Headphone Reviews

Measurements

Uncompensated frequency response plots show a headphone that, while a bit hard to adjust initially, is relatively insensitive to positional changes on the head. Compensated frequency response plot show bass response nicely extended and beginning to fall off at about 28Hz. Between 30Hz and 1kHz response shows a mild U-shaped response heard in listening tests as a modest coloration. The wiggle at 500Hz is too low in frequency to be an internal acoustic resonance of the headphone; my guess is this is the primary resonant frequency of the driver diaphragm. The fall in response after 1kHz to 5kHz is somewhat excessive, and likely lead to the perceived modest lack of presence in listening. I like to see cans go to 2kHz before falling, and the deep notch between 4kHz and 5kHz is excessive. While it's encouraging to not see a 10kHz peak in the plot, the treble energy between 6kHz and 20kHz is quite high; I'd like to see it about 5dB lower.

30Hz square wave has good shape showing only a mild non-linearity, but noise on the plot is a little excessive. The linearity here and the fact that the THD+noise plot rises only slightly in the bass indicates good bass tightness heard in listening.

THD+noise plot is fairly good, but significant noise on the 100dB curve and rising distortion after 4kHz does cause concern.

30 Hz square wave shows a very fast rise time, and the initial impulse response looks extremely fast. But in both cases the initial edge and impulse is followed by significant noise. I believe this is the high frequency grunge I heard in the treble that sounded sparkly on simple music, but that would bring confusion with complex treble information. It's this issue that kept these cans off the "Wall of Fame".

Impedance plot is the flat line typical of planar magnetic cans, in this case measuring 48 Ohms. There's no isolation to speak of...it's an open design.

With 320mVrms and 2.14mW needed to achieve 90dBspl, you're not going to drive these baby's with an iPod. A hearty headphone amp with grunt quietly listening at home is what's called for.