Tyll Hertsens Blog

June Measurements Update

Tyll Hertsens  |  May 31, 2011

I've just completed the June measurements update. All the new cans are on the Headphone Datasheet Downloads page, and in the All Graphs PDF.

New headphones this month include:

  • Many of the Ultrasone line.
  • The new Shure SRH950.
  • The Beyerdynamic DJX-1 (it's pretty good).
  • Numerous Denon IEMs.
  • Grado GR8.
  • Spider Cables realvoice IEM
  • Second measurements of Beyer's Tesla cans.
  • And ... measurements of the latest LCD2 ... now with more highs!

COMMENTS
inarc's picture
Submitted by inarc on May 31, 2011 - 1:19pm

The link http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AllGraphs.pdf is dead.

Tyll Hertsens's picture
Submitted by Tyll Hertsens on May 31, 2011 - 5:04pm
... you might have caught me as I was uploading a new one --- I noticed some things needing change a couple of times and you might have caught me during an upload.
inarc's picture
Submitted by inarc on May 31, 2011 - 5:19pm

Thank you.

MayaTlab's picture
Submitted by MayaTlab on May 31, 2011 - 4:19pm

Hello,

Thanks for your website, it is very informative.

How do you explain the fact that you're measuring more highs with the LCD-2 ? New pads ?

Tyll Hertsens's picture
Submitted by Tyll Hertsens on May 31, 2011 - 5:01pm
... and he said the only thing that has changed is the pads. So, I guess so.
MayaTlab's picture
Submitted by MayaTlab on June 1, 2011 - 2:45am

Thank you

PMM's picture
Submitted by PMM on May 31, 2011 - 7:17pm

Aside from the new highs, do you think that they image any better with the tilted pads?

maverickronin's picture
Submitted by maverickronin on June 1, 2011 - 3:22am

I've never head of the Ultrasone Pro 950 and google doesn't turn up much either. Is that a new model or is it a typo?

Tyll Hertsens's picture
Submitted by Tyll Hertsens on June 1, 2011 - 1:14pm
Yup, typo. It's the Pro 550. All fixt now ... Thanks!
svyr's picture
Submitted by svyr on June 1, 2011 - 6:39am

m, nice, the second T5p did even worse THD+N wise :\

Good to see you also measured different impedance Beyer DT880s. For some reason a lot of the cans (denons, beyers, ultrasone) show near 10% distortion in the lower bass. What's the reason for that?

sgrossklass's picture
Submitted by sgrossklass on June 1, 2011 - 3:56pm

One primary source of harmonic distortion is found in driver excursion (due to mechanical nonlinearity + B field inhomogenity). Hence, anything that is not sealed airtight will show rising distortion at low frequencies due to increasing front-back cancellation. (Look at HD238s, open + smallish driver. Would love to see a burn-in experiment with those.) In some models you'll also see a THD peak accompanied by a FR dip, a sure sign of some cavity resonance occurring.

I would liken this to the behavior of an amplifier with output-stage-dominated distortion. It has to work harder when driving lower impedances, and distortion rises correspondingly. In fact, when using the concept of acoustic impedance there are a lot of parallels.

Not sure where those distortion peaks are coming from in the T1 and T5p. There shouldn't be any funny break-up modes around 1 kHz yet.

Never been an Ultrasone fan, and with the measurements (the FR graphs alone show evidence of a number of resonances) it's fairly clear why they are an acquired taste at best.

I'd say the awards for worst nonlinear distortion in a commercial headphone would have to go to ye olde Philips HP910 and Grado's RS2.

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