Equalizing those headphones!

Q: Is it a good idea to use an equalizer to change the way headphones sound?

A: While you can make some tweaks to a headphone's sound profile with EQ, some fundamental characteristics are impossible to alter.

For example, no amount of EQ can make a Grado SR60e sound like a bass monster, similarly no amount of EQ can make a Sony XB500 sound like a Grado.

Neutral headphones are somewhat like tofu -- they can take on a little of the flavor of the amp that drives them, or the DAC that feeds their signal, or EQ in the audio chain, either by using software or hardware. They still taste like tofu, mind you, but flavored.

While you can buy a relatively neutral pair of headphones like the Sennheiser HD600 and tweak the sound with an equalizer, I'm one of those folks who think that if you want a warm fun sound, it's better to get a Philips Fidelio X1 instead of using EQ to tweak a HD600 to make it sound warmer.

And if you want a bright-sounding pair of headphones, check out the Grado SR60e before throwing down money on a HD600 and trying to boost the treble with an equalizer (and you will save a ton of $!)

And while you can use EQ to dial in some of the frequency response you want, you cannot use EQ to dial in your desired level of smoothness, or soundstage, or detail. Plus the more you flog that equalizer, the more the sound gets away from what the artist and recording engineers originally envisaged. That's the main reason why I am so meh to the idea of equalizers.

But to be fair, it's easy to say "I am anti-EQ" if you own a bunch of headphones and can easily pick and choose a pair with the profile you want. But what if you can only afford (or desire) one pair of headphones?

Well in that case, if you are sure you know what kind of sound profile you dig, then the choice is easy (e.g. you want a smooth + forgiving? Then go with the Sennheiser HD650!). But what if you don't know what you want?

Then walk into a B&M store and audition some headphones. But what if you can't?

Then get a relatively neutral pair of headphones like the HD600 or the Beyerdynamic DT880 and experiment with EQ.

Because they are like, you know, tofu.

Are certain headphones better for different genres of music?

Q: Are certain headphones better for different genres of music?

A: In general, yes, absolutely. Some headphone sound profiles particularly complement specific genres (for example the Sony XB700 and DnB, or Grados and rock). The general nature of the sound can affect music substantially, for example "fun" headphones color the sound in a way that is very different than "balanced" headphones.

Neutral or analytical headphones like the Sennheiser HD600 or HD800 may be useful for critical listening.

And finally, some headphones just bring out the natural splendor of specific instruments, for example the Sennheiser HD650 really makes stringed instruments shine.

Some thoughts about the Ultrasone Pro 900

OK, I will start by saying that these headphones are solidly built, and that fit and finish is excellent. Also, Ultrasone has stood by its design philosophy solidly through the years, and you have to commend them for standing by their principles.

But the fact is, either you are going to love the Pro 900 or you are going to hate it, no in-betweens. These headphones are more polarizing than Grados, and for one and only one reason -- S-logic.

S-logic based on this paper that Florian Konig, the founder of Ultrasone, wrote. I read it when I first tried to figure out what the term "S-logic" meant, and I think it is the best (and probably only) detailed explanation you are ever going to get on the topic, unless you count the rather vague statements on the Ultrasone website. The problem is that the paper is translated into English in such a clumsy way (I assume that it was not initially written in English) that many of the concepts are almost impossible to understand. It's like the paper was written by a Tamarian ("Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra, Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel"). If you don't understand what I mean by this, well, you probably never will, it's a Star Trek thing :-)

Basically, as far as I can make out (disclaimer: it's been a while since I have thought about this in detail because it gives me a migraine) the sound gets better if you place the drivers in a "decentric" fashion (i.e. in an inhumanly low position and angled weirdly) then something called "head-related transfer" occurs and then the sound that travels through regular air conduction (via the drivers) and head-related transfer function are both picked up the brain and combined to create a magical 3D sound. You with me? Good, because I'm not sure I am.

Now to be fair, HD800 also utilizes a somewhat eccentric driver placement, and many IEMs add a component of bone conduction, and Ultrasone has a ton of patents for S-logic, and Florian Konig is clearly a very smart man, and his paper offers a reasonable scientific hypothesis to support decentral driver placement, so maybe there is something to it. I should also add that Ultrasone claims that their headphones subject you to less EM radiation than other headphones, and that you are less likely to sustain hearing loss with their headphones. Rather than depend on my biased opinion, read the paper for yourself and decide!

Suffice to say that depending on your perspective, S-Logic technology either improves the sound like the Traveler (whose name was unpronounceable by Humans) improved the warp drive of the USS Enterprise, or kills the sound more thoroughly than a rerun of a Star Trek Voyager episode.

I am of the latter persuasion.

What is a "sound signature"?

