Topic: high impedance playback EQ?- Beyer DT 100s

[andromedanwarmachine]

Hello Team,

I've got to put this question out there for a bit of common sense advice.

For some time (since '96) I have been monitoring on my Sennheiser HD25s. I've actually had the same drivers, cable & earband for 17 years! Admittedly I've had to replace the foam bits.
Recently, whilst thinking about this and how long-in-the-tooth it was, I thought I'd try a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 100s- equally an industry standard headphone. I have a high-impedance 400 Ohm pair on loan, although they are literally new out of the box.

What do I find? Shock of shocks; it's like listening underwater!

Without going into frequency content detail- which I don't yet have- they have a significantly attenuated top end and a seemingly pronounced midrange-  THAT IS compared to my 17 year old HD 25s...

My question is this; is this due to my running the 400 Ohm flavour? Or do I need to loosen them up first? (for 10 years or so!!)

what do you think

[or should I go all-out for "Beats by Dr Dre"!!!!!!!?"]

JimP

[page]

Is all of your other equipment 32ohm or lower? I'd look at finding an amp that is in the 300 range before I start with EQ.

I was looking over at headroom for a graph, but I didn't find any so I'm at a loss as to what they are "supposed" to sound like.

[andromedanwarmachine]

 yes it is- 32 Ohm or lower.

I've got a graph somewhere- I'll find it and come back.

I couldn't however, find a graph for the HD 25s...

[page]

yes it is- 32 Ohm or lower.

I've got a graph somewhere- I'll find it and come back.

I couldn't however, find a graph for the HD 25s...

depending on the version there are some differences, but the flavor is there either way to give you an idea:

http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=513&graphID[]=523&scale=30

edit; you will need to copy and paste the link above to work because of the brackets.

[Gutbucket]

Headphone response varies widely between manufacturers and even within the same line.  I suspect it's that difference in response that is responsible for most if not all of what you are hearing rather than the difference in impedance. 

My Senn HD650s are relatively high-Z phones but don't change timbre significantly when I drive them with different sources from crappy (built-in laptop sound or straight out of a handheld recorder) to OK (better recorders, receivers, CD players) to high-quality (Mytek DAC).  There is a difference in how loud they can be driven and audible differences in sound quality which isn't hugely frequency response related but has more to do with clarity, imaging, depth, 'weight' and 'heft' but I find there is little change in the overall high-frequency response.   That's all anecdotal, but I bet your situation is similar.

Comparison of the response graphs page mentioned are about the only reliable resource outside of trying different phones yourself to get a general feel for what different phones sound like in terms of frequency response.  Tyll Herstens is the main dude making good comparable measurements.  His data-sheets for all the individual phones he's measured are available here: http://www.innerfidelity.com/headphone-data-sheet-downloads

[Gutbucket]

Thanks Jon, your clear electrical engineering why's make for concise universal answers.  I get flumuxed keeping my impedance knowledge straight enough in my head to answer without potting a potential foot in my mouth, so I fall back on the safe footing of anecdotal knowledge.

[andromedanwarmachine]

I see, right- thankyou all...

Well the outcome of that is more fascinating than I could have predicted. I knew that the impedance led to level differences but I wasn't so sure about the response.

Thanks for the link to that resource, Gutbucket; it's absolutely fascinating- I'll have to allocate some time each day for the next month to look at them in all in the serach for the perfect cans!!

Oh well- the moral of the story is; if I want to go with the DT 100's- I'll have to get used to them!

JimP