4 ms·

Call me skeptical. It's like trying to show how good Blu-ray is on a DVD. Headphones are even more different than speakers because there's the ergonomics of wea

by pfranz 6y ago

Call me skeptical. It's like trying to show how good Blu-ray is on a DVD. Headphones are even more different than speakers because there's the ergonomics of wearing them, how they sound when covering your ears, and things like durability.

leetcrew 6y ago
not exactly. blu ray is objectively superior to DVD; it supports higher bitrates and better codecs. a lot of the differences between audio products are more subjective. headphones in the $100-200 range are already pretty good in terms of total harmonic distortion. frequency response is a large part of why you might prefer one set of headphones/speakers over another. this is basically equivalent to a final EQ stage, which can be compensated for earlier in the signal chain. I highly doubt they can make my hd555s sound as good as hd800s, but I wouldn't be surprised if the software could give at least a general sense of what hd800s sound like.
- SulfurHexaFluri 6y ago
  >I wouldn't be surprised if the software could give at least a general sense of what hd800s sound like. If it could then you would just use the software on all your music and have high end audio for free.
  - hakfoo 6y ago
    The difference is between raw performance and "voicing". You can say "this model of headphones produces peaks at 4kHz, 11kHz and 26kHz compared to a flat reference model" and add that effect with a DSP or pre-rendered sound clips. That will give you some of the "voice" but it won't add the performance aspects-- power handling capacity, responsiveness of the drivers, sharpness of the crossovers, etc. TBH, it's a fascinating idea and I wish it had existed last time I bought speakers-- I recall going all over town to Best Buys and Fry's back when they still had stock to listen to floor samples in rooms completely unlike the ones I would be listening in, using sample media and amplification unlike what I was going to use.

by pfranz 6y ago

leetcrew 6y ago

not exactly. blu ray is objectively superior to DVD; it supports higher bitrates and better codecs. a lot of the differences between audio products are more subjective. headphones in the $100-200 range are already pretty good in terms of total harmonic distortion. frequency response is a large part of why you might prefer one set of headphones/speakers over another. this is basically equivalent to a final EQ stage, which can be compensated for earlier in the signal chain. I highly doubt they can make my hd555s sound as good as hd800s, but I wouldn't be surprised if the software could give at least a general sense of what hd800s sound like.

SulfurHexaFluri 6y ago
>I wouldn't be surprised if the software could give at least a general sense of what hd800s sound like. If it could then you would just use the software on all your music and have high end audio for free.
- hakfoo 6y ago
  The difference is between raw performance and "voicing". You can say "this model of headphones produces peaks at 4kHz, 11kHz and 26kHz compared to a flat reference model" and add that effect with a DSP or pre-rendered sound clips. That will give you some of the "voice" but it won't add the performance aspects-- power handling capacity, responsiveness of the drivers, sharpness of the crossovers, etc. TBH, it's a fascinating idea and I wish it had existed last time I bought speakers-- I recall going all over town to Best Buys and Fry's back when they still had stock to listen to floor samples in rooms completely unlike the ones I would be listening in, using sample media and amplification unlike what I was going to use.