Ollo Audio S5X Headphone Review and Measurements

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by purr1n, Apr 6, 2023.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    You mentioned damping and I realized I forgot to measure impedance. Looks like the S5X is heavily damped inherently. I don't think I've ever seen a dynamic headphone without an impedance bump in the lows. Not sure it's a good idea and perhaps why I thought the lows sounded like it had none of the advantages of a planar and none of the advantages of a dynamic.

    OllO S5X
    Impedance and Electrical Phase
    YEL = free-air impedance
    GRN = on-ear impedance
    GRY = electrical phase
    upload_2023-4-27_8-26-10.png
     
  2. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Oh yikes. So they basically took a dynamic driver and implemented it in a way that wouldn't be remiss for planar magnetic arrays? That... is not something I think I've ever encountered before but it'd track with the impressions these have been getting. I think. Wonder if anyone local has a pair I could demo... curious now to see how it fares on different systems.

    upload_2023-4-27_21-39-16.png

    Remembered I had all of Tyll's old PDFs on my PC, screencap here of the AQ Nighthawk. Interestingly I didn't feel this really lacked the kick of a well-implemented DD in store demos, though yeah it was voiced a bit overly warm.
     
  3. Philimon

    Philimon Friend

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    I think electirical impedance and acoustic impedance are being overlapped? Sorry Im newb. Flat electrical impedance has certain correlation with inherent bass characteristics other than amp synergy? Or we are generalizing about planar which tend to have flat electrical impedance?
    For reference I looked at: Glossary of term by Headphones.com

    Good find @Lyander . Nighthawk definitely could kick.

    edit: Tangentially related info, <= Tyll explaining impedance and comparing variants of DT880 where the only difference is impedance. Interestingly, the damping factor might explain why some headphones “scale” and others dont. Im sure there are many variables… Notice I put “scale” in quotations, and Tyll put “tight” in quotations.:
    “For any given headphone amplifier or source, you want to use the highest impedance DT 880 that will still allow you to reach your desired listening level on the source you are using. Higher impedance headphones will give you a higher damping factor for a given amplifier. Using a lower impedance headphone than necessary means that your damping factor will be lower, and the resulting sound will be less “tight.””
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2023
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Not sure if it can be attributed to damping factor because a quality high Z amp which kills damping factor can sound better than low Z amp.

    Higher impedance may have higher correlation to scalability. This explains why the HD660 sucked, fell behind with better gear.

    Also, I do think higher Z transducers sound better, whether they be dynamic, planar-magnetic, or compression drivers. Maybe has something to do with finer higher quality denser traces and windings.
     
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