How to Read Frequency Response Graphs for Headphones

Learn about headphone measurements and frequency response: www.headphones.com/pages/meas...
Podcast: theheadphoneshow.fireside.fm/
Twitter: / headph1show
Twitter: / resolvereviews

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

Note: The term 'pinna gain' has become common in a number of communities, but what this actually describes should more properly be described as "ear-related gain factors". The pinna flange itself is only responsible for one portion of the gain that the ear imparts.

[@blather_0n]

I’m

[@jkhmonkey_kfp_pentium_ii_cpu]

Videos like this and the other one you did regarding what Timbre means are pretty useful especially for people who's not particularly familiar with all the audio jargon imo. Keep up the good work!

[@happyforestgump1]

A video on tinnitus and hearing damage, and how it may affect eq’ing and headphone choices, would be cool.

[@Narayan2371]

Great video, useful, informative and to the point, best headphone reviewer out there right now.

[@christophers.mosson6266]

Thank you! I've been looking for a decent video on audio graphs for a long time. This has cleared up so many questions for me! 😁👌

[@changhwalee6395]

Love this kind of educational video. Really learns a lot, almost making me wish that I could go back to college and take classes about acoustic engineering. You really do have a great talent in explaining complicated things in a digestible way. I appreciate this a lot. I personally find Harman target to be very interesting. I am a Ph.D. nerd who studies something that has nothing to do with acoustics and speakers/headphones, but observing how scientific research matches how people have been experiencing to be good sound and provides a reference point to which even non-scientists can associate with and discuss sound is such an exciting experience that you rarely get in the actual scientific research field.

[@truth-12345.]

You're channel is a gem to KZbin. Thank you so much ❤️

[@RC-qc2nz]

Good work guys. I bought the focal clear professional because of you and I am very happy about that. It's the perfect upgrade of my hd 660s. I paid new 960 for the complete clear pro set and for that money it's worth every penny 🍻 Greetings from Germany

[@Togaholic]

I'm hyped you got an industry standard rig now, keep up the great work!

[@krisrudecki9477]

Your measurements and the actual technical detail you put in your reviews make theme extremely valuable and really precise. For me you are the go to source. So many other reviewers talk about their experience only, which is romantic and entertaining ... to an extent ... but not informative at all. I recently got into headphones (coming from studio monitoring world) with a bit of a budget and I bought a few pairs based on your reviews, and you are spot on. I could easily EQ the deficiencies and get exactly what I was aiming for. I also disagreed with you on occasion only to realise that you had a point a week or two later. So all in all, thank you! You are leagues ahead of any other reviewer I've seen. I've seen some reviews by Tyll from InnerFidelity, and even his reviews were sometimes romantic ;P where as yours are spot on, no bs, pure info, and I appreciate that greatly!

[@metal571]

It has to be stressed that the best reviews combine the subjective and objective. These graphs in their current form only give you an idea of the tonal balance. Never discount the importance of subjective listening for soundstage and resolution! This is what made Tyll so good. He could measure headphones but also point out these aspects that can only be described through human listening.

[@krisrudecki9477]

metal571 yes and no, Tyll was almost always supporting his subjective opinion by providing comprehensive measurements, not only FR but also transient reproduction etc. and that, at least for me, was awesome and really professional. Having said that, I have to give Clears as an example. Everyone including Tyll gushed over clears like it was the second coming, and it is a great headphone especially for the price, don’t get me wrong, but Resolve was the only guy I’ve heard talking about grainy highs on Clears, and not only that, about the FR peak that causes it and also how to rectify it. I got a set of Clears, experienced exactly what he described and ended up selling them because Clears were over emphasising distortion in upper mids and highs (especially in bass heavy music) because of that. Anyway, I appreciate all reviewers ;) I just found Resolve to be spot on every single time so far.

[@krisrudecki9477]

metal571 but I also totally agree that there’s more to sound than pure measurements and specs and it’s also really important. It’s entertaining to know how others experienced something as well :) just wanted to mention I really appreciate the accuracy and measurements based approach.

[@bitterbuffalo8997]

Thanks for this, actually helped my understanding of FR.

[@djsoulfilter]

Great easy to follow video!

[@stnkpalm]

Thanks for this informative video.

[@TiagrajI]

Great video. That's éducative and on point. Thanks

[@gshengelaia2001]

thank you so much. this is the explanation i needed.

