3 ms·
Well, it was an awesome blog post. I have actually lost sleep pondering how itty bitty iems manage to have bass response. Thanks.
by fhood 9y ago
Well, it was an awesome blog post. I have actually lost sleep pondering how itty bitty iems manage to have bass response. Thanks.
- aidenn0 9y agoIEMs can have pretty good bass response just because they don't need to generate much volume. Hold them about an inch from your ear and turn the volume up high enough to hear from that distance. Very little base at that point.
- aoeusnth1 9y agoIt's not just the low volume - it's the airtight seal. A very low frequency sound wave is a slow sequence of low- and high-pressures. With an airtight seal, it's much easier to sustain pressure differences from 1 atmosphere from a long time. With no seal, the high or low pressure leaks away from the region near the ear. This is also why open-ear headphones tend to have lower bass response than closed-ear headphones. For example, compare these frequency response curves: http://graphs.headphone.com/index.php?graphID%5B0%5D=853&graphID%5B1%5D=4323&graphID%5B2%5D=&graphID%5B3%5D=&scale=30&graphType=0&buttonSelection=Update+Graph http://graphs.headphone.com/index.php?graphID%5B0%5D=853&gra... The open-ear Sennheiser HD650 has around 10-12 db lower bass response than the closed-ear Fostex. Even more dramatic, look at the dynamic response to a 50hz square wave - the Sennheiser's amplitude drops completely to zero before the next jump of the square wave, while the Fostex manages to maintain about 1/3 of the original air pressure in the headphone cup by the end. http://graphs.headphone.com/index.php?graphID%5B0%5D=853&graphID%5B1%5D=4323&graphID%5B2%5D=&graphID%5B3%5D=&scale=30&graphType=3&buttonSelection=Update+Graph http://graphs.headphone.com/index.php?graphID%5B0%5D=853&gra...