Q: What do you mean when you say "headphones have specific sound signatures"?

A: Different headphones have different signatures. For example the Beyer DT880 or Senn HD600 are more "neutral" sound profile, i.e. they are free from coloration,

Coloration refers to deviations from neutrality, for example the Philips Fidelio X1 is very colored. Coloration also often adds a "fun" element to listening.

Some headphones are intrinsically dark -- the term signifies a warm + rich sound profile. Technically, dark headphones have a frequency response which is skewed clockwise across the entire range, so that as the frequency increases, the output diminishes. A good example of this would be the HD650.

Other headphones are very bright, their frequency response is skewed counter-clockwise across the entire range, so that as the frequency increases, the output increases. A good example of this would be the Grado SR60i or e (or pretty much any Grado).

What you need to know about the Sennheiser HD600

If you are in the market for a relatively neutral pair of headphones, then yes the Sennheiser HD600 is a great choice. It excels for critical listening and some genres like classical. Keep in mind that you need an amp to get the most out of it.

If you don't want to play the upgrade game all the way to summit-fi for whatever reason, then the HD600 could conceivably be endgame for you, if you know what you are getting yourself into.

If you listen to a lot of bass-heavy music like EDM or hip hop, you may find the 600 to be surprisingly bass-light. The 600 isn't known for its sub bass, I can assure you. For the price, something like the VModa M100 may be a better bet for you.

If you are a detail whore, you may want to hold out for something like a Sennheiser HD800, a Beyerdynamic T90, or, at this price point, a Beyerdynamic DT880.

If you want a very bright listening experience, you may find the 600 treble to be disappointing. Instead, consider a Grado and some gauze pads (to apply to your ears when they start bleeding, ba dum tish!)

If you are looking for isolation or don't want folks around you to hear the fact that you secretly listen to Barry Manilow while proudly wearing that My Chemical Romance t-shirt, then don't get the HD600, it leaks sound like a sieve, and is as open as it gets.

if you want to listen to music off your phone, don't get the HD600. It has a 300 ohm impedcance and just won't sound as good as it would through, say an OTL amp. Sure, you will get sound through your iPhone, but the bass sounds just too flabby and meh.

And finally, if you are looking for a warm and smooth sound, consider the 600s younger sibling, the HD650.

Help, my Grado headphones rattle!

Q: I have an annoying rattle emanating from my Grado SR80i whenever I try to hear it. At higher volume levels there are buzzing/fluttering noises that come from one or both sides of the headphones. How do I get rid of the noises?

A: Grado rattle is a known issue and quite common. At best it is irritating. At worst it is unlistenable. The rattle is typically caused by one of  three things:

Most commonly its a hair on the driver. Take the pads off and take a look. You can gently blow the hair off, or use tweezers. Non magnetic tweezers are best if you don't want to risk accidentally puncturing drivers. I have a pair if plastic tweezers I keep around for working in close proximity to driver magnets.

Second, it may be because of a deformed driver diaphgram. Grados are notorious for rippled diaphragms, which dimple and distort with alarming frequency. Folks say its because Grados are so easy to drive, but personally I think it is because the quality of the materials they use are suboptimal. You can gently try to suck the driver back into shape. It usually works, for a while, so you have to keep doing it again and again.

Third, it may be because the driver does not fit well in the enclosure. This is because  cheaper Grado parts are made with poor tolerances. You could always lay down a bead of glue or epoxy circumferentially at the join, which sometimes fixes the issue.

But once a Grado starts rattling, it is probable that its days are numbered.

What sound experience do real audiophiles want?

Q: Do real audiophiles progressively move toward the most neutral experience they can get?

A: Not all audiophiles, it may be better to use the word "some" instead of "real". Rather than call it "neutral" vs "colored" or "objective" vs "subjective" I think of the listening experience more as being "analytical" vs "fun". I'll explain what I mean.

Some times I want to get the source recording, the whole source recording, and nothing but the source recording. While you may think this desire only extends to classical and/or live performances, in reality there are times when I ant to hear music the way the artists/ producers conceptualized it. So for example when Daft Punk won the "best engineered album" award at the Grammys, I wanted to go back and hear RAM exactly as it was on my source file, ni plus ni moins. And the best way to achieve it is with a neutral DAC, a solid state amp that does not sound too bright or too dark, and something like the HD600.

But at other times I want a completely different experience. I want the violins in Mendelssohn's Concerto in E minor Op 64 to come out of the orchestra and smack me across the face, I want Christina Novelli to breathe in my ear when I hear Garth Emery's "Concrete Angel", and I want that in-your-face Southern rock stance when I listen to 38 Special's "Caught Up In You" and perform right alongside them on stage with my air guitar. And frankly, for any of those scenarios (classical, EDM, rock) when you want a more "fun" experience, the analytic set up fails. So an alternative set up with a warmish DAC, a tube amp and a HD650 or Fidelio X1 will give you a very different (and probably more pleasing) experience than the one I outlined in the previous paragraph.