[@klaushaunstrupchristensen7252]

Excellent!!! I believe I know a fair bit about loudspeakers and listening rooms but sadly to little in regard to headphones. Because my listing room after moving from one apartment to the other have deteriorated acoustically I have turned my attention towards headphones. Another reason I am moving towards headphones are the numerous excellent podcasts which seems to rise exponentially. Nothing beats headphones when one tries to listen in a concentrated but still relaxed atmosphere. So thanks for the wonderfully interesting and informative videos. One thing I think might be missing in the Harman curve is that it doesn’t take driver size into consideration, to my logic (which might be flawed) a very big driver will give a different pinnae interaction/transformation compared to a small driver. This could be compared to the difficulty of equalizing a small point source loudspeaker to have the same timbre as a big line source loudspeakers. Another very small thing I instinctively find slightly dubious with the Harman curve, is that even though the general trend is gently curved and look logical, there is a reduction of roughly 1dB between 150-300 Hz. Which doesn’t follow the general curve shape. I speculate that this has come about because most people compare listening to headphones with listening to loudspeakers, rather than listening to the real thing. Almost all loudspeakers set up in a listening room have a reduction in the room response in exactly this region. This reduction is caused by interaction with the nearby room boundaries and called the Allison Effect (after the late great speaker designer Roy Allison). So could it be that this preferred dip has crept into the Harman Curve because headphone listeners by previous experience from loudspeaker listening, believe a depression in this region to be natural? Keep up the good work your videos are excellent. Greetings from Denmark Klaus

[@myalpaca5]

Nice technical details!

[@matthewbliffert8018]

Great video!

[@looper6120]

Get this man more subscribers!

[@Farazao]

I was reading the article yesterday, what are the odds? Nice job btw!

[@Denieru1982]

Thanks for all the videos. Understand you all always do recommend some sort of eq. It will be nice and appreciated if you could come out with a video to help guide people in using equaliser APO.. cheers mate.. :)

[@Keinz0402]

Awesome video Would like you to talk more about the different graphs that people refer to Ie. W shape, L shape, etc Maybe even a video about audiophile terms would be great as well just reference for new comers to the hobby

[@MrHUGOBARRERA]

hey! great video man, I've always had the doubt on how are frequency graphs recorded? noob asking here!!

[@Artaois13]

Do you think the dip on the LCD-X is similar to the FOCAL Elear? People dismiss it all the time because of these graphs floating around, showing that dip but I think they sound great.

[@akash5180]

Im totally new to this i dont know what is technicalities or whatever is said in iem reviews but i wanna understand it where should i start from

[@ama-tu-an-ki]

Good video, thanks! Some additional info: Flat measuring loudspeakers (in anechoic chamber) do NOT sound neutral/natural nor is the ideal loudspeaker raw frequency graph "flat". What is more useful, closer to ideal and in most cases (rooms) sounds more neutral, is a linearly downward sloping power graph (i.e . summatio of all frequency graphs from various measurement axes). A flat power graph would just sound horribly bright AND a flat frequency graph (0 degrees off-axis) could sound anything in real life, because the off-axis measurements (and thus the total power frequency) could be all over the place, resulting in unnatural sound. The LCD 4-5K dip is clearly audible, due to the Q of that dip. A sharp rise/drop at a tighter bandwidth is usually more audible (unless band is really extremely narrow). And yes, I could hear them on my old LCDs. Yet, I fully agree with you that (some level of) smoothing overall helps to make the raw measurement more useful for a wider audience (because not everybody will hear each narrow band dip/emphasis/resonance).

[@ResolveReviews]

With speakers it'll all depend on where the measurement is taken - but the reason for bringing it up is that traditional goals for headphones have been to get close to "flat measuring speakers in a decent room". I don't think this was assumed to be measured in an anechoic chamber (although I could be wrong about that). On the LCD4 the dip is extreme, so yes it's audible there - same with the LCD-X. The bigger issue with those ones though is the lack of pinna gain in general. All of them happen to exhibit a similar behaviour in that region, and when you match the target on all of them it sounds very wrong as well. This makes me think you have both an FR problem and a rig interaction feature going on. So it's likely that you're hearing additional non-ideal qualities in the FR there such as the wider Q of that dip that you mention. But that's also just a guess, it could indeed still be the dip that's seen here. I just know that when you do match the target on the XC it's not okay in that region, so something else also be going on with the null there.

[@renatobdc]

Nice! I would like to know the difference from a IEM? Should we expect different responses compares to a headphone?

[@S0liD4CE]

i am new and would love to know what "hearing" the dip talked about around 7:50 - what are you listening for in music?

