Mix/prod. room very bad, get OTT headphones?

Keep in mind that in human hearing, perceived loudness depends on frequency. What looks like a comparable large difference in bass response in that graph might be an imperceptible difference at regular hearing levels:

fig2-3

It’s interesting that the Audeze LCD X is flatter in the bass region, but also seems to have a stronger dip between 3-10kHz than most high-end cans.

1 Like

Absolutely, you’re right, it’s just interesting to see that the supposed benefit of the planar magnetic design (in terms of being able to reproduce lower bass frequencies) is borne out by the tests.

Try to do a proper EQ tailored to your room, get a 1/3 octave Graphic EQ (31bands) and calibrate it by performing a dual channel transfer function by hand. If you do it right it is like having a new pair of monitors in a proper acoustic-treated room. There are some situations when acoustic treatment is mandatory but on most of the cases stationary waves can be compensated with a proper room eq, improvement on the reference’s clarity and precision could be massive, like day vs night.

Hmmm - the transfer function sounds like something to try. Will try and figure out how and then I might come back and ask. I use DMGs EQ and that might be able to do it I suppose. Cheers!

I just bought the Avantone MP1 headphones and I am very impressed. I have been thinking about getting a monoblock for a couple years but I thought the expense was silly for my semi pro needs. When I saw what the MP1 aims to do I was intrigued. It has a three way switch that allows you to check the mix in mono or full stereo or to mimic the old Avantone mix cubes. They are closed backed and isolate well.

This gives you three reference options and from what I can tell the mix translates pretty well. If I’m not mistaken better than what I’ve been able to achieve in my untreated room using my Genelec M030 which I switched to because they are designed for use in untreated rooms.

When Im now looking at headphones there are, I suppose obviously, as many considerations as with monitoring generally. I think my thinking is now to get a pair of open headphones in the Sennheiser/Shure 6-800Usd range. Logic being that to compare several monitors of reasonable quality will in sum give adequate reference. Ive discovered something else that I dont understand well enough: should headphone impedance and interface headphone output Ohm match - I mean roughly or absolutely, or am I totally off here? Most stuff that I can easily find to read is littered with variables that I find hard to judge the relevance of…