CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS

Lobby => Headphone, IEM, and Other Audio Related Discussion => Topic started by: phillip88 on October 03, 2013, 03:50:15 AM

Title: The fringe isn't so defined
Post by: phillip88 on October 03, 2013, 03:50:15 AM

For most of the time, I'm using IEM to listen to songs.

The thing is that the sound on the fringe (i mean, the most left side and the most right side) lacks details. Often time, the sound feels like 32kbps mp3 file (just a metaphor to describe that feel). The middle part is okay. Left-right channels okay. Just the corner feels so.

Is it because...

1. My music isn't mastered well?
2. All music are like that?
3. IEM limitation, which isn't the case for speakers?
4. Other reasons...

I wonder if you guys do experience such case.

Title: Re: The fringe isn't so defined
Post by: xnor on October 05, 2013, 12:55:35 PM

Playing music made for stereo speakers over headphones is not exactly natural due to the strong channel separation, with IEMs even more so than let's say open headphones.

Have you tried crossfeed? There are many software solutions, but also simple hardware circuits integrated into some amps.

Title: Re: The fringe isn't so defined
Post by: TMRaven on October 05, 2013, 01:38:32 PM

I've found that during playback through headphones, when an instrument or sound is in one channel only, it tends to be jarring and makes my ear lose focus.  That could lead to your lack of detail?

Title: Re: The fringe isn't so defined
Post by: phillip88 on October 06, 2013, 01:29:58 AM

@xnor, i guess i'll try xfeed if i'm on computer audio. it wasn't achievable using portable DAP.

@TMRaven, i think it has something to do with the source. Sometimes I find some songs more apparent than the other. On some songs, the sound on the left-est and right-est are quite blurred compared to other part. I think we may be talking the same thing.