[@SeptienPatterson]

Where can I get that ear prop?

[@DBSTH0R]

The only thing I think is missing from the video is perhaps example of normalized flat line graphs vs. raw measurements. Other than that, spot on & thanks!

[@KS_1990]

Dear bro, do u understand the A&K power measurement? What is 4Vrms or 10vrms compared to watt or mW?

[@santibergallo]

"They are not mutually exclusive" as read in many r/audiophile memes. Nicely done

[@antzasxristos1354]

We are waiting for a comparison between Focal Elegia and Audeze LCD XC, will you make It?????

[@BartdeBoisblanc]

Ok just to clarify if the dotted line is more or less a best fit between several of your solid line plots?

[@Kyodaikuma]

Does any one know if the hugo 2 can power the lcd 4 properly? since it has only non balanced outputs I wonder if it's enough

[@garygriffiths7353]

Good morning from the uk Andrew. Just wondering if you can help with my next purchase. I own fostex th900, cascades, hd650, audeze sine, Sony mdr z7r, fostex Purple Hearts, audio technica wp900, meze 99, hd25. Yeap I’m an addict. I use a Hugo 2 as my amp/dac. Question is do I go for zmf vc, rad 0, HEDD, Arya or something cheaper like sundara, lcd-2, ananda. I could prob get two of the lower price but only 1 of the top tier. I like metal, electronic and jazz

[@thedarkknight1971]

As for improving the sound of any headphones (even phone/Tablet connected to Amp and speakers), consider this... There is an media player app (sadly only for Android) that IS indeed a VERY powerful, customisable and usable, and that's 'PowerAmp'. There's MANY things you can do with it including customising the EQ from 5 bands (frequencies) to 32, this alone gives MUCH MORE control of setting the sound output to your headphones how YOU want it (PLUS you can save an EQ and sound stage setting to each individual device - headphone/speaker output), or, to set your headphones more to known set graphs/charts. Not only that, 'PowerAmp' has many features, handling streaming, Crossfade, Sound Stages, Pre-Amp, visualisations, MANY media formats, many skins are available to customise its look, the list goes on with many other features... 'PowerAmp' has consistently for years been pretty much THE best audio player even compared to VLC. I've used it for many years now and I haven't found anything that comes close, even though my LG phone with built in Quad DAC boosted the quality of the music I was listening to, 'PowerAmp' REALLY made a difference... Try it (it's free for a while) but even then when you need to pay to unlock it, it's only what? $5?, See what it can do with your music, it WILL certainly help improve your music listening pleasure. So £/$5.. To give you MUCH MORE control of your sound? Sounds like a bargain... NOT much money at all... 😏👍 Anyway, all the best to you fellow 'Audiophiles'... 👍 😎🇬🇧

[@stephanej.871]

As Oratory1990 said, in substance, in his infinite wisdom during one of your most interesting live show: "look at the frequency response graph, and then forget about it !" By the way, very interesting and intelligent video. Many thanks !

[@willhot3481]

Hi hi, can you review bowin & Wilkins PX7

[@N3ukenInD3K3uken]

my brother in law trades stock for a living on his 4 monitors I make a point of it to display frequency graphs on the tv in the living room whenever he visits I can read lines and stuff

[@Mark-fs7ok]

I’m late to the game here, but thanks very much for this - like all your vids it’s very informative and well done! One question: how does an FR graph for an IEM differ from an FR for a headphone, or are they basically the same? Wondering because it seems like an IEM shouldn’t be affected by pinna the way a headphone is.

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

Very different. You have different interactions with the ear since they bypass the pinna.

[@Mark-fs7ok]

@@TheHEADPHONEShow Thanks for the quick response! Just ordered a Dunu SA6 - hoping it’s going to be a nice complement to the single-DD Moondrop Kato I have now. Or do you think I may want to sell the Kato once I hear the SA6? ;-)

[@holla2jr]

question: why is that in a frequency response graph you can have a frequency reach 100dB but when you measure the SPL it does not reach that laud when doing a frequency sweep.

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

You can set the gain however you want. But, 94dB is a common calibration. As is 84dB on the graph.

[@jopar3292]

How does one read a beard response graph?

[@djhmax09]

Can you elaborate what's on the left side of the graph, the SPL? Why is it generally around 80dB and not lower for example? I assume it's because higher than that would be harmful

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

SPL = sound pressure level as measured by the mic.. dB = Decibel. For these purposes it doesn't really matter because the software allows you to calibrate to whatever you want. It's best to use some sort of SPL calibration tool separately and then input the values, but you can move that up or down in the overlay anyway so it doesn't really matter. Really those values are kind of arbitrary, but at the very least I use it to show scaling.

