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Headphones and Earphones Benchmarking Test Files
- gabzuka 12y agoThis reminded me of this (somewhat related) article about the science behind audio quality, signals and all the myths surrounding it. Very recommended. http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
- falcolas 12y agoGreat idea, but it's not just evaluating your headphones, but also your DAC, amplifier (both of which are typically crap in most computers), and your own hearing limits. [EDIT]: Headphone tone and response also changes over time - what sounds ideal at 0 hours will sound very different after 100 hours of break-in and use. Would help if there was a note about this on the site, and recommendations for basic steps you can take to correct for these. I'm spoiled - headphone.com is based out of my hometown, so I can listen to any headphones I want on their expensive equipment and find what really works the best.
- jedberg 12y ago> but it's not just evaluating your headphones, but also your DAC, amplifier (both of which are typically crap in most computers), and your own hearing limits. That's a good thing though. I want to know which headphones or speakers work best with my equipment in my normal conditions with my hearing. I don't care which ones are "the best". I want "the best for me".
- falcolas 12y ago> I want "the best for me". I agree - this should absolutely be your goal. That said, as an example of why these differences matter, my MacBook pro spits out a lot of noise and has a different sound profile when compared to my iPhone, which sounds completely different than my Mac mini which is connected to my headphone amp/dac. When evaluating headphones, evaluate them on the device you'll be listening to them on. Don't trust your laptop to tell you how your phone will sound (or vice versa). Also, if you do transfer the files to your mobile player - make sure they aren't automatically converted to lower quality files.
- minikites 12y agoHeadphone "break-in" is a myth up there with coloring the edges of your CDs with a green magic marker.
- gadders 12y agoYeah, but to get the full effect you need gold plated optical leads from Monster.
- Groxx 12y agoThe day we get room-temperature superconducting cables, Monster will put some into a 6-foot HDMI cable and sell a bunch for tons of money.
- TylerE 12y agoNo, it's not. I've observed it on my own with several sets of high quality 'phones.
- falcolas 12y ago"What I do know is that during the course of these measurements some things changed. While the data showed only very small differences, the data was clearly above the noise, and a general trend observable. The data also showed a discontinuity around the 20 hour mark in both the FR and THD data. While, it seems to me, much of the change observed could easily be due to movement, especially in the frequencies above 5kHz, some changes seem more likely due to break-in. In particular, the changes in frequency response around the fundamental resonance of the driver at 80Hz, and in %THD+noise at the same frequency and at around 40Hz." http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/evidence-headphone-break http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/evidence-headphone-brea...
- atwebb 12y agoStill checking out the post but to anyone looking at getting a nice set of headphones, the Sennheiser 600s (mentioned in the post) can be picked up (especially used or open box) much cheaper than $500. I'd actually recommend going ahead and looking at the 650s which run $350 and under on eBay or directly from Senn during a sale. Gotta be able to have open backed headphones though, they leak a lot.
- mnw21cam 12y agoI'm using Sennheiser HD280 Pro, and they performed perfectly in the tests. Really excellent headphones. They're closed cup, so people don't hear what I'm listening to, and I use them on flights to cut out flight noise.
- aaronem 12y agoI used a pair of HD 280 Pros for about a year before I got my 558s, and I have to say, isolation is the only area in which the former outdoes the latter; in particular, as far as comfort goes, the 280s made me feel like I was wearing a bench vise on my skull, while the 558s sit so lightly that I barely notice I'm wearing them at all. Since I was working in a cubicle environment at the time, I figured I'd keep the 280s at work, primarily for their excellent isolation, and the 558s at home, where I maintain a quiet environment in which open headphones' lack of isolation doesn't pose a problem. That lasted about a week before I started carrying the 558s to work, because I could simply no longer stand to wear the 280s. It really is a shame the 280s are so big and clunky, because they are, as you say, quite good headphones otherwise, albeit IMHO a little weak in the lower part of the frequency range. HD558s being as cheap as they are, and from all I can gather being also the price/performance sweet spot of the Sennheiser 5x8 range, my experience leads me to suggest that it'd be worth your while to consider picking up a pair. (And I hear elsethread that the 558 foam mod makes them effectively indistinguishable from the twice-as-expensive and even more neutral HD598; I can't speak to that from personal experience, as I have yet to do the mod, but if true then the HD558 is most certainly the standout performer of its range.)
- mattgreenrocks 12y agoI use HD280's for guitar practice from my POD. They work really well in this case: as they're very analytical, and they don't leak. The closed cup helps me focus on listening to my playing v. the drums/bass. However, they're really hard on most music that hasn't been mastered well. And that is pretty much all modern music.
- fr0sty 12y agoThe binaural recordings are more than a little spooky. Even knowing before hand that they were going to play the sound of someone knocking on doors I had to fight the temptation to turn and look at sho was knocking on the desk next to me.
