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Author Topic: Alpha Dog Prime - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements  (Read 16283 times)

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kevin

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Re: Alpha Dog Primes - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements
« Reply #140 on: April 19, 2015, 06:38:04 PM »
Quote from: purr1n on April 19, 2015, 03:56:17 AM
P.S. I did fiddle quite a bit to get both sides to match up as close to possible. The Primes are sensitive to positioning. I picked the best L and R results that matched the best. Took several measurements which involved complete removal of the headphone and placement back on the C.U.N.T.

I'm new to headphone measurements. Can anyone tell me how a pair of Alpha Primes with these results (the spike mentioned above) would sound?

Would it just show as distortion at that particular frequency?

Thanks!
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Marvey

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Re: Alpha Dog Primes - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements
« Reply #141 on: April 20, 2015, 02:36:31 AM »
The peak (and general elevation of 2nd order) is kind of in a bad area around 500Hz which is smack in the crucial midrange. I've found that people have different sensitives to midrange distortion. Examples of other headphones with elevated distortion in the midrange include HE-400 (http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1127.msg29907.html#msg29907) and SRH1440 (http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,463.msg8264.html#msg8264).

Some people notice it. Some people don't. There are papers out there that people can hear distortion -30db down. Some pyrates have taken listening tests and say they can hear distortion -55db down. (I'm not one of them.) Keep in mind that the measurements were taken with SPL around 90db. This is very loud. However, many pyrates have found good to decent correlation of these distortion measurements to overall sound quality.

It's difficult to describe how this distortion sounds. It's not like clipping were you hear crackling, etc. It's more just like an overall low-fidelity sound, i.e. "kinda shitty", "dirty", "unclean", "not clear", or "weird". You can read through some of my comments I think in the HE-400 thread. Anaxilus has a good way for describing this midrange distortion: http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,2105.msg59037.html#msg59037
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zerodeefex

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Re: Alpha Dog Primes - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements
« Reply #142 on: April 20, 2015, 02:49:29 AM »
What does this sound like to you (subjectively) compared to the other pair?

I've been following this pretty closely.
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Marvey

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Re: Alpha Dog Primes - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements
« Reply #143 on: April 20, 2015, 02:57:28 AM »
This pair seems slightly better that NoOne's pair #2, although I actually think the Primes I heard at CanJam were the best I've heard. I'm not sure the exact source where this pair #3 came from since anonymous person did not tell me exactly.

In terms of the midrange quality, (I don't want to use distortion - let's say I'm talking purely subjectively) all pairs I've heard #2, #3, and at CanJam were about the same. #1 might have been best in terms of midrange quality. The CanJam one had fabulous tonal response, akin to MadDog, but just a touch brighter that that (essentially almost perfect to me). This #3 pair's tonal response is somewhere between the thinner #2 and CanJam. #3's staging is also better than #2 and on par with the CanJam pair. Stage in slightly in front. I think #2 was just totally screwed up with the stage slightly behind or at the top of my head.


BTW, I did fluff up the pads and play around to get the best seal.
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zerodeefex

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Re: Alpha Dog Primes - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements
« Reply #144 on: April 20, 2015, 03:25:12 AM »
I don't see the benefit in remaining anonymous anymore. There seemed to be a lot of caveats with regard to the previous measured pair so I bought a new, unopened pair and shipped it straight to Marv for testing. I wanted the community to have a pair that wasn't "catastrophically wrong" in any way. It turns out, the pristine pair and the "catastropically wrong" pair weren't actually significantly better than my new, sealed pair.
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Marvey

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Re: Alpha Dog Primes - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements
« Reply #145 on: April 20, 2015, 03:36:40 AM »
They are heading up so NoOne can compare. Everything I said is based on memory, but using same sets of equipment, recordings, etc.
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kevin

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Re: Alpha Dog Primes - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements
« Reply #146 on: April 20, 2015, 04:04:08 AM »
Interesting. I have a pair that I sent in when they were testing whether it was feasible to do upgrades.

They were Alpha Dogs before the upgrade to Alpha Primes.

I like them but I can't say that they're significantly better than when they were as Alpha Dogs - just different.

Of course I don't have a lot of experience of other headphones to compare them with so take that for what it's worth.

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Marvey

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Re: Alpha Dog Primes - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements
« Reply #147 on: April 20, 2015, 04:06:54 AM »
Different is probably best way to put it. Alpha Dogs had a bit of treble hardness and glare. Primes eliminate this glare, but at the expense of an overall dirtier sounding midrange. YMMV, people have different tastes, etc. I'd probably be much less nitpicky, but these are very expensive headphones. FWIW, I do prefer the standard Alphas to the Primes. Just a personal preference.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2015, 07:32:21 AM by purr1n »
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Orenthal

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Re: Alpha Dog Primes - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements
« Reply #148 on: April 20, 2015, 07:11:06 AM »
marvey - can you line up L + R in one graph?
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MuZo2

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Re: Alpha Dog Primes - Stream of Consciousness and Eventual Measurements
« Reply #149 on: April 20, 2015, 03:09:39 PM »
zero did you sent your measurements to Dan directly? what was his reply?
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