Headphone bake-off

[Oldpinkman]

"Surely it can't be that hard to design a headphone amp"

"You don't want a headphone amp designed - try these"

http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t582/oldpinkman/DSC_0001_zpsa1526706.jpg (http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/oldpinkman/media/DSC_0001_zpsa1526706.jpg.html)

Just need to modify the damping on the Sigmas....

[RichB]

Interesting...

What's the line up here mate and the rough price points?

[Oldpinkman]

Beyer DT990s (need a headphone amp!) around £250, Beyer ET1000's (25 years old?) Stax Sigma - maybe £600 on fleabay if you are lucky

(So 2 sets of Electrostatics). Ironically Owen hadnt realised I was auditioning ET1000's all those years ago in a shop in Sidcup, when I first heard a pink triangle with a Syrinx PU2 arm - met Arthur, and well it all started :)

[Mr Kipling]

Shame on you Richard. . .

You should never (Ever! Ever!) put items on a perspex cover. You only end up with scratches.

[RichB]

Cheers,

I have a pair of DT100s I still use, particularly if I'm somewhere noisy and wanting to block out the world. Cant knock Beyer for quality of build. I know they're an engineers can but with the right source they can shine.

[Gordon Steadman]

We have three pairs of cans.

The Beyers are DT860 which Ronnie chose. I find them very bright but she listens to Metal an' stuff - or did. I found them surprisingly shoddily put together. The ear pads soon fell off and one channel now buzzes and splutters at anything above a whisper.

The others are Sennheiser. One very old pair, the number I have forgotten and can't be bothered to go to the loft to look. My current pair are HD518s. Quite cheap, I got them from Amazon for around £80 from memory. I like them a lot, good smooth response with a decent bass. Better built than the Beyers which were over £200 several years before we came out here.

So, not a Beyer fan although I could have just been unlucky. I listen through an old Rogers Ravensbrook or Project Head Box. No super-fi here but very enjoyable just the same.

[Oldpinkman]

Gordon - you should hear those sigmas (electrostatics). Tomorrow we use owens test ear to do some measurements. (Sorry subjectivists) we have listened to them as well ;)

[Mr Kipling]

There's a Stax interview and factory visit over at head-fi.

They only have 13 full-time staff.

[Ammonite Audio]

Gordon - you should hear those sigmas (electrostatics). Tomorrow we use owens test ear to do some measurements. (Sorry subjectivists) we have listened to them as well ;)

I'd be very interested to know more about these measurements. Having done a good deal of work with hearing protectors, I know that there are certain challenges when it comes to approximating a human ear.

[Oldpinkman]

We just took the frequency response on his model ear. Couldn't get the graphs off his tablet this morning, but I'll put them on here when I get them emailed to me. Interesting to compare the plots with our subjective impressions. Also discussed measurement techniques and methods of setting the frequency response of headphones. Mrs S wants a pair of Stax :)

I must buy the boy another drink :cool:

[Oldpinkman]

http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t582/oldpinkman/20131027_094410_zpsbe73903f.jpg

[Oldpinkman]

Still waiting for the plot to come back. Results were a bit of a surprise. More later.

Beyer DT990 - smooth, comfortable, excellent "even" response and detail. Presentation more "forward" but still apparantly smooth and refined. Really like this headphone still - even using opamp based headphone amp - may get my valve job sorted by Christmas hopefully - but very impressed with this for the money, comfort, usability AND smooth detailed refined sound.
Beyer ET1000 - almost completely without bass. Detailed delicate mid and treble - more "distant" than the dynamics. Electrostatic "airiness" but distant to the point of muffled (although all the detail was there). Complete lack of bass maybe due in part to poor seal on ear due to tired cushions?
Stax Sigma - notably full smooth bass compared with ET1000's and similar (even better?) to DT990's. Completely different "feel" - still comfortable to wear in spite of appearing to have a filing cabinet attached to each ear - but sound from in front gives airy "speaker" feel. My initial impression was again so delicate, so distant to the point of dull. Ditto the other male auditioner. Mrs S, who is developing an irritating knack of the 30 second definitive verdict (she can tell "cold" which MC stage I am playing within 5 seconds) was hugely impressed with the the Stax because of the EXTRA detail they had. Bugger me, she was right. When you listen properly they have stuff the others lose, even though the DT990's are superficially more revealing. And I am sure long term these would be massively more comfortable to listen to - very easy on the ear, but so musically rich and involving. Just gotta get a pair. The techie reckons the mid range damping can still be improved and has an idea (he's only owned the things 20 years - he'll get round to it) but these are right at the top of my shopping list. Not easy to use at the gym with a Galaxy Note though...

Pip 2 declined to respond to poking with a meter, even by someone who knew what he was doing (although confirmed my basic diagnosis, and absolved me of responsibility) and so has gone back to the Pip hospital. Hopefully with the successful launch of the Benchmark AHB2 (100w 8ohm, 170 4 ohm, THD+noise is said to be <–108dB relative to full output at 1kHz, SMPS) he can concentrate on his true priorities - my amplifiers!

Interesting lesson in noise rejection principles for power supply circuits - understood about 3% of it. Ah well - one day.

[Oldpinkman]

One of the graphs has arrived. The others were victims of the great storm (different frequency responses for the mic in the head listening to speakers)

But the headphone bake-off is here

http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t582/oldpinkman/headphonegraph_zpsb904822b.jpg (http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/oldpinkman/media/headphonegraph_zpsb904822b.jpg.html)


Sorry the traces are not easy to see on here, but red is DT990, pink is Stax Sigma, and blue is Beyer DT1000

The bass roll-off common to all headphones is the mike
The extreme roll-off on the DT1000's was poor fit of the ear cushions due to age. Squeezing them against the head produced a flat response (bass lift actually)
Of interest to us were the common "family" voicing of the 2 pairs of Beyers - although they sounded very different - a pronounced rise in the mid-band between 1Khz and 5Khz
And the much nearer to flat response of the Sigmas - which sounded less impressive than the both pairs of Beyers initially, but really grew on you the more you listened. The longer you listened the more you realised all the detail was there - more so than the others, but more natural. Wierd looking cans, but amazing sounding.

:)