Edmund wrote:
On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:16:08 +0000, Arny Krueger wrote:
[quoted text deleted -- deb]
The leading problem with the best-performing headphones is the issue of
tailoring the response of the headphones to the particular listener's
ears. There is a wealth of positive experience with various technical
approaches to this problem that come out of the business of fitting
hearing aids.
If the listener is somehow able to use an equalizer to tailor the
response of a pair of some of the better headphones to suit his ears and
preferences, then he no doubt is way ahead of those who spend far more
time and money on random solutions. A major problem is that proper use
of equalizers is a learned skill that may take years of experience to
raise to a sufficient level of competency to provide satisfactory
results.
I am not interested in (d)equalizing or adjusting for my personal
hearing imperfections, I am interested in sound reproduction as
real as can be.
When I am listening to a singer I have to do with my hearing imperfections
too, and when I listen to the same singer from a recording and a headphone
a just want to hear the exact same thing.
But when you're listening via headphones it's not just your hearing
imperfections you're listtening through, it's also interaction of
headphone itself with ear, its individual features etc.
Itreactions of headphone and ear-on-the-head are sigificant and
moreover significantly differ among persons.
I have no doubt (d)equalizers can change the sound to make it pleasurable
for many different listeners, but I wonder if such adjustments represent
a true reproduction of what is recorded. As a matter of fact, I don't believe
that at all.
Understanding now a little bit more about the difficulties with headphone measurements
I think a solution in rather simple, all it takes is a living person from we must
remove his eardrum and place a perfect microphone.
Next we play a whit noise and measure it close to his ear on the outside.
Next we record the sound with the mike IN his ear, and we must compensate
for the difference of these two, simple isn't it? :-)
The "only" problem is that it would work just for that person -- if
only that poor person has not just lost its eardrum.
rgds
\SK
--
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity" -- L. Lang
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