You have a fresh and very honest take on the products that you analyze. Fantastic job. The gullibility of audiophiles is what astonishes me the most, even after all these years.
thats the beauty of having a good headphone in the first place, those aint get outdated every 2-3 years unlike others component like phone, gpu, cpu, ram etc etc and sound is very subjective which very person to person, some prefer bass, some prefer color in the music where boosted some frequency doesn't matter which makes it enjoyable to that person, some prefer flat natural sound and some listen their music very critical way where every single detailed and color tone they need to hear, so wasting so much money for iem/headphone is stupid, i had HD560S and im more then happy, im not a bass guy, i prefer detailed clean music where i sperate lows, mids and highs easily and i prefer wide soundstage where hd560s does the job more then well so why i need to speed 1000$ for a headphone, you better save that money and upgrade something else
Best video on the whole internet explaining it. Brain power and the way our body perceives sound should never be underestimated. Thank you sir for taking your time. I am looking to get the Earfun for upcoming holidays. From a build quality standpoint, do you recommend the first or second version?
Oluv, I wanted to thank you so very much for your honesty about audio gear. Every year, we audiophiles are sold on the supposedly bigger better gear, but what we are really doing, is going greater and greater in debt, the further we get. I also appreciate that you are setting up tuning profiles, to remove the harmful peaks, that can destroy our hearing. You are amazing buddy thank you!
Neutron Player has a huge set of presets that emulate a long list of brands and models of every possible brands of headphones. Those, in conjunction to the parametric EQ, can make any headphone sound amazing. Takes time to find your perfect sound but it works. You can also make the EQ separate for each ear. But overall, I just learned from you why it happens. In all years in the pursuit of a perfect set of headphones, never thought about the anatomy of my ears! And you're right! That explains a lot! Thanks for the tip :)
Where in Neutron? Very capable player but the EQ isn't system wide. For that you either need Poweramp Equalizer (system wide and allows 100+ Parametric EQ bands + option for left, right or both) but is of course limited on how loud your phone can drive the headphone so I mostly use Qudelix 5k.
Brain burn in is very real. I notice the difference the most after waking up in the morning and putting headphones on shortly after. Everything sounds way "better" when i first wake up... by the time im heading to sleep everything sounds "muddy" in my experience, i wear headphones for many hours a day every day
Wie sagt der Bayer? _"Andersherum wird ein Schuh daraus"_ ... morgens ist das Ohr schlecht durchblutet, alles klingt muffig, spät abends ist die Bühne breit und der Klang großartig. Schönes Leben noch, Holzohr.
I'm not so sure. My music listening in the dead of night before I sleep sounds absolutely heavenly. Best of all by far. During the day the brain is too hyperactive, hyper stimulated, focusing on this or that.. on potentially relevant sounds...and ideas! "Real life" takes over and commands attention relegating music to a "side alley".
Sorry for too much commenting. lol I also forgot about time domain/phase as another sound property of drivers. All drivers also differ in this regard, but I don't know exactly how this property affects the sound. I do think that this acoustic property is especially relevant for and prevalent in multi driver designs, including those in speakers as well as multi driver headphones (well, IEMs primarily, because there are virtually no multi driver over ear headphones).
IMO, Earfun should be fully cooperating and supporting this guy. I bought the EarFun Free Pro's and then went for the Patreon membership that provides access to Oluv's custom tunings, etc. Love my EFFP's tuned w/ the resonant 6400Hz profile (using online tone generator to identify my personal tgt, using with my most comfortably fitted tips). After using them at the office for awhile now, three other colleagues jumped on board...2 for the EFFP's a couple of months ago and one last week for the EFFP2's. Now these guys are all curious about the custom tuning. I am clear on that point...go for the Patreon membership and enjoy!
Thanks for this very informative review. I am by no means an "audiophile" like you and many of the other commenters here, just an ordinary music listener that that has purchased some some expensive headphone, but quickly realized the law of diminishing returns for the money. I loved the audio demonstration of the various tunings and could definitely hear the difference. Do you plan to do something like this for a more commonly available headphone that many people use already, such as the Airpods Max or Airpods Pro? That way you don't have to buy a new set of earbuds. Thanks!
Hey! I'm planning to buy a Marshall Stockwell II, seeing your review about it against the marshall emberton helped me a lot in choosing between the two! I was just wondering if there are other speakers of the same price that you would recommend me taking a look at before buying a Marshall Stockwell II? Thanks a lot man!
i was truly amazed when i compared my tuned Free Pro 2 (6500hz) to an optimized Q30. They sound completely the same, what proves to me that this is the truth for my ears. even when one earbud in one ear and one cup on the other ear... completely the same sound. thanks alot olaf
Very compelling points. Thank you for sharing. I have one question though: Is that someone chewing or munching on something that I'm hearing in the background?
