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Audio Science Guide
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Are Objective Headphone Measurements Relevant to Audiophile's Subjective Experience?
Tyll Hertsens Blog, Audio Science Guide
Steve Guttenberg, Tyll Hertsens • Apr 25, 2012 • 42 comments

I talk with Steve Guttenberg on the phone a few times a month, and I very much enjoy our chats. When Steve suggested we have a conversation about measurements and their relevance to audiophiles and write it up as an article, I was all-in immediately.

I hope you enjoy our chat as much as I did.

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Between the Ears: the art and science of measuring headphones
Audio Science Guide
Keith Howard • Aug 29, 2008 • 0 comments
Headphones get pretty short shrift in much of the hi-fi press, which is puzzling—the headphone market is burgeoning. I don't know what the equivalent US figures are, but in recent years the UK headphone market has increased by an annual 15–20% in both units sold and overall revenue. It's easy to dismiss this as a natural byproduct of the Apple iPod phenomenon, but 20% of the market value is now accounted for by headphones costing over $120; a significant subset of consumers would seem to be looking for quality. When you also consider that many people's first exposure to higher-quality audio comes via headphones, there is ample reason for treating them more seriously.
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Break-In, Part Deux
Tyll Hertsens Blog, Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens • Jun 09, 2011 • 35 comments

Many of you will remember my previous attempt at analyzing break-in from this post. A lot of good comments and suggestions were made after the post, and I'd encourage those not familiar with this previous attempt to check it out.

Deciding that my time away at T.H.E. Show Newport would be the perfect opportunity to run some more break-in tests, I programmed my headphone measurement system to take frequency response, square wave, impulse response, and Total Harmonic Distortion data every hour for 100 hours.

Man! That's a lot of numbers ... I'm glad I have a computer.

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Evidence of Headphone Break-In?
Tyll Hertsens Blog, Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens • Apr 24, 2011 • 60 comments

The nice folks over at AKG decided to send me a bunch of Quincy Jones headphones, including three Q701s! That's good news for both you and me. For me, because it will allow me to do some experiments I've been wanting to do for a long time. The AKG K701, now reborn as the Quincy Jones Q701, is notorious for needing hundreds of hours of break-in before they sound right. I want to see if that can be measured, and in this article I'll show you the first sets of measurements.

It's good news for you, because when all is said and done, I'll give away two pairs of the Q701 headphones to some lucky reader.

So, let's talk about break-in, shall we...

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Expert Tests InnerFidelity's Headphone Measurement Repeatability and Reproducibility
Audio Science Guide
MacedonianHero • Mar 28, 2012 • 27 comments

Head-Fi member Macedionian Hero may be a headphone geek by night, but he's the Director of Engineering at a MIL/AERO electronics manufacturing firm by day. He's also a "Lean Six Sigma Black Belt" (don't know what he had to do to get that, but I bet there's a lot of math), and one of his specialities is characterizing the the precision and accuracy of electronic systems. He volunteered to evaluate the precision of my headphone frequency response measurements.

Did some nail biting over this one, I tell ya.

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Headphone Amplifier Measurement Routine Development: THD+Noise
Tyll Hertsens Blog, Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens • Dec 27, 2011 • 26 comments
At it hot and heavy in the lab setting up amp measurements. Started with Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise vs. Frequency tests. Sent electrons whirling through a handfull of amps to see what the numbers said.

Wanna see?

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Headphone Measurement Procedures - Frequency Response
Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens • Apr 16, 2011 • Published: Apr 15, 2011 • 20 comments

Measuring what a pair of headphones sound like inside you head is no simple task. It's complicated in there.

No worries, in this article I'll take you step-by-step through the process of measuring the frequency response of a pair of headphones.

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Headphone Measurement Proceedures - Introduction and Equipment
Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens • Apr 15, 2011 • 12 comments
Measuring headphones is a long and involved process which includes elaborate costuming, waterboarding cats, and just the right wand.

:)

No ... not really. Nothing quite so spectacular as that, but it's still pretty cool. In this article, and the series it begins, I'll take you step-by-step through the process of measuring a pair of headphones.

No pets will be hurt ... I promise.

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Headphone Measurements Explained - Square Wave Response
Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens • Aug 20, 2012 • 50 comments

Square waves are a cool signal. They contain lots of frequency response info, but, unlike the frequency response plot, also contain some visible information on the phase and time response of the headphones. I highly recommend them...

...but not for listening. Yeeeesh!

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How Planar Magnetic Headphones Work
Tyll Hertsens Blog, Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens • May 11, 2011 • 10 comments

They've been around since the 70's and never really caught on, but all of a sudden a couple small headphone makers have entered the fray with new planar magnetic headphones and ... Oh. My. Gosh. ... they're very good.

Before reviewing some of these headphones, I thought it would be a good idea to write an article describing how this "what once was old is new again" technology works. So come along for a ride as I describe how planar magnetic headphones work ... and how I busted mine all to pieces.

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InnerFidelity Headphone Measurement Graphing Tool
Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens, xnor, Roger Strummer • Apr 26, 2011 • 1 comments
This page is being reserved for work on a web-based headphone measurement graphing tool. With it you will be able to compare various headphone characteristics from among the headphones we have in our database.

I want to especially thank members Roger Stummer and xnor for their willingness to help with this very important task for the headphone enthusiast community and for consumers at large.

THANKS GUYS!!! :)

Okay gentlemen, the space is yours.

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Loud Music Sucks!
Tyll Hertsens Blog, Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens • May 05, 2011 • 14 comments

By now, most folks are aware of the potential for hearing loss by playing music too loud on headphones. I won’t bother you with it yet again. I’m going to try to take another approach. If you are turning the volume up to loud levels, you’re just throwing all that money you spent on great sound out the window. Here’s why.
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NwAvGuy's Heaphone Amp Measurement Recommendations
Tyll Hertsens Blog, Audio Science Guide
NwAvGuy • Oct 03, 2011 • 13 comments

Top Gear is one of the BBC’s biggest shows. They evaluate expensive cars in entertaining ways then turn them over to their anonymous racing driver, known only as The Stig, to find out how fast they’ll lap their track. Some say NwAvGuy is Stig’s geeky cousin. Instead of testing cars, as an Electrical Engineer, I design and test audio gear. I want to thank Tyll for requesting my thoughts on measuring electronics. I'm all for improving measurements

WHY MEASUREMENTS? Here are some key reasons:
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On the Measurement and Audibility of Headphone Break-in
Tyll Hertsens Blog, Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens • Jan 07, 2012 • 35 comments

I really wanted to objectively show break-in effects were measurable and audible.

"Desire," says the Buddha, "is the source of our suffering."

Guess I'm not going to get what I want, I'll just have to stop wanting it.

Wanna see what I did get?

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Spatial Hearing: The Psychophysics of Human Sound Localization
Tyll Hertsens Blog, Audio Science Guide
Tyll Hertsens • Mar 30, 2011 • 1 comments
For those of us who really want a clear and comprehensive overview of how the human hearing system works to identify the location of sounds, there is one book cited above all others that serves as the text on the subject: Jens Blauert's "Spatial Hearing: The Psychophysics of Human Sound Localization."
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