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Author Topic: Audioquest Nighthawks  (Read 7478 times)

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Offline capnhook

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Re: Audioquest Nighthawks
« Reply #15 on: May 07, 2018, 05:12:15 PM »
Have you tried Sonarworks' True-Fi yet?

https://www.sonarworks.com/truefi

They basically measure headphones and reverse their EQ signature in an attempt to make them more flat or more like a studio can.

It's an interesting experiment.  Taking a lot of time to find the color you like in a headphone and then wiping it out seems like an odd thing to do but I can see it being helpful while mixing.

Reports are the results are more impressive with lower priced headphones that really need some tweaking to sound good and balanced.


Installed the 10-day trial, checking this out on my Senn HD600's.  Interesting, like all ear candy is.

Seems like there is something other than EQ going on with this software, sort of like what you're getting when you play around with the free Ozone Imager.

It makes a pleasant difference, but only some long-term listening will determine if listening this way is fatiguing or not.

US$79 seems reasonable for a lifetime version, but half that price would be better.


Hmmm....they have an individual calibration service, if you want to send in your headphones.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2018, 05:26:12 PM by capnhook »
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Offline Jammin72

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Re: Audioquest Nighthawks
« Reply #16 on: May 07, 2018, 05:30:15 PM »

Agreed, this is more ancillary.  There are already programs that measure response in the ears that attempt to do what you describe.  I would be willing to bet that most of the consumer iterations are more of an interesting aside that accurate solution at this point in the game as well.

Something like the Nuraphone.

https://us.nuraphone.com/



Have you tried Sonarworks' True-Fi yet?

https://www.sonarworks.com/truefi

They basically measure headphones and reverse their EQ signature in an attempt to make them more flat or more like a studio can.

It's an interesting experiment.  Taking a lot of time to find the color you like in a headphone and then wiping it out seems like an odd thing to do but I can see it being helpful while mixing.

Reports are the results are more impressive with lower priced headphones that really need some tweaking to sound good and balanced.

Problem is that 'phones are close-coupled to the ear, and everyone's ear and HRTF is different.  Correction is the answer, but to get it right (to really be useful for more than slightly improving low-end 'phones) it must be personalized to each individual.
Yes, but what do you HEAR?

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Re: Audioquest Nighthawks
« Reply #17 on: May 07, 2018, 06:41:35 PM »
I won't have time to start the tread on headphone EQ which I intend until I finish a current project at work, but the essence of what needs to be done to do this correctly is this (I may get a few details wrong in summary):

One needs to match the response as heard through the headphones to that of a flat response speaker positioned directly in front of the listener. Doing so by matching loudness of each bark frequency band (think 1/3 octave EQ bands, but based on human hearing models) for both ears individually, keeping each frequency band centered pan-balance-wise as well as level-wise.  You go through the process twice- first using the speaker as source, then again using the headphones. You then end up with two sets of EQ curves- one set of personal HRTFs for an out of head center-forward source, and another set personal response curves for the headphones you wish to calibrate as worn on your own ears.  The personal headphone response set is inverted and the two are combined.

There is an app available which manages this and walks one through the process of doing the calibration corrections while listening to pink-noise and/or other stimuli.  One runs through the calibration process and it creates left and right ear corrective EQ curves based on the both the headphones and the listeners personal HTRF response.  You then listen through the app, or use the curves that are generated with other EQs.

The result is that the headphones are calibrated to sound just like a natural source located out in front of you.  It is capable of generating out-of-head listening with accuracy sufficient for serious academic binaural comparison of the hall acoustics in actual spaces, meaning it's definitely good enough for us!  Although intended primarily for accurate reproduction of binaural recordings, this should prove to be a real game changer for all headphone reproduction of live music recordings.

I have the app and information on how to do it, and have asked permission to discuss it here, but have not yet had time to do an implementation myself.  Stay tuned.

And the doctoral candidate who did the software implementation of the calibration app for DG is a new member on this board, as well as a Phish fan.

Here's a presentation poster outlining the basics-

« Last Edit: May 08, 2018, 06:21:53 PM by Gutbucket »
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Offline Jammin72

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Re: Audioquest Nighthawks
« Reply #18 on: May 08, 2018, 06:09:12 PM »
Wow!  That's some really cool work.  I look forward to seeing where it goes!  Thanks for sharing.  :headphones:
Yes, but what do you HEAR?

 

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