I've got some higher end headphones a while ago(hifiman Ananda which many(crinacle, Joshua to name a few) consider one of the most balanced sounding headphones in terms of frequency response). I EQ'd it to my liking. More sub bass, like +9db, balanced the 1-3khz area and eliminated the dips at 5.5kh 9.5khz, then dropped everything above 5khz about -1db. It sounds really good and incredibly natural, the slight zigzag that you brush on is not really a problem as it is is less than half a db at the worst on my Anandas. Then I decided that I want to upgrade, because I felt like it. I got the big brother Arya, it sounded a little "off", but after I EQ'd those too, they sound almost like my Anandas, with a slightly more pronounced high end. But the main differentiating factor is the separation and the resolution of the overall sound. You won't get that resolution or separation/layering on cheaper sets no matter the EQ. The Aryas take that separation to a whole new level as it almost sounds like there are 3 different sound sources for different frequency ranges. The bass sounds like it's coming from all around you, the mids are clearly in front and the highs are somewhere in the middle of those two. The Anandas tended to not differentiate like that, but still displayed the overall sound from a slightly elevated frontal position, which is okay, but on some genres/songs when there was a lots of sound at the same time, the Ananda felt like it was losing detail/blurring, where as the Arya presented everything crystal clear. My AKG K712 Pro(EQ'd them too) are detailed, but they always struggled on "noisy" tracks as everything would blend together escpecially at below 200hz, They also have a flatter sound stage, like they literally don't have verticality to the sound but they manage a spacious and accurate stage say for the verticality aspect. My source is a Modius/Magnius stack from Schiit, VERY good measurements so the source is clean and not a factor. Many consider the AKG K612 to be "dead" flat, and on FR graphs they are. But they aren't the best headphones because they have just okay technicalities, their presentation is soft, "small" and they lack texture especially in the bass region. The Anandas and the Aryas are described usually as big sounding with a large vertical sound stage and because they are planar their bass is very rich in detail and they have more "slam". They give off a more "convincing" performance regardless of music. When you EQ headphones to the same curve, you are left with the technical performance that has the driver as the centerpoint, no matter how much you EQ, a less detailed driver is never going to perform as good as a technically superior driver, be that planar, DD, estat or AMT. A bad estat is easily worse than a good DD and vice versa for any other driver type or pairing. FR determines the tonal balance and very little after that and once you EQ high end sets, you get that technicality combined with the good tonality. I wouldn't say ALL high end hifi is bullshit and snake oil, but a lot of it is, don't even get me started on goddamn cables.
How would you measure “detail”? I tried some Electrostatic ones and some of the higher end stuff I could find in that headphone boutique and none really managed to offer me something “new” or better. Most were heavily boosted in the treble region which of course also contributes to some enhanced perception of detail, bass slam can be mostly explained with different coupling with your ear I had some funny effects with some planar magnetics which suddenly became bassheavy when I elevated them more etc. From my own experience so far I did not perceive any magic from any of those headphones but of course I didn’t have the chance to try them all
Totally agree with you. At the moment i own Hd560s and Sundara . i like both very much. Without Eq i prefer hd560S for the beauty Mids but Sundara is more resolving and is holographic. With EQ sundara is much better and become my favourite one. There no competition when i ear very complex and heavy music like symphonic metal or progressive metal , Sundara with EQ become a beast. However, generally the more you go up in price the more the headphone become transparent. details and trasparency Are not factors that guarantee pleasantness aniway. If you don't like the timbre even 3000 euro headphone may sound horrible to you
@@oluvsgadgets human ear is very sensitive „measuring“ device. It was not designed to measure frequencies or amplitude, but the orchestra (with many instruments) cannot be so easily dismissed.
@@oluvsgadgets Headphones are subjective, if you can't tell the difference then you don't need to worry about it just enjoy what you think sounds the best. For a lot of people expensive headphones sound better and they can tell the difference, that's all that matters, if 5,000 dollar headphone is worth the difference to people then they should get it, if not then don't get it. No one really needs expensive headphones but some people want the best and like to spend more money on things they like, that's all there is to it.
Hi Oluv, great contents you are providing. You got me totally interested. I will deffinitely buy Earfun Free Pro 2 and patiently wait for your suggestions. Of course you can count on my full support via Patreon. I am really looking forward to try your tune out. According to your videos, it seems like you are on a way to find Holy Grail of Earphones. :-D Danke schön!
Would etymotic's solution be simplest? Placing the earbud as deep as possible in the ear canal, as close to the eardrum as possible, reducing the issue of different ear canal resonances due to different ear canal lengths. Making it basically the same for everyone?
Sure but it’s invasive and despite the deep insertion I still noticed a lot of change in the treble region depending on the tips, etc. Sometimes I needed several attempts to get the sound right.
I find Etymotic's ER4XR's to be sterile and disengaging, airless. Not to mention they're uncomfortable to wear. IEM's, in my experience, can be satisfying to listen to if you manage to find good ones, but they interact with your ear in a uniquely intrusive and artificial way, suffering more drawbacks than traditional headphones.
@@gramblor1 a problem of Etymotic is that the response rolls of quite quickly above 16k. For me it’s not such a problem as meanwhile my own hearing rolls off like that but for younger ones the lack of treble extension should be definitely hearable. The other problem is that Etymotic’s Target it slightly off therefore it could be the character being sterile you are getting. It was rather the smoothness with no obvious peaks in the frequency response which drew my attention most. Also remember they the ER4XR will change the response a lot depending on the output impedance I had to use some resistors to get the desired compensation otherwise it was too muddy
@@oluvsgadgets I'm not that much younger than you. My main issue with the ER4XR is how cramped the soundstage is, which creates a feeling of claustrophobia. Combined with it's uncomfortable fit, it's simply not an appealing iem to me. The Tin T2 or Tin P1 have similarly neutral signatures but with room to breathe, so I much prefer them.
@@gramblor1 ah Tin Hifi. It's just treble boost that make it feel airy/more room. Smoothness in treble that Oluv said is not found in T2/P1. If treble has a lot peaks/dip, it's not neutral.