[@djhmax09]

@@TheHEADPHONEShow Ah, I see I see. Thanks for the response!

[@RC-qc2nz]

Hey guys, Here in Germany we have the new Beyerdynamic T1 and T5 in 3rd generation. Made in Germany. Would be cool to see a review with measurements. Just ask Beyerdynamic for the units

[@RobertWEaston]

Does this mean equalization profiles like those used in AutoEQ are a mistake? It's my understanding that they try to make a headphone's frequency response exactly match a Harman curve, which would mean smoothing out every peak and dip. I've been wondering lately whether just using those AutoEQ settings is really the best way to go...

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

It's a good question. If it's done strictly by matching the target, then yes that would be a problem. But if it's done in conjunction with listening tests, and/or observes certain features of the FR that should be there like the 9khz concha interaction then it's fine. I think this is also why it takes such a long time for some of the groups doing this kind of stuff to come out with profiles. In general I trust oratory's take on EQ as a starting point, because at least I know he factors those features in. But also, you have to remember that these measurements are all done with a standardized rigs with their own HRTF, and that may not match yours. I'm currently working on a way to show measurements for how I personally hear something as it's coupled to my head to see if there are differences between that and the standardized rig, ideally leading to some average deviation that I can report - and to help with what I perceive to be exception cases like the lcd-xc. But that's still just in the works.

[@RobertWEaston]

@@TheHEADPHONEShow Very interesting! I also looked at the AutoEQ GitHub page again just now and see that it's been massively expanded since the last time I checked. Now there's a section called "Technical Challenges" that details exactly these issues.

[@Nephilim-81]

And thank you for choosing the XC!! Very cool to see it under the microscope like that. Amazing headphone if you ask me. Yeah, it has some dark spots, but not much!

[@Nephilim-81]

I had no idea the Campfire cascade’s were that v-shaped. That have huge bass.

[@rickg8015]

With the Stock pads, yes..

[@InternetUser-d7s]

@@rickg8015 and stock filters. Remove white filters and you have a different profile.

[@iridescentgherkin]

A compensated Harman Target graph shouldn't look completely flat though. It's just a lot flatter than uncompensated; it's mostly a gentle downward slope from bass to treble. This doesn't make them less valuable. They're obviously easier to read and do have some purpose/value.

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

The very nature of a compensated graph is that it normalizes the target. Do you mean like the way oratory represents it? Because all a compensated graph shows you is deviations from the target. You can have this be a flat line or a downslope, whatever you want.

[@musicxxa6678]

I prefer slightly less bass and 3-4k peak. Also i prefer slightly more higher treble/air. Older harman target is a bit better. XC looks better than 6xx to me.

[@ResolveReviews]

How old do you mean? The 2013 target has less treble extension and more 3-4khz energy than the 2018 target.

[@musicxxa6678]

@@ResolveReviews I think 2013 target have better bass. I didn't noticed the change in treble. Less 3-4k energy and more treble extension is definitely the better for me. I wonder are they gonna update the target. 2020 revision would be nice. Did you measured Ananda with the new equipment ?

[@theovonskeletor3709]

More bass plz :)

[@robertfontaine3650]

I learned some things.

[@gvidas7333]

In my subjective opinion V-shape (or U-shape) EQ sounds much better than default.

[@robertfontaine3650]

Diffuse field as a reference would make me feel a lot more comfortable. I want to make the audio sound real not good.

[@BMAPS]

#RespectTheBeard🧔🏻

[@baronvonlichtenstein]

Sennheisers just sound like a bunch of midrange to me. Like someone threw a blanket over a speaker. The Shure 440 and 840 sound better to me. But maybe that's hearing loss after 14khz

[@whiteowl3440]

Write : How to Read Frequency Response Graphs for Headphones Read : Shielding Audeze LCD's Even though Audeze LCD has imperfect Frequency response graph, Ldc is good. LCD's are exceptions. DT1990 Pro has 8k peak on frequency response graph, so it is all fake detail. What about details on bass and mid? I know you are so strict about frequency response graph, but you are always generous of LCD's. Why?

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

I explain that in the video. It's not always correlated with the auditory experience. Also, I'm generally quite critical of Audeze FRs, the XC is the only one that's had a great tonal balance out of the box to my ear.

[@melaniezette886]

Mic audio is bad