So what headphones like Grados offer is a "fun" experience. And while "fun" is good, there is a totally different "analytical" experience out there waiting to be discovered. Some may enjoy it, some may not. And for everyone who enjoys an "analytical" experience, there is a "fun" experience waiting around the corner to surprise and thrill them. That's why there are so many headphones out there.

I just realized that everything that I said about headphones also applies to your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other. Sometimes you want fun, and sometimes you want analytical.

If the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation were headphones

If the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation were headphones:

• Picard is obviously a Sennheiser HD600, because he is neutral
• Guinan is a Beyerdynamic T90, because she is great for critical listening
• Geordi is a Sennheiser HD800, because he is overengineered
• Deanna Troi is a Grado, because she is too bright and gets on your nerves after a while
• Tasha Yar is a Sennheiser Amperior because she, like the Amperior, was discontinued abruptly
• the Tamarian aliens from the episode "Darmok" are Ultrasones because noone can undertand what they are saying
• Q is obviously a AKG Q701, obviously

What makes really expensive headphones so expensive?

Q: What makes really expensive headphones so expensive?

A: Essentially there are 4 aspects to the cost of any product [1] R&D [2] materials [3] manufacturing and [4] marketing. These costs may be either fixed (eg payroll) or variable (eg sourcing raw materials).

R&D is variable, so calculating the cost of R&D for an individual headphone model is difficult. Newer models still haven't seen a return on ROI costs, while older models (for example HD600) have probably recouped their R&D costs, and then some. R&D costs may be hard to figure out accurately because one technology may be used in multiple products, or may be responsible for the development of other innovations, for example the design of the HD580 enclosure and drivers directly influenced the design of the HD600 and 650 enclosures and drivers. Another great example is the Q701 -- it is in essence a K701 with modest changes. Most of the R&D cost was for the K701, and the Q701 reaped much of the benefit.

Material costs vary over time, often wildly, and are subject to supply and demand constraints. For example the price of copper, used in headphone voice coils and wires, has changed dramatically over the last few decades, and copper futures are still often volatile.

Production costs also vary, for example Q701s were made in Austria, but AKG wanted to save costs and moved production to China. But moving production to China does not necessarily make things cheaper, for example some Audio Gd amps probably cost more to make than equivalent Schiit amps, even though Schiit makes its stuff in the US and Audio Gd in China.

Many companies OEM some or all of production, which again affects costs depending on who they OEM to. And it's not just a case of folks using cheap Chinese OEMs -- some Denons for example were OEMd by Fostex, for example. And keep in mind that OEM companies typically conduct their own R&D, have their own design costs, have to retool equipment for specific products, etc, which changes cost calculations.

And finally marketing: some companies spend more on marketing (e.g. Apple, Nike, Beats) and make huge profits, while others spend very little on traditional marketing and still manage to do very well for themselves. One way to get around substantial marketing costs is to engage in direct marketing (eg Emotiva, Schiit) or to depend on word of mouth (like HiFiMan depends on HeadFi).

But eventually, keep in mind that companies will try to make as much profit as they can, so the price may be determined by what the market can support. For audiophile products, there may be a substantial markup in price just because companies know they can get away with it. A classical example of this is the Grado RA1, which has been substantially marked up when you take into account its design and materials/manufacturing cost.

Well we're movin' on up to the east side. To a deluxe apartment in the sky.

Q: I have a Sennheiser HD600. What do I upgrade to?

A: Until some years ago, the HD600 was the flagship model from Sennheiser. They are a great neutral headphones, and are good for a huge range of music. The problem is, when you have something as versatile as the HD600, do you really need to upgrade your headphones?

Obviously, no. I could argue that if you want a neutral setup, you could be perfectly satisfied for ever with the HD600. But if you have the disposable income and want to expand your headphones collection, I would argue that you need to consider one of 3 options:

1) Save up for a higher tier of headphones - consider the Audeze LCD3 or the HD 800. Both have different profiles, and both offer significant advantages over the HD 600 that makes their high price possibly worth it. But this would make the least sense from a price-performance perspective.

2) Get a headphone that has a very different profile than the HD600 -- something that gives you bass-rich oomph like the Beyerdynamic DT990 or the Philips Fidelio X1, or something that is treble-forward like a Grado. Each has a characteristic sound profile that will offer a very different listening experience for certain types of music that accentuates their tonal features (e.g. try 2pac on DT990 or Steely Dan on a Grado)

3) Get an IEM to complement your HD600s. That's like opening a whole new Pandora's Box.