Great video. I have the EarFun Pro Oluv Edition and like the sound very much (to my taste a little bit too much emphasis in the highs). I am totally open to spend 10 Euros for an updated version. But what is my ear canal resonance? How can I measure it? How does the tuning work? Is it an update of the dsp setting within the headphones (which would be great) or is it an EQ setting?
Oh, yeah. Before I forget: the EQ it's saved within the unit. U can mod it, save the settings and then forget about the modding tools. Your EarFun Free Pro will be tuned with this new settings after that.
It’s all described on Patreon, you just need to perform a sine sweep with the raw tuning applied and monitor where it becomes loudest, then select a tuning closest to the frequency you found and you should get the same sound I am getting. You can save 4 different presets and switch between them through the app, the app is only available for Android though
Really appreciate your efforts in debunking the nature of the hobby. The human brain is filled with biases, heuristics and even illusions like audio pareidolia which most companies took advantage of to make money from selling their products. Audiophiles are more susceptible to this flaws of the brain due to their love and appreciation to 'good - sounding' products. Your take on how a headphone/ iem should sound based on the individual's target curve to get the smoothest response is the hard truth that is hard to swallow. The mind of most people are ingrained with certain high end products or brands have the best tuning ever and hold that believe dearly. in other words, people are not aware that they are biased in some ways. Just my suggestion here: apart from working on the tuning for the earfun free pro to give a rough idea to find out one's resonance peak, why dont you help figure out a way to interpret the measurements of iems and headphones from the internet to suit one's personal targer curve? for example, what should we look for from a measurement of an iem measured by crinacle that would suit our taste? Im not sure if youre aware of these but even crinicle and super emphasized on not taking their measurements seriously due to the coupler resonance at 8k. they say that its not actually there and its just an artifact from the measuring rig and should be dismissed. if you somehow find a way to interpret the data that is already available in the internet to suit one's personal resonance peak and so on, it would be a tremendous help for the people to find a product that would sound good to them. perhaps this could be done by comparing your measurements to their measurements to see where the differences are and in the end you can come up with a guideline on how to interpret the data provided by others. they have done their part imparting objective data on their side. Perhaps you could interpret the data from a subjective perspective and teach us how to do it?
Unfortunately the peak is not an artefact but is really produced by the given system and it will vary in frequency depending on the resonators length be it the coupler or the ear canal. I had some dispute with Crinacle because of this as I tried to explain him that his measurements are not transferable to any listener because nobody will get the resonance at 8K but way below I get it 2k lower and already a 300hz offset in resonance can habe extreme effects on the final response like I could encounter on my own by getting clogged ears after a while which changed the sound of a given IEM completely for me. But compensating for that shift I managed to get the same smooth response again. That’s what I tried to point out but nobody really is taking it seriously. For me none of the graphs shown make any sense as they just do not represent the result I will be getting from an IEM. The Blessing 2 measures exemplary with a peak at 8 but it will sound horrid with the peak at 6.5 which seems to be the average taken over all values I got meanwhile.
@@oluvsgadgets Thanks for your enlightenment on the matter. I totally get it now why youre saying the measuring system used by other reviewers are misleading in some ways. Now i understand you even more ans I sincerely hope that you can achieve your goals and make an impact to the audiophile community. stay strong and keep going. Ill try to support you in any way i can.
Makes perfect sense. If a person can be convinced that a cocaine snorting, crack smoking, prostitute buying, government bribing, two-timing, sister-in-law screwing, money laundering, dead-beat dad is somehow the "smartest man" the former Vice President of the USA has ever met...then that person can be convinced of anything. Human bias is the savior of tyrants and snake-oil salesmen.
Been rockin to my bass modded Akg q701 with Brainwavzxl hybrid pads for the past 7 years now. All these thousand dollar headphones are overkill and unnecessary for good sound. Love the sound of my headphones. I have never heard any other headphone sound demo that comes close to my sweet sounding headphone. Good work you are a common sense man in this ridiculous world of headphones.
Hi Oluv. Thank you for your hard work. I'm tempted! Question: Can the earfun be set up with different EQ for left and right? I ask because I think my right side has a slightly bigger ear canal. It would be cool to try and compensate. Also, what happens if you listen to music louder (like heavy metal), do these headphones have a different response for such volume levels? Thanks!
It’s an interesting idea and basically it could be maybe accomplished by linking 2 different units with different settings. Could also work with the same unit by just using one at a time for creating the setting, with both units set up differently and then linking them again although they should be linked anyhow if you take both out of the box again. I could try this out actually if you are interested. The EQs should remain separate for both I actually had this already by accident and had to update the settings again afterwards for both. The setting will remain constant throughout the entire volume range there is no dynamic adjustment according to volume level. If you listen at high levels you may want to adjust the setting to your preference, they are totally customisable
Just tried it and it works, you can set different EQs to both units. you just need to work with both units separately. although it gives an error message when trying to save the EQ setting because the "partner was not found", you can do a real time update to get the setting into one unit first, then put it back into the box, and do the same for the other unit. The separate settings remain active also after power down, and both will play with different settings, you could even cure some imbalance like that, but it would be even more work to equalize both separately.
Thanks for the video. I too have noticed how differently I hear thinks depending on mood and time of day. Also I am a big Beyerdynamic fan and I my experience for example with the DT990 seems to differ from some of the reviews out there. What I hear is a warm sounding fairly punchy and detailed headphone. Not super bright like a lot of people. I am 50 years old though and I wonder whether that too has something to do with this (although my son likes them too). I think age and sex though makes a big difference. My wife can hear much higher frequencies as me.
