Alternative to frequency response charts?

Submitted by Petrovski_Valenko t3_124hswd in headphones

Hi, some background to my question. Currently scouting for a new 300-600 EUR set of cans to replace my Sennheiser HD700s and reading up on some reviews on the latest and greatest before heading to shops to try them. One thing I noticed is the frequency response charts based on which said reviews go Ermahgerd in a positive or negative direction based on a (non-)deviation vs the Target/Baseline. Taking a step into the visual world, measurements of color gamut (DCI-P3, sRGB,…) have this phenomenal way of being visualized in two or three dimensions to make it a bit more tangible as to how a well a monitor / tv covers a certain color spectrum. Is anything similar available for headphones / speakers which perhaps includes other aspects like soundstage?

I hope someone can find the time between 2$ thrift store / bin finds to shed some light on this for me

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wijnandsj t1_jdzbkjf wrote

>Is anything similar available for headphones / speakers which perhaps includes other aspects like soundstage?

No. If there is I haven't seen it.

Personally I find the well established review sites my best source of information (and youtube generally useless)

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blargh4 t1_jdzccf5 wrote

RTings has devised some kind of "objective" metric of soundstage, you can read about their rationale for it.

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Aracari_LoA t1_je23ria wrote

So I have a theory that we could take tools commonly used in an audio mixing environment to gain more knowledge about how different headphones sound, but I don't have the gear to try and validate that. I have however done some listening in my DAW using various softwares and I think there's untapped potential there.

As an example it's common in mixing to have a mid/side EQ to independently adjust centered (mono) and side (stereo only) information. I tried simulating a typical sine wave sweep but for the mid and side signals separate and found both signals to have different peaks/dips from each other. My LCD-XC has a boost at 7-8k that is only present on the side signal whereas that region is slightly attenuated on the centered signal (for my hrtf anyway). Obviously I would need to do more thorough testing with actual measurement equipment to validate that, but it's an interesting observation nonetheless.

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D00M98 t1_je1qghq wrote

Color accuracy measurement is absolute, which is the delta between actual vs expected.

The issue with audio frequency response is the target. There is no standard on what is the correct or right target. And different folks can have varying preference on the target. Should it be Harman (and there are multiple Harman targets), IEF, Diffused Field, etc? So calculating the deviation from a moving goalpost is difficult.

If you like fancy 3 D plots, there are CSD (Cum Spectral Delay) measurements with frequency and impulse. Looks cool. Here is an example from HD600, on SBAF forum.

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/sennheiser-hd600-measurements-2019.7499/#post-247043

However, my personal take is that measurements are not very useful, for both headphones and amps. At first level, frequency measurements can be used to filter out headphones (v-shaped, neutral, bass boost, hot treble). But I can get that info from reviews easily. And then on the headphone technical performance, measurements do not tell me about soundstage, imaging, separation, layering, and dynamics (maybe CSD).

As for amp, SNR (SINAD) and THD are also kind of useless. They measure minute differences, which human cannot hear or detect. On the other hand, tube amps measure like crap, but sometimes (or often) they provide more enjoyable listening experience than the best measuring solid state amps.

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