes to my measurements:



Patented simulated curve average smoother overlaid with the response along with other notes I left.



Am I being harsh? Sure. Don't take it personally. Even those I love and admire, I give them a hard time now and then, regardless of if they've done something amazing or worst-something.

Do I genuinely hate how these sound? Do they literally make me wince and hurt my ears despite them not being the worst measurements I've seen? Yes.

Long story short, there is no "Either" in the Ether, just the open. That one is OK. Will post measurements of that and compare against the other pair I measured later as well.

Conclusion: Ether C has too many nipples.

 

I adore the hand drawn boobie + nipples on top of CSDs.
where is the damn +500 Like button for this post!???

 

@Hands, can you post a photo of the layers over the driver. Curious if someone before you removed or changed the version 1.1 formula. Also, you are wearing glasses right? The measurements include the glasses? You should know better by know, the Ethers hate people who wear glasses.

 

I never wear glasses with measurements unless stated otherwise for experimentation. They sound even worse when I wear glasses. Maybe I should see how that measures?

This is a stock measurement. Will post tuning kit results sometime within the next few days. Are the parts for the C tuning kit not supposed to be cutout to fit perfectly like the Open tuning kit inserts? They seem too long and go over the stock foam in front.

I still don't like them at all with the included tuning inserts.

 

Oh crap. I had forgotten that I had predicted in the first post that you would hate them.

 

You know me well!

 

glad we got to the bottom of this ether-c headphone mess 24 hours before they were officially discontinued.

edit: they aren't discontinued. still available with the DUM cable.

 

Yeah, seriously. What the f**k.

 

SBAF cause and effect.
we win!

edit: not discontinued. consider this a retraction.