I have owned the DT990. I ended up reselling them after 6 months because they changed the sound of the songs I was listening to. It was sometimes pleasing to the ear! But so far from reality. The worst was when I was recording my own songs in my home studio. It had nothing to do with my monitoring speakers and other headphones.
@@ericouicestmoimeme I really love my dt990s. Sometimes I use something called wavelet which is free app which allows you to change the EQ to match the harmen curve. I use a proper tube amp as well which gives the sound a lot more depth and control. It's a great setup and blows my speakers really out of the ballpark
I bought several IEM's since last year, last one was Etymotic ER2SE. Tuning wise it's better than all of them but not perfect (around 2k is too elevated and treble is a bit too subdued). I just EQ it to Etymotic target (since it basically aiming for it) and that works perfectly. They also image incredible well. Before that I bought 7hz Timeless (new planar magnetic). And before that it was Fiio FH3 and before that Moondrop Starfield. These all have their issues, mostly related to bass being elevated where it shouldn't be and ever since I got ER2SE, I found that even Moondrop Starfield is instantly much better with less bass. So Sennheiser HD560S and Etymotic ER2SE are for me now the Standard for what sounds good.
Thanks olav, I agree for the most part.. my take after years.. the 2weaqkest link and thus we could get thwe most gain, miust be in te recordi gs/mixed and I am not talking about the 96 khz or 24 bit more the stuff like the soundstage etc... on a lucky day day I bought a second hand Sennheiser IE800 And it works like a charm for me, the hardest part is the right silicone earpiece..
Hi, thank you for your work. What do you think about EQ an headphone by compare with tones pressure on reference speaker placed front of you ? There is a program for that but I don't find it. You need to listen a fixed tone (ex 500Hz) between every step to recalibrate your ear. I found this very interesting but I havn't the needed gear (and time :D)
You would optimise too much for your own HRTFs which would result in too wrong results for others probably. My goal was to offer the same strict response with as little deviation as possible to everyone. But of course if you want to optimise for yourself I would probably take the effort and perform such an equalising. But I found that in my case the Harman curve is a pretty decent approximation of a neutral speaker with some place for discussion regarding bass amount, so I didn’t feel the need to perform this test on a strict basis so far but I would really like to do it once
hello oluv I am honestly curious what you think of the Koss KSC75 headphones. Have you had the opportunity to listen to them? They are often described as a kind of "audiophile pass". they cost relatively cheap for their capabilities and in my opinion (they serve as my everyday headphones) they sound incredibly flat, have a great separation of instruments and a wide sound stage. They have a lively, airy sound. It seems to me that they are a perfect example of the fact that great headphones do not have to be expensive. They arleady have a "legend" status on the internet. Have a good day! Greetings from Poland :)
I didn’t listen to Koss KSC75 but I really liked the Sennheiser PX / PMX 95, if you find them somewhere at the flea market be sure to try them, I would call them legendary too because the sound they really have the golden mean among open headphones, there is no crime in the sound and he himself very pleasant, natural and musical. My experience of using them for many years, did not find better headphones for this period, and even more so at a comparable price. Great for any genre of music.
@@oluvsgadgets I don't know they are overrated have you actually tested the M40x? I have heard M20x it was sounding alright I was using in ears from 2 years now but I stopped I don't like in ears now because they cause infections block hearing and And irritating they can even damage hearing No matter what volume you're listening in in-ear earphones they will damage your hearing I was listening to 70% volume then I switched to 40% volume but my left ear was hearing less it caused infection But I stopped using in-ears now my ears are totally fine I'm lucky my hearing is fine I stopped using them I would rather prefer listening to Speakers or Over ear headphones Don't ever buy in-ears everyone if you want to live a happy life Just hear things around in your life
In the end it's like with shoes/clothes. You can pay 100$ or 1000$ for factory made shoes, but custom shoes from a shoemaker will suit you perfectly. Every factory shoe CAN suit you great out of coincidence, but a high price tag is no guarantee that it fits better. So if someone really wants to pay more to get something better, custom made products are really the best way for that. It's really ironic that this topic gets nearly to no attention, outside from places like here, especially given the high price from some "high-end" products, that are also only factory made with the average person in mind.
Hi, interesting channel. I am wondering if you heard new 1MORE Evo tuned by a 4-time Grammy Award Winning sound engineer, Luca Bignardi. I find them pretty neutral. What is your recommendation for best IEM up to $200-300?
You really have something here. The original oe tuning allready sounded nice but the new one tuned to my own resonance(7000hz) sounds obviously smoother and more correct. I will probably get the free pro 2 if you can get the tuning right.
So you picked the Earfun Free Pro 2 instead of the EarFun Air Pro 2 like you mentioned in the comments in the video "Earfun 3rd anniversary sales and other surprises"? Were the EarFun Air Pro 2 not as good or too difficult to tune? Or was that just a typo?
Hallo Olaf, das hat zwar nix mit diesem Video zu tun, aber hast du schon gewusst das es seit kurzem das Firmware Update 1.35 für den Motion Boom gibt? In der Update-Beschreibung steht nur "Fehlerbehebung". Vielleicht beseitigt es ja die Bassschwankungen bei niedriger Lautstärke, die einige mit dem Boom und dem Boost upgraded haben. Ich kann dazu leider nix sagen, da bei mir, mit meinem Huawei Honor Android Smartphone das Problem bei beiden Speakern nicht auftritt. Eine fröhliche Weihnachtszeit wünsche ich, bleibt gesund!
