The FiiO K5 Pro certainly doesn't sound as sharp with this headphone even though they are both the same sigma delta type of DAC. I am sure it is not the headphone this time.

The treble response used to be even sharper when I paired the E50 with L50. Now I have switched to a supposedly neutral amplifier marketed for professional use, the Lake People G111 MKII and it subdues the peaks quite nicely. It used to sound so shouty even when I am just listening to dialogues from game or movies.

Jesse enjoyer 8)

I don't know about that . It is my first time experimenting with separate DAC and amp. Used to use an all in one solution like the FiiO K5 Pro. So I think I would experiment with other DACs and see if it made a difference. In this hobby one should trust their own ears.

Thanks for sharing!

Did you test them?

For gaming and multimedia I’d recommend the MMX 300 gen 2. yes it’s a headset BUT it sound phenomenal. Good build quality and it’s based on 770s. They have real impressive soundstage for a closed back headphone and the microphone is also really good.

If you’re just looking for headphones I’d take the 770s for closed back and the 900 pro x for open backs. But you’ll need a extra microphone for them if you want to communicate

This is often the case with balanced amps. They’re designed to be used with the balanced output.

No ELI5 for this. Impulse response is the convolution that system applies to its input to produce its output. Convolution is a description of how prior data seen by the system alters the signal that is being produced right now. It is computed as integral of the input at past points multiplied with convolution function's value at corresponding time point. In sampled digital systems, both the impulse response and the signal are arrays of numbers, and you approximate the integral by placing the impulse response and input signal side by side, and you multiply input and impulse together at their corresponding positions, sum all the values together, and write the sum as the output sample. Then you move convolution function forwards along the input by one sample, and redo this massive calculation again to get the next output sample, and so on, and this is the convolution of the input with the impulse response.

As an example, guitarists may have amplifier cabinet simulators which are the sampled impulse responses of the speaker in the cabinet, which is usually open in the back, or possibly they have sampled room impulse responses and their effect processor actually convolves their playing with these impulses -- possibly multiple seconds long -- in real time to mimic the sound of these amplifiers and rooms. They actually perform the equivalent of the convolution computation in frequency domain because of the massive amount of multiplications that are needed for long impulses in time domain.

The ideal impulse response is infinitely narrow spike, because it means that the input at that one position is the only thing that affects the output and the convolution's output is thus the same as the input.

If the output impedance is the same on all these devices, there isn't a single logical reason as to why you'd hear such differences in bass and treble. It's not like you're switching from an OTL tube amp to a clean solid state one lol, you're comparing apples with apples and they should really taste the same..

>Hi, I have a Topping E50 but I find it sounds piercing in the upper treble.

The topping E50 is a totally normal DAC really. Modi+ won't sound different.

If it sounds piercing it's your headphones.

I neeeed music to get into the programming flow. Mostly hectic drum and base or dance lol.

Closed backs provide noise isolation, open backs don't.

The Noire is more comfortable than the AKG K317 and like it does NOT need EQ, so I bought it. Back when Poweramp did not have PEQ stock tonality was important for my closed backs, which I take with me on business trips and on the train.

I own the 660S and not the 600 or 650, because I got them cheaper. I don't own a DT 880 and use EQ because the DT 880 is uncomfortable for me with its small cup diameter. The 560S was not available back then, otherwise that would have probably been an even cheaper option.

I EQed the 660S to Harman but anything above 10k is basically a free for all and EQing soundstage doesn't work, so obviously the don't sound 100% identical but close enough. Also, the noire has a mid bass hump that adss some punch (I don't get reviewers talking lack of dynamics. Unit variation maybe?). I could EQ that hump away but I don't mind it, gives em some extra character, like the excessive energy above 10k.

There is nothing wrong with buying expensive headphones, just don't expect them to be better because of it. "Detail" and "resolution" being tied to price in a way is awfully suspicious. Also, as long as no one can explain those things properly, thus telling other what to hear for and focus on, they are placebo/bias kicking in.

Soundstage is real and can be a valid purchase criteria if you are into that, but then again, desktop speakers do it better for cheaper, without taking up much room at all.

The Apple dongle has more than enough power for my listening levels, I use my phone with half as much output voltage without any issue. I bought a Fiio K5 for its volume knon, pre out and 6.35mm jack. Cheapest device that ticks all those boxes.

So, any more questions?

Work

The ear impressions were one of my favourite parts!

The total, complete silence. Even thought of starting a business doing it for busy parents who just want some peace hahahaha!

Oh wait, I had the old style ones with the putty stuff.

I answered earlier to OP directly at top-level comment, but I want to answer this one directly. The impulse response is the same thing as the frequency response, it is just time-domain characterization of the system, whereas frequency response is the frequency domain equivalent, though we are usually not shown the complex number nature of the frequency spectrum where phase information of the sound is encoded because we do not hear phase directly and the phase plot doesn't relate to anything we can intuitively understand.

If the speaker membrane moves slowly back to neutral position after an impulse has excited it, that would show up as a decaying plot, and in frequency response would look like a low-pass filter. One way to understand it is to think that system isn't fast enough to reproduce waveform that cycles in and out of phase within that decay region, so if the wavelength is short relative to the impulse's decay time, it cancels with prior versions of itself that are decaying in the impulse, resulting in little output.

In this case, the impulse drops gradually rather than instantly, suggesting that there is some low-pass filtering effect, but also overshoots and goes below zero, which suggest to me that it has could have high pass filtering characteristic, too. For low frequencies, whose wavelength is long relative to the impulse, the negative parts of the impulse subtract from the positive side, and reduce output for low frequency. The fact impulse also returns to the positive side suggests it also contains a resonating component, though. If wavelength is the same as the impulse's ringing around zero level, then it will be amplified by the impulse response.

Finally, if impulse response is ideal, and system's frequency response is perfectly flat, and phase is linear, the entire impulse response is just a single spike with perfect silence surrounding it forever. The ideal impulse indicates that whatever the signal wants to do, the system can reproduce without altering it.

Again...

Why brother looking ag impulse response rather than the result????

Are you visually impaired or just unable to understand english?

Why then you own two expensive headphones, since you can EQ them to whatever sound you like? One should do the job.

Austrian Audio Hi-X65, was fine before with my FiiO K5 Pro, but the bass is not as satisfying on that DAC/Amp. The amount of treble is perfect on the K5 though.

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what headphones are you using

Thanks for sharing!

Well, objectively this is kinda true tho.

If I recall, the SE output of Jotunheim 2 is sort of there for convenience, and built mostly around the balanced output.

So for those who talk about balanced audio not making a difference (I am one of those people, it normally doesn't make any difference at all), it does for this specific amp.

Hmm, okay. I couldn't find any other measurement of this headset, so I will leave it up to the air whether it is representative of the headset, then. Certainly the noisy/spiky character of it should be discarded as a measurement artifact, but the other curve parts going up and down in it might be real. The ideal group delay plot is just a flat line at 0 ms that gradually rises towards the bass due to inevitable high-pass filtering somewhere in the amplifier or such.

Omegalol. There's no way of measuring FR "directly". See my comment in the main thread to learn how frequency response is computed and what Impulse response actually means. FR is calculated from impulse response only.

Now explain like I’m five