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dirthurts t1_iy3vkqx wrote

Reply to comment by tiny_rick__ in Just EQ in resolution. by TheFrator

This.

Charts are ruining headphones. Accuracy is overrated. Preference is king.

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H3rpad3rpapotamus t1_iy49wr0 wrote

Being able to see the FR graphed let’s you know what your buying and what the baseline is. It doesn’t mean that you can’t make literally any other purchasing decision based on preference.

MF’ers out here totally shook by science 😂

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dirthurts t1_iy4llhy wrote

It can give you an idea, but not tell the whole story.

It can tell you that the treble is a little high, but not necessarily if it's harsh or sharp. It's really just volume levels. If people understand that, it goes a long way.

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blargh4 t1_iy4tl81 wrote

actually I'd say that's quite easy to judge from an FR plot, "harsh" and "sharp" are words that usually map to frequencies well below where measurements get shaky. of course, knowing how FRs maps to what you hear subjectively takes some experience.

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Gimp_Ninja t1_iy3ylt6 wrote

Charts are fine. They give you at least something of a sense of what you're buying before you buy it. But there are three things about headphones culture that really annoy me right now:

  1. Treating any deviation from the Harman target as a sonic defect that must be corrected rather than appreciated as the flavor of that headphone.

  2. Referring to the Harman target and headphones that fit it well as "neutral" when that is clearly V-shaped. Neutral is flat, damnit.

  3. Publishing frequency response graphs that are normalized to the Harman target. I guess this is done to allow one to pretend that V-shaped is neutral?

I don't understand why a person would EQ every headphone to Harman. Why even have multiple headphones? This is like the people who just want everything chocolate-flavored all the time and will invariably choose a chocolate ice cream over the hundreds of other available flavors. Hey, chocolate is tasty, but sometimes I want vanilla, or strawberry, or pistachio.

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SupOrSalad t1_iy4alhx wrote

>2. Referring to the Harman target and headphones that fit it well as "neutral" when that is clearly V-shaped. Neutral is flat, damnit.

I think when people think of Harman, they hyper focus on the bass, which is meant to be adjusted to your liking. More important to the Harman target are the mids and treble. That's why things like the HD600 are considered as following the Harman target really well, even though it has neutral bass

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Merkurio_92 t1_iy7hj00 wrote

And what is worse, they think that the "bloated Harman bass" is just mid-bass interfering with the rest of the sound, when it's actually sub-bass concentrated below 100 Hz and only comes out with content that has a great emphasis in that region (in a generally pleasant way, like physical rumble) whereas in the rest of music with low energy in bass frequencies, it's pretty much like a "neutral" Diffuse Field response.

I wonder what kind of brain explosion they would have if they listened to a good flat speakers in a well-treated room and realized that the bass is not only heard, but also FELT, just what the Harman target tries to replicate in headphones.

But hey, being an edgy lords that sails against the current always gives them a feeling of false superiority.

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