Oluv - Don't you think there's a difference between Balanced Armature\Dynamic\Planer drivers? Decay, speed, whole lot of science and proof behind different technologies besides tuning... Won't you agree that they have different performance in decay even if EQ the same?
there will be for sure differences to some degree, but it's questionable if those would be hearable at all. Biggest errors in a reproduction system are THD and resonances. If your system suffers from this the fastest decay doesn't matter as the resonances (in this case peaks from the driver, your earcanal etc) will mask every other aspect. You need to correct for those first before even talking about aspects like speed, decay etc.
There is no such thing as speed. If your driver is not moving at a specific speed you wouldn't hear those frequencies. Speed is just a shift in frequency response.
@@Tesseract9630 sounds actually plausible to me and proves why I get way more details as soon as the treble smoothens up becoming transparent so that you can see through up to the highest registers without any peak obstructing the view.
Hi i have fiil t1 pro. I hope you have a guide on the proper tuning of it? By the way im not very technical in music, but i want the way you tune the sounds
A lot of people aren't comfortable with EQ aka "digital manipulation" so they want the best sound they can get without. To some extent more some expensive headphones offer things the cheaper ones don't so in this situation it is fine to spend the money if that's what you enjoy. It is far from optimal, but for most it doesn't really matter anyway. Most listeners also have preferences for sound that might not match the most realistic or accurate reproduction. That said I do appreciate you working on this stuff and I think there is potential for something good to come out of it.
I loved it and it was my main inspiration when I did the original OE tuning. In the meantime I think the target it just not correct and I have issues with the deep insertion as my ear canals are rather narrow
It's in the uncanny valley of "neutrality" for me for sure. Not quite right but also not very wrong either. And the smoothness and clarity of Etymotic IEMs is unmatched.
I remember in early 2000 on polish hi-end audio forum (back then there was a lot less bullshit and many ppl actually understand audio on a level where discussion made sense) we discovered that on hd580 and hd600 all of us had a dead spot on sine sweep (ranging from -10dB to -inf in ~50% of the cases) somewhere between 6k and 10k. Mine is at ~8k -inf, and until today on all hd600 like phones (580, 58x, 600, 650, 6xx) I have this dead spot. Anyway over lat 20 years I still use hd600 as my main and reference headphone. I also have have earfun OE and consider them well sounding and balanced.
Of course as people didn’t have that much money to spend on snake oil and had to make careful research before spending 2 months of salary on some headphone, thanks to UA-cam influencers everything has changed in the meantime and every new headphone released becomes a must have…
@@oluvsgadgets years ago youtube became themtube because the msmedia were so annoyed that normal grassroots folk were getting more views than them (and also exposing msmedia for the lies they spin) so they set up all their little actor shills to be top youtubers to push their narratives and many agendas forward . Its all been exposed many years back . Google has also silenced thousands of legit real doctors and top professors over the past 2 yrs ---- i wonder why .
@@JonnyParker- It’s absolutely true. Countless independent media haven’t seen an increase in their subscriber count in years, despite having videos getting 100k+ views regularly. UA-cam is actively suppressing certain creators
I think the same is true of our eyes that we get used to looking at different devices. I have been trying to calibrate ("equalize") various old CRTs lately.
Can you apply this tuning to any PEQ, or is it dependant on the driver's themselves? I have UAPP on Android with PEQ, but I also use Amazon HD, so I presume I would need a system level EQ, or something that tapped into the Bluetooth stack to use that. I don't actually use a Dongle DAC I just route UAPP via Bluetooth.
The thing about ears and brain adjusting to certain sounds always made me wonder: what do you personally use as your reference? I sometimes feel like my brain will just happily adjust to anything I use and I can only detect differences when switching. Feels like my memory of frequency responses is really really weak. There are so many variables and I listen to music on so many different devices and in different environments that I don't think I could ever be able to do what you do: just put on a pair of headphones and be able to tell their frequency response is off (I'm talking about Bose levels of "off", not nuances). Is it a matter of having a reference to come back to, or more trained and sensitive ears, or both?
I once sat down and tried equalising the HD600 to my ilouds just in terms of frequency response. Actually the Optimum Hifi profile from Oratory1990 was already very close to that timbre I just needed some slight further adjustment. Now the HD600 with EQ flat profile is more or less my reference to get the overall color similar, although the HD600 with flat still has some flaws, but those are probably just my HRTFs, but the equalised Earfun sounds smoother, it has hardly any dips or peaks in the treble region, just butter smooth given that you listen with the indented tuning for your own ear canal resonance. As long as the brain doesn't need too long to adopt to the new sound, it should be fine I would say. For me it's actually when I am listening to the HD600 and switching to my Earfun tuning it just opens up more with more transparency, more smoothness, more detail and way better sound stage. Sound stage is totally 3d-like more similar to the HD800S. Pink noise must be smooth with no obvious harshness, it can have a color, some area may be boosted, just like it's the case if you turn your head around while listening to pink noise it will change the timbre, but it must never sound harsh with some frequency dominating. If this sounds right the music will sound just amazing. Btw, the HD600 is already pretty flat to begin with, thus it doesn't need much correction at all.
@@paweadamczyk4096 you can basically choose any headphone and just apply one of Oratory's EQs, but most are only available with Harman's bass shelf. Optimum Hifi is the same just without that bass boost. Then check if a sine sweep is more or less constant. It will raise up to 3.5K that's normal but up from there there shouldn't be too much variation in amplitude anymore. I still get a dip at 5.6K and a peak at 6.8 and 8 despite the flat EQ, but that's probably my indidvidual ear resonances.
