3 ms·

Can you really quantify nonlinearities from a sin sweep of any sort? It seems like JBL thinks one can, and has started to build hardware that tries to do this:

Can you really quantify nonlinearities from a sin sweep of any sort? It seems like JBL thinks one can, and has started to build hardware that tries to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55tJzO-_D10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55tJzO-_D10 Not that I'd expect a decent set of headphones to have material nonlinearities unless seriously overdriven. "Material" is just a way of dismissing the current imperfections that we can't economically do anything about. Headphones and speakers are certainly good enough to let us enjoy music. But listening to recordings on them is like watching cinema. It's certainly enjoyable, but no one thinks it's a duplicate of the real thing. They're just the performance hardware of particular media.

amluto 9y ago
> "Material" is just a way of dismissing the current imperfections that we can't economically do anything about. I said material nonlinearities, not material imperfections. I've never researched this for real, but I would imagine that your average imperfect set of headphones is mainly imperfect in that it has poor (or inconsistent) frequency response, poor transient response, and/or poor noise characteristics. But maybe headphones do commonly have significant nonlinearities -- I don't really know.
- stcredzero 9y ago
  I said material nonlinearities, not material imperfections. Precisely what I said. But maybe headphones do commonly have significant nonlinearities Dynamic drivers have these. Most cases and housings introduce these. Amplifiers have these. Until recently we could only determine if people can consciously hear things or not. Determining if something affects your perception is something else entirely. Also, with something you wear like a headphone, it's more expensive to do blind comparisons. Basically, the system we're dealing with (including the human hearing apparatus) is pretty complex. While we've made significant inroads into the science, we still don't understand everything that goes on when someone listens to reproduced music. I think this is about to change, however. There are some things coming down the pike, where we are going to have unprecedented control of variables we didn't even think to address. Here's one of the first baby steps: A headphone that does a frequency sweep inside the cups to compensate for the acoustic filtering of your particular ear! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55tJzO-_D10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55tJzO-_D10

amluto 9y ago

> "Material" is just a way of dismissing the current imperfections that we can't economically do anything about. I said material nonlinearities, not material imperfections. I've never researched this for real, but I would imagine that your average imperfect set of headphones is mainly imperfect in that it has poor (or inconsistent) frequency response, poor transient response, and/or poor noise characteristics. But maybe headphones do commonly have significant nonlinearities -- I don't really know.

stcredzero 9y ago
I said material nonlinearities, not material imperfections. Precisely what I said. But maybe headphones do commonly have significant nonlinearities Dynamic drivers have these. Most cases and housings introduce these. Amplifiers have these. Until recently we could only determine if people can consciously hear things or not. Determining if something affects your perception is something else entirely. Also, with something you wear like a headphone, it's more expensive to do blind comparisons. Basically, the system we're dealing with (including the human hearing apparatus) is pretty complex. While we've made significant inroads into the science, we still don't understand everything that goes on when someone listens to reproduced music. I think this is about to change, however. There are some things coming down the pike, where we are going to have unprecedented control of variables we didn't even think to address. Here's one of the first baby steps: A headphone that does a frequency sweep inside the cups to compensate for the acoustic filtering of your particular ear! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55tJzO-_D10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55tJzO-_D10