- theorique 12y agoI have a door to the right of me, so when the recording started, I had that exact sensation. "The door! ... oh, wait..." Amazing how powerful sound is as a trigger of urgent emotions and responses.
- Sephiroth87 12y agoI have to say that I never heard anything like that... I was expecting some immersion but not at that level, definitely going to check more binaural stuff now
- MarkTee 12y agoNot quite as good, but here's a classic (Virtual Barber Shop): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA
- gingerlime 12y agoNice. I swear I could feel the tips of my hair twitching when the scissors went through. (and my headphones are pretty basic)
- mnw21cam 12y agoWow, yes, I really did turn to see who was knocking on my desk. Is it just me, or does the left channel id clip have quite a different equalisation/sound to the right one? Also, regarding the centre/twisted test clips - these are encoded as mp3 (for playing - the downloads are wav). Mp3s often encode stereo by encoding the average of the two channels and the difference between the two channels, with a lower bit rate. If one channel is inverted, then the average of the two channels will be zero, so all the sound information is encoded in the lower bit rate difference, which would give it a lower quality. Something to be aware of when making test clips like this.
- rtk7 12y agoBut these are mp3s, they're 44,1 kHz VBRs. How is this supposed to be accurate? Shouldn't these files be PCM .wav or at least .FLAC?
- rsync 12y agoThis surprised me as well.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- shawabawa3 12y agoThey are 320kbps mp3's. The difference between that and flac is practically undetectable to the human ear[0] [0] http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~hockman/documents/Pras_presentation2009.pdf edit: The knocking one is 320kbps, the others seems to be lower. I imagine the pure tone ones compress very well.
- rtk7 12y agoYes. What my concern about this is is actually the lower and higher frequencies in the mp3s. With these the loss was neglectable. I thought preserving the full range and quality was paramount with audio testing, but I'm not an expert or an audiophile, it was just my preconception. (Listening to an original .wav song with my headphones and then an mp3 of 192 or 320 kpbs quality, the difference seems obvious, but mostly at the low- and the high-ends.)
- ubercow13 12y agoYou can tell the difference between 320kbps and a wav file across a wide range of music? You might want to try and get in contact with a competent researcher in this area as they may be interested in studying you
- rtk7 12y agoHehe, absolutely no. A 320 kpbs MP3 and .wav are hard to distinguish, but the high freq range is usually the one where things are missing, and the lows also but only if there are a lot deep sweeps and bass. If I wouldn't have a wav and an mp3 for comparing I wouldn't be able tell the difference. I don't have the high-end headcans or the finesse for that.
- chiph 12y agoIn the heyday of car audio, there were test CDs that had similar material - tracks to compare left/right, phasing, soundstage, frequency response, and so on. They're still available from Crutchfield - look for "AutoSound 2000". While geared for car audio (tight control over listener position, questionable speaker placement and acoustics), they're also good for home systems, and somewhat good for headphone/earphone selection. You want disc 2 for basic setup, and disc 1 if you plan on using an oscilloscope or spectrum analyzer.
- robert_tweed 12y agoThere's actually at least one on Spotify - search for "Sheffield Lab". Very handy for end-to-end testing your streaming setup.
- cantgethenode 12y agoThe article mentions headphones priced from 500, 400, 300 and 40 USD. Anybody got any recommendations for something around 100-120 USD? I Currently have the Audio Technica ATH PRO5 MS and looking to upgrade. And I just saw aroch's link https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7685820 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7685820
- jc4p 12y agohttp://www.head-fi.org/a/headphone-buying-guide http://www.head-fi.org/a/headphone-buying-guide Head-Fi has excellent recommendations for all types of headphones (IEMs, closed, etc) at different price points.
- billbrown 12y agoI bought what The Wirecutter recommended (RBH EP2) and absolutely love them. Here are their other picks: http://thewirecutter.com/leaderboard/headphones/ http://thewirecutter.com/leaderboard/headphones/
- notacoward 12y agoShure SRH440. I've owned and extensively used Sennheiser, Sony, Koss, Audio-Technica AKG, KRK and probably others I've forgotten. For sound quality, the 440s just blow the rest away. In fact, I needed to get some new phones for gaming quite recently, because the Shures' one drawback is that they're heavy and uncomfortable for long stints, and my daughter had effectively taken over the KRKs. I actually used these very recordings to do a quantitative test of the new kids vs. what I already had. I also listened to several different music tracks, and even ran them through a splitter so I could do a true side-by-side comparison. The Shures were simply better than everything else I own, every single time, and they seem to be available for under US$100.
- auxym 12y agoI'll add a +1 for that. I love the SRH440's sound, plus they are closed-back so I can use them at work. Like you I found them to be so-so comfortable so I got SRH840 replacement pads for them on ebay. Cheap and they are super comfortable now.