S12iem i got for £95 competitive or even beats iems at 300-500+ and one i tuned it was an truly magical experience and my hd599 ones tuned i enjoy more than hd600s at over half the price with no extra cost on dac/amps so people get caught up in model number or expense fallacy and burn money for no reason when the performance is negligible if not worse
So am I right that I can buy the Ear Fun Free Pro 2 and then await for Oluv's tuning (which I apply via EQ somehow through some app?) Or is there going to be a specific Earfun Free Pro 2 Oluv Edition that I need to buy? Bit confused
I think, if I'm not confused, the oluv edition comes with oluvs first eq already flashed on, but you could buy the non oluv edition of the free pro 1 (apparently the raw tuning is better) and pay 10 dollars on the patreon and apply one of the eqs.
@@666dreamboat yes exactly after i discovered a way to access the internal settings thanks to one of my viewers I wanted to improve on the original tuning and also adjust this tuning towards other ear canal resonances, to offer the same response to everyone. that’s actually hell of a work.
ONE question, q30 vs Bose qc35|| vs xm3 vs b&w px7 for IPhone 13pro max and fiio btr5 Price is doesn’t matter, Bon Jovi Zimmerman Braveheard movies(action) Ed Sheehan Recommendation? I love some “wide soundstage”:)
What about distortion and ringing of the drivers? Surely, some have more distortion than others and ring more at certain frequencies, which can also affect the perception of sound quality. There are many headphones that have several percent of distortion even in the mid high frequencies from 2-4 kHz where out ears are most sensitive. I am not sure exactly, but I heard that our ears can perceive distortion above 1%, especially in the higher frequencies. There are also headphones that have resonances/ringing. Below 1kHz, ringing usually manifests itself as slow decay across a broad range of frequencies, encompassing all or most of the bass through low midrange frequencies. I am pretty sure that headphones with too much decay below 1 Khz will be perceived as having slower/mushier/ less controlled bass vs. those that have quicker decay down there. As for frequencies above 1Khz, resonances usually come in the form of peaks affecting narrow frequency ranges. These may have the effect of reducing perceived treble clarity. I believe closed back, over ear headphones are most susceptible to ringing issues, where most of these problems are due to cup resonances. Inexpensive dynamic driver open back headphones usually suffer from fairly high distortion the the bass, whereas planar headphones have what is known in audiophile circles as "ortho walls", but I heard those are barely, if at all audible.
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Thank you for this! In the last few years I've been looking for a set of IEMs that 'just work', from cheap like Tin and KZ, and now with expensive Moondrop gear - but I keep running into odd issues that I've been calling "ergonomic" problems: The shift in sound from insertion depth and units that slowly work themselves out of your ears because of weight or size... In particular, I always wondered why the KZ AS16 sounded so good to me with that insane 7kHz peak, while the 'smoother', 'more accurate' accurate B2:D and S8 have an odd mid/upper-mid response. It has to be something in regards to the bore size and insertion depth. I notice the Moondrops don't shift in sound so much as other brands in regards to insertion and jaw motion. I always felt like the B2:D had 'hollow' upper mids and it must be due to the target. The S8 is better for me but now I want to play with the resonance more. My personal EQ for these adds a db or so across 2k-4.5k and it feels smoother to my ears with that bump.
Hey oluv, Der neue boomster von Teufel kann jetzt sogar per tws als paar gekoppelt werden. Also stereo im Grunde. Ich glaube der würde dir tatsächlich gefallen. Wollte mir den mal holen und bei Interesse kann ich dir den zusenden.
Absolutely agree, you don't have to spend thousands of $$ to get a great sound experience. Every time I listen to my blon-bl3 I am astounded by how good they sound for so little money, given that I have headphones for 200$, 800$. They are definitely not as fast or detailed but they matched my ears in a way that the Soundstage they create for me is wider than anything I heard before, and they present the sound in ways that you really aren't missing anything from the music.
@@beliveinurself I would disagree here, because I definitely noticed that planars bass notes decay tangibly more quickly compared to dynamics. I think this is what is actually meant by "speed". As for "detail" it is much more confusing to me, because in all of my decent headphones I can distinguish MP3 from Flac with the same rate of success even though some of them seem more detailed at first, which means what? they are all bad, or they are all equally good in the detail category ?!!
You don't really seem to touch much on Etymotic iems, but they are as close to perfection as you are describing due to their extremely deep insertion, which not much else aims for. They're designed to seal against the bony part of the ear canal and eliminate resonances from the fleshy part towards the outside of the canal. Many other IEMs have resonances due to the shallower insertion and peaks/dips that aren't present in Etymotics with a proper deep seal. At this point you can then EQ the lower distortion models like the ER2SE to your preference, but the stock tuning is extremely nice and I have never heard treble as well tuned.
Etymotic can actually vary just the same with treble depending on which tips you use if there is some overpressure inside your ear etc and it’s simply cumbersome to wear. I often needed serval attempts to get the fit right.
I’m an Ety fan but the fit itself can throw off the frequency presentation. Also, each person is somewhat unique. For me, the Blessing 2 is very much along the same lines. No song sounds particularly harsh unless it’s in the recording. They may sound boring at first but give them time. Combined spatial DSP and SubPac it’s my own private hifi / home theatre setup. Really comfortable too (though this as well is independent). The new Etymotic Evo has some similarities in presentation to the Blessing 2. Etymotic along with Sennheiser are pioneers. Consider the age of the original designs the ER4 and HD650 / 600 are still top picks today.
