Time-End-5288

Time-End-5288 t1_it2zibj wrote

Reply to comment by Icy_Ad4813 in When times are tough, my listening corner always brings a smile to my face. by wiggan1989

I've found frequency response graphs to not be unreliable with headphones, just in my limited experience. I think they're much more reliable when it comes to Speakers and macro dynamics.

But everyone has different ear lobes (the shape of which affects sound waves), and different ears, and we all know how changing out the ear pads can make significant differences. So it is not only possible but likely that one pair of headphones would sound completely differently to two different people.

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Time-End-5288 t1_iszymq2 wrote

Reply to comment by ledsled447 in When times are tough, my listening corner always brings a smile to my face. by wiggan1989

Not exactly, but I think it's best described as Macro Dynamics (Speakers) vs. Micro Dynamics (headphones).

Imaging and soundstage with speakers are large and 3 dimensional (it can feel like the music is all around you), they're completely different with headphones like you are inside the music. Don't get me wrong, you get a sense of space and air, but it's different (not better or worse).

Not many people coming from a speaker system would consider headphones like the Meze 99 as particularly bassy, or warm (maybe warmish), and it would likely be described as a weighty mid-range. But those headphones are considered bass cannons by a lot of people here.

I hear less of a difference moving from headphone amp to headphone amp, but more of a difference when I use different DACs.

Some things scale up better, and some things scale down better. Margins and deltas are so much smaller with headphones.

I mean there's the same dogma, and fanboy-ism here as there is with speakers, and just as many people will tell you what they like or don't like about things they've never listed too... so all that's the same.

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