CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => IEM Measurements => Topic started by: Marvey on July 11, 2012, 10:39:44 PM
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This has been a long time coming...
The IEM measurements coming up may be subject to change. I'm still working on a few things to refine the process. There is one important thing that folks should note: the FR graphs will not extend past 9kHz because that's the point where I feel the measurements will be misleading. The IEM measurement couplers tend to produce their own resonances and peaks between 9-14kHz. Such nonsensical information will not be posted because it only causes more harm than good. Heck, even the documentation on some of the commercial couplers state they are not accurate past a certain point.
As rhythmdevils once said: with great power comes great responsibility.
A few more notes:
- I will be using burst decay waterfalls (http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,378.msg6185.html#msg6185) instead of CSDs. There are advantages and disadvantages to either which I will go into detail later as I crank out more measurements.
- Right channel will be dropped one decibel for better viewing.
Update (by Anaxilus):
Since our site is dedicated to correlating subjective impressions to objectively measured data, innerlfidelity's latest mass round-up of CIEM impressions is a great resource for general reference. Therefore, I'm adding the link to our sticky here:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/totl-madness-24-top-line-custom-ear-monitors-reviewed (http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/totl-madness-24-top-line-custom-ear-monitors-reviewed)
As an owner of the UE IERM and ES5, I find many of these impressions to correlate w/ many of my experiences as well. Kudos to Tyll and his team! :)p5
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I'm curious - regarding ringing, how sharp are the peaks or dips supposed to be, to be noticeable and unpleasant.
e.g. some of the UM IEMs I tried look to have a 6-8k peak that's rather sharp looking (I'm guessing it's not a problem, since it has to be a thinner and deeper stripe?)
http://cdn.head-fi.org/7/75/900x900px-LL-75757424_IMG_91631.jpeg - Sm3x8 - mk2
http://cdn.head-fi.org/e/e9/e90455a6_RoothLS8.jpg - LS8
http://cdn.head-fi.org/a/a4/900x900px-LL-a4f5dc8f_SM3x8.jpeg - SM3x8 mk1
http://cdn.head-fi.org/7/7d/7dc4e303_Someonesmerlincustomsfinal.jpeg - Merlin
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Of the few IEMs I've measured, only the Grado GR10 had notable peaks: http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,435.0.html (http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,435.0.html)
I also felt the ER-4S were peaky at 8k, but that's the cutoff for my measurement system.
Note the burst decays.
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Note the burst decays.
do those show the # of periods (for each freq - not one equal period) the signal takes to dampen out? so t0 = initial freq response, and the other parts of the chart inward show how long the signal decays for. can't tell what's supposed to happen for bass on that one (it rolls off anyway, so not sure what's going - whether low freqs just take longer to decay naturally), but i'm guessing where the HF ridges correlate with peaks indicates a problem since it takes longer to decay than it should (resonance? higher vol - longer to decay?)
ps i'm still kinda concerned about the 6-10db peaks around 6-8khz for UM things :D .
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Wish I could say. I've never heard UMs. I should have more incoming IEM data over time. I'm already sitting on a few, but promised not to release yet.
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popcorn
sooo, definition-wise, ringing is longer decay on a narrow FR peak that you hear as an etch around that peak or dip, from it decaying longer than the surrounding bits?
(distinct from resonance - where ??? because of reflections and maybe odd dampening? and distinct from just annoying peaks or dips in the FR)
and is the period for the decay constant, or you just the specific FR derived one (1/f)?
(ooor maybe i should look for an RTFM post :D )
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Purrin, not having the technical know-how nor equipment to do measurements, do you accept requests? i.e. if I were to ship you a pair of IEMs would you be willing to measure them please?
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Yeah he will, just may take time to fit in the schedule.
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yes
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Lovely. Thx guys. The IEM I'm thinking of sending you is the Traluent 1Plus2. I can't decide yet if its bullocks or best thing since sliced bread. Thoughts are too bipolar about it (just from listening).
Do let me know when you're free & happy to send it over to your way.
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Very interested in seeing measurements for the 1Plus2. Drivers are the same as the K3003...
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As an owner of the UE IERM and ES5, I find many of these impressions to correlate w/ many of my experiences as well.
Good to hear this.
I was surprised by how much I like the ES5. I didn't go in expecting to dislike it, just didn't think I'd love it. Comfy, too.
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What's sad is how many great IEMs there are, all more or less shades of neutral. Whereas headphones are all over the place.
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What's sad is how many great IEMs there are, all more or less shades of neutral. Whereas headphones are all over the place.
To be fair, I think the IEM / CIEM market is *exploding* right now. There's just a TON of stuff out there, especially from very small manufacturers who don't have their heads all the way up their asses. I think it's easier for these smaller start ups to come along and make good CIEMs... just select from the cache of drivers and know what you're doing. Full-sized headphones seem a little harder for smaller folks to do, especially if you're making the drivers from scratch.