Oluv, have you tried Sennheiser Momentum TW 2? I think you might wanna borrow them (and then probably buy them 🤣) because I think they overplay any in-ear and you probably could use it as a reference for tuning your new earbuds. Anyway - all the best!
@@oluvsgadgets no, I am not. A friend of mine bought them and compared to your Ear Fun (which I nought a while ago) and Ear Fun Pro (which he bought a while ago) they sound significantly clearer and detailed. I was hoping to see a video about them on your patreon but I was not successful when looking for it.
@@SamuelNovota Earfun Free Pro with default tuning? surely it will sound better than those, but it's still crap with horrid peaks in the upper mids and scooped out mids. They sound just like all the other IEM crap being sold. Try my latest tuning for the Earfun Free Pro optimised for your ear canal resonance and then compare again...
@@oluvsgadgets hahahahahha if Pro is crap - what about your first Ear Fun (no pro version)? I have no idea where to get or how to set your EQ. I highly doubt it will make such a difference but I am willing to try it. I still cannot tell whether you have listened to Momentum TW 2 or not. Have you?
@@SamuelNovota the Earfun Free was a desaster I just had some days and the final result was nowhere close to my intended tuning, the overall balance is just off with too much bass, there was no time anymore to correct for this, but it would have become great if it worked. The TW2 is horrid by just looking at the measurement, with a peak at 6.5 another one at 10 and no mids, do you really like that sound, what's your usual reference? crinacle.com/graphs/iems/graphtool/?share=IEF_Neutral_Target,Momentum_TWS_2
How to deal with the effect of Fletcher-Manson curves, the change in the perception of the frequency response when the volume changes, especially noticeable at high frequencies at high listening volumes. It would be nice to implement the technology to compensate for this effect in bluetooth headphones. I use different EQ presets, or I don't listen loudly. Or this effect is not so noticeable for the rest, it’s interesting.
@@mikafoxx2717 On the contrary, natural sounding at low volume becomes uncomfortable at high volume. Adjusting the frequency response for high volume returns comfort and natural sound perception.
End game IEM's & DAP for me is ThieAudio Monarch MK1 + ThieAudio smart cable paired with Cayin N6II with swappable DAC+AMP modules. mobile setp is my iPhone 12 pro Max + EarFun Free Pro which sound 3X better than Apple Airpods Pro.
There should be some research into those frequency bumps and the occurrence of Tinnitus. Those bumps look very high dB wise, relative to the average volume. So you might think something is not loud at all while a certain frequency it's already damaging your hearing over extended periods of time.
I would love to see oluv get a hands on the lcd5, eq it and then compare it to the earfun, I wanna know if there is a difference in resolution, soundstage, imaging or other technicalities. Since although I agree to oluv on most part, I still believe the drivers quality/technology implemented is still as important as the frequency response, theres a reason why other audio reviewers like crinacle or Resolve dont take fr as the most important part of the headphone/iem and why they would justify an expensive price tag . The raw resolution on the drivers is the limiter and the most important thing I consider in iems/headphones and I could just simply mod it or eq it to my liking, and I really dont know if that dual composite dynamic driver of the ear fun pro is the best in that regards.
This is exactly my thought aswell. Even if i eq a cheap iem perfectly to my preference so that the tonality is basically perfect it still sounds extremely undetailed and congested in comparison to something like a hd800s. I agree with oluv that the tonality is the most important thing when it comes to soundquality but he totally ignores that there are other aspects to soundquality like detail and soundstage which unfortunately cannot be fixed with eq.
@@Florianski if your cheap driver doesn’t have any resolution it’s because some frequencies are still masking others. You need to get a smooth response with not obvious frequency dominating then you will get more detail than out of a “high-end” driver with peaks all over. The target is not even that important as the brain will get used to any timbre after some while. The trick is to have an even spectrum without any harshness as this will tend to mask frequencies nearby and also interfere with other parts of the spectrum. It’s not easy and it always takes me hours to get that response half finished until I start to work on the details. My current tuning for the Free Pro 2 sounds just as detailed as the HD800S just without this expressive treble boost. I will also try to prepare a tuning which simulates the response of the HD800S then you can check if you hear any differences
@@oluvsgadgets no seriously, i have used many different headphones and iems in very different price classes (from 10 euros up to over 2000 euros) and i always tinker around with eq until i like them. I have tried to do it by ear but this usually didnt satisfy me so i tried softwares like toneboosters and the auto-eq project (these work similarily to sonarworks). With these eq presets the tonality of even a cheap kz iem becomes basically perfect. But when i compare the kz iem with eq and the hd800s also eq'd to the same target so that their tonality is almost exactly the same the lack of detail really becomes aparent on the kz. Try it out on some really busy orchestral recordings where many instruments play at once for example the soundtrack of "Ark survival evolved". Here the kz really struggles and all the instruments sound mushed together like one thick soup and the hd800s manages to make me feel as if i am in the middle of the orchestra and i can hear every individual instrument. Now i completely agree, that the price to performance ratio of high end headphones is garbage, a cheap iem with good dsp will get you easily 80% there. But its just wrong to say that there is no other aspect to soundquality other than the frequency response.