- rsync 12y agoI'd like to do some audio tests / checks on some normal home theater speakers ... no headphones involved. Any reason not to use these, or are there better sample/reference files for that ?
- keithpeter 12y agoI've seen a local public address/sound system company using filtered noise with a spectrum analyser to set up loudspeaker systems in 'difficult' halls. The people in charge suggested that single sine waves at high power may not be so good for the speakers.
- LeoPanthera 12y agoThe site has a catalog of generic test tones designed for all audio equipment: http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtestsaudiotesttones_index.php http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtestsaudiotesttones_index.php
- bdamm 12y agoI discovered that I have a ton of internal noise in the 17kHz to 22kHz range, so I cannot even hear those tones because they do not exceed the noise tones I apparently am hearing all the time.
- petarb 12y agoThe door knocking sound is absolutely phenomenal in a sense that my brain has never been tricked like this by such a simple sound into thinking that it wasn't from my headphones but from the surrounding area.
- sizzle 12y agocan anyone here comment on the S-Logic tech in Ultrasone headphones?
- agoeldi 12y agoYes. S-Logic is designed to give you a much broader soundstage in a closed headphone. It uses a driver that doesn't hit the ear canal directly, but that is slightly angled to use the ear's outer rim in order to add some depth. Depending on the headphone model it works very well. Ultrasone sells a lot of different headphones that target different audiences. For instance, the Edition models tend to be very design-oriented and typically get very mixed reviews in terms of sound quality (I can't confirm that from my own experience). Others are for the pro market and tend to sound much more balanced. I own the Signature Pro, which has the newer generation S-Logic Plus, and I'm extremely happy with it. The soundstage is as wide as that of great open-back headphones (e.g. Sennheiser HD650, which I also have), but you get the isolation and bass punch of closed headphones. I retired all my older headphones (HD650, Grado RS1, Shure SE-535) after getting the Signature Pro. Unfortunately, this model is not exactly cheap ($1300 list price) and quite ugly, but I've never heard better music reproduction.
- sizzle 12y agothank you for the thoughtful reply, much appreciated. I am looking to upgrade from my audiotechnica ath-m50 studio monitors
- parkaboy 12y agoHappy to see Beyerdynamic finally getting some much needed love.
- nodesocket 12y agoI've had a set of Sol Republic Tracks HD's (http://www.solrepublic.com/ http://www.solrepublic.com/) for a bit now, and absolutely love them. Their sound quality is amazing, especially lows.
- jgeerts 12y agoI almost got a heart attack listening to the 'Binaural Test', I have a v-moda crossfade m-100 and it's so incredibly realistic. It's even freaky when I know that it's just an audio file playing.
- lucb1e 12y agoCan anybody tell me why not all music or audio is recorded binaurally? Because it sounds incredibly realistic, I really do not understand why this is not used at all, not even released together with normal releases. Or at the movies or something. This is the first time in years I even see it mentioned and people sound all surprised and somewhat freaked out. It's not new technology or something, as far as I know anyway. My father happens to be an audiophile so that's why I happen to know, but it seems like really cool technology that nobody uses.
- robert_tweed 12y agoMost music isn't recorded live. Most instruments are recorded individually in mono, either because they are mono (e.g., and electric guitar, keyboard) or because they are rigged with a mic (e.g., drums). The stereo effect then gets added in the mix.
- lucb1e 12y agoHmm right. What about movies though? Those would sound super great, wouldn't they? Edit: Or wait, they record sounds for movies individually too, most of the sound you hear is not there "live" or something... Or at least I think I saw that in some making-of once.
- robert_tweed 12y agoI think you mean this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking)
- lucb1e 12y agoYeah that's indeed what I meant. Is that why movies are not binaural?
- sergiotapia 12y agoWhat's a nice pair of wireless headphones that are rechargable? I'm not interested a $500+ pair, but something a bit more mid-range. I'm tired of tangled wires and my imac sort of spoiled me in that regard.
- PakG1 12y agoYou know what's funny? After the left-right tests, I realized that I'd been wearing my headset wrong the whole time I owned them... @@
- DonGateley 12y agoA real sleeper in headphone market is the $33 Philips SHL9705A-28. They are as comfortable as anything on-ear that I have listened to and better sounding than most of the high-end devices. They put the ATH-M50 to shame. The AKG-K702, not so much. I like their sound better than either the Senn HD598 or HD650 to which they are very similar. I listen to and objectively measure and test 'phones for a living. Aw shucks. I see they are discontinued (some left on Amazon though.) That's the problem with Philips, they have such a huge line that consumers can't find their way through it to find the gems and thus they languish. In general I will say emphatically that nobody offers better cost/performance than Philips.