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RE: Focal Utopia vs Sennheiser HD800S

Posted by PAR on August 25, 2017 at 02:15:26

In Reply to: RE: Focal Utopia vs Sennheiser HD800S posted by John C. - Aussie on August 25, 2017 at 01:25:57:

" we all have different brains with reactions governed by genetics and environmental influences ".

Not only this but with particular relevance to headphone listening we all have a unique Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF). Given the proximity of the driver to the pinnae and ear canal the assumption that a flat response is correct as in a louspeaker turns out to be incorrect. For nearly everyone a "flat" headphone will sound unbalanced. There is a lot of research work on this ( e.g. by Harmon Kardon) but even so there doesn't yet seem to be a universally agreed target curve.

In fact there is a lot of work going on ( with at least one product already on the market) regarding headphones that will first analyse the individual's HRTF then apply the correct response curve using DSP. This requires another technique which will be seen increasingly, that the headphone itself will contain the DAC and amplifier.

I will certainly report back although as the 800S is apparently a " special" product in the Sennheiser range I am expecting a bit of a delay on delivery. NB , thanks for your advice but don't worry I have the price sorted:-).

I would love to hear more on your experience with Roon and classical music (obviously on another forum). I have had it under consideration since day 1 but feel let down by their launch "puff" on classical music which was it turns out clearly just that, a " puff" ( I won't go into it much further but Roon made it look as if they were to have knowledgeable discographers preparing the metadata whereas it is actually obtained from a third party which may be worse than what I have already - at least I am offered more than one source to compare) .

I have also kept looking at the Roon community metadata thread from time to time and still see far too many reports of wrong identifications for classical. Still I would be happy for you to persuade me that I am mistaken.

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