It feels like this might sound like a very stupid question, but I’ll have to ask anyway to see if anyone has similar experiences and/or a good solution to share…
I’m mainly using a pair of AKG 702 open-back headphones when making music or designing sounds. The corner in my room where my gear is living is untreated and far away from optimal acoustically.
While designing a few kicks the other day it occurred to me that what I hear in my headphones is not what I actually expect to hear or see in my oscilloscope. I trigger an isolated dry kick but it sounds like there’s a short reverb tailing at the end. Now this could be either through the design of my specific headphones or a reflection of the sound from a wall nearby. When I cover the open backs of the headphones with my hands the “reverb” disappears. When I move further away from the walls towards the middle of the room the sound stays the same.
My expectation would be that a driver that small in a headphone can’t create such a noticeable reflection especially considering moderate volume levels…
First of all, those AKGs have rather peaks in the high range which would accentuate any high frequency content which you might not hear with your speakers for example. You can see it in these measurements: Dropbox - AKG K702.pdf - Simplify your life
Open-back headphones do have crosstalk, just like real loudspeakers, maybe that’s what you are hearing? Does this also happen if the volume is very low?
Hey thanks for sharing the curves… to be honest I was never happy with this higher frequency boost which leads to more mud in the mix usually. Tried to fix it with eq curves but usually I’m playing without a computer at hand.
Volume wise it’s audible at relatively low volume, too. I plugged the AKGs around a cushion to see how much can be heard from the outside, but I’d say it’s not crosstalk.
I have the suspicion at the moment that it may have to do with the construction of the driver which moves air quickly at highly dynamic signals. This together with the outside grill on the earcup might cause this effect. But I totally unsure if that makes sense physically at all…
And that’s why I still stick to my trusty HD650 It isn’t perfect, especially in the low end but the rest is just nice. Imaging also isn’t great but you get the tonal balance right with it. Which is the most important thing for me.
Reflections inside the ear cups could be an explanation. I think the AKGs are designed to sound very open and wide and maybe what you are hearing is some kind of artifact you get if you design a headphone that way. Is it with all kicks or just one special sound? Maybe you have a sound with very much low frequency content and it’s just too much for the driver to handle. I’d try to cut away frequencies below 30Hz or so in a DAW and see if there’s some change to the overall sound. That shouldn’t be really audible because they roll off way earlier than that but it would remove a lot of work from the driver.
I just tested with a kick that peaks at 60 Hz. No relevant lower frequencies in that sound. I’m sure it does the same with other sounds but I’ll have to check later.
Was hoping for an easy solution… but this really seems to mean go and search for other headphones in a reasonable price range.
I have bought several Sennheiser HD600 or 650 over the years. They usually go for about 150 euros used in decent shape. New ear pads cost 40 euros and the cable 15 (at least here in Germany…). Then you basically have a new headphones which will last many years. But I’m also a fanboy
It isn’t perfect, especially in the low end but the rest is just nice. Imaging also isn’t great but you get the tonal balance right with it. Which is the most important thing for me.