Detail is just frequency response. This is very apparent when you EQ the HD800. When you tame the treble it loses a lot of its sharpness and the imaging can suffer too (especially if you eq the upper treble). An ER2 or ER4, when properly inserted, will have just as much detail as an HD800 but without the sharpness. IEMs don't do soundstage as well because they have a more direct sound (no outer ear interaction).
@@SoundWaveTrax then according to your logic all iems should sound exactly the same if they are eq'd to the same target. But that is absolutely not the case (ive tried this myself). How do you explain that?
At this point in time, that band should be paying you for Media Exposure!😉🤫🤭😇 How do I figure out my ear canal resonance if interested? I have no idea of mine. Is there a sound test? Considering the pro 2 with the feature you are developing.😇
If the mold also accounts for your ear canal resonance meaning that it’s adjusted towards your resonance it’s the only way but I assume CIEMs are just to get the perfect seal and fit. I never had the chance to try one
I have the Earfun Free Pro 2, so I am interested to hear that you were involved with their production. Will you do a video just about them? Great sounding and fitting earbuds, very respectable features, but I hate the stock tips
I was not involved in any way and I am not getting any shares from the sales. My tuning I am working on right now will sound even more amazing than what I managed before
@@oluvsgadgets my mistake, in the video it sounds like you’re saying you are/were working on the earbuds, but I realise now you meant the new tuning. Thank you for clarifying. Would still be interested on your opinion of the new buds
@@scannermobs they are better than the previous ones in all regards and sound is customisable anyhow although the raw tuning is different and I would even say worse now I opted for another tuning now and have the impression as I managed even a better result now, it sounds more open more spacious and more detailed.
@@oluvsgadgets They sound better than my cheaper headphones and iem, I have more fun listening to them and they sound more musical and emotional to me. Also the build quality and materials on lcd-x is amazing feels much more premium than everything else I got.
In regards to my previous comment, I can add that I do seem to clearly hear differences in driver quality between different headphones. For example, my AKG K553 Pro is a nice headphone, but the treble just isn't as clean as that of most decent open headphones and I don't think it has anything to do with frequency response. This headphone has a fair bit of ringing in the highs that is seen in measurements and I think I definitely hear these issues. The highs on them lack refinement and finesse vs something like HD600 for instance. Details may all be there, but fine texture of cymbals, micro detail if you will, is significantly smeared/masked on the K553 vs HD600. I also strongly believe that my Hifiman HE-560, Sundara and Focal Utopia for example have higher bass quality than my HD650. There's just no way frequency response EQ can fix this. The bass on the HD650 is always audibly looser, less controlled and just murkier, less clear sounding overall than that of the other 3 and I am sure it has to do with the significantly higher distortion and/or slower decay on the HD650 vs. the others. However, I also think fast decay can "override" high distortion and cause sound quality to be perceived as higher than it would appear just based on distortion measurements alone. This seems to be the case with my Shure SRH-1840. This headphone is measuring with very high distortion in the bass and low mids, reaching up to 10%, even at moderate volumes. However, the headphone also has pretty fast decay in those same frequency ranges. I perceive the bass quality of the SRH-1840 to be in some ways cleaner than that of the HD650, even though the Shure has higher distortion. I am not 100% sure, but I think the HD650 has slower decay in the bass. I think this perception may be due to the fact that we hear higher distortion less well at lower frequencies, whereas slower decay may be more audible.
Hopefully we are able to solve this mystery someday because that has been my experience for many years. You cannot just EQ an MH755 and suddenly get the same delicate treble texture, soundstage width, imaging, and dynamics of high end headphones with more exotic drivers
@@metal571 Totally agree. Technicalities and timbre cannot be shown on a FR graph and no matter how much one can correct it, it's not going to turn a loose muddy mid bass leaky headphone into a tight fast and textured bass. FR is only one part of the whole.
Thank you for your insights. I too have come to the conclusion that headphones cannot sound as clean as IEMs due to the inherent interactions headphones have with the head and ear. To me there are certain benefits to the experience of listening to headphones - soundstage and impact of bass, for example. But none of my headphones, including >$500 ones I own, ever come close to the clean sound that can be reproduced by even a $50 IEM.
You need to experience it once to believe it. My first time was with an Etymotic, as I never heard such a smooth sound from any other headphone just the balance was never quite right on any of them
@@oluvsgadgets I agree! The frequency response of most headphones simply look like - and sound like - a hot mess. Sitting at my desk listening to headphones such as the Eikon, Elex, and Sundara they cannot compare in terms of smooth and clear sound of TWS such as the Sony XM4, or IEMs such as the Tripowin Mele or even Blon-03, much less more capable IEMs such as the Kato, S8F, or Oracle. Then with the power of EQ these in ears can be improved to another level! Yes, over ears definitely have a more enveloping experience with bigger soundstage and impactful bass, but if the tonality is hard to listen to, then it is not worth the trade off. BUT, I appreciate that this is not a universal opinion and I respect those who feel differently. I don’t understand them, but I respect them!
@@jamesmiller4487 exactly my thoughts. I wonder how you would perceive my current tuning for the Free Pro 2 I am currently working on. The Elex sounds broken against it, as if it was chopped by some distortion-effect, although tonality-wise they still resemble each other, it is just this transparency, this 3d-ness which is completely missing from the Elex. The Free Pro 2 basically destroyed most headphones for me.
@@jamesmiller4487 give me some days to finish everything, really curious to hear your verdict then. drop me a line once you are in so we can discuss a bit more.
As for the price, I agree with the author, there was once a Sennheiser PX / PMX 95 with a natural musical sound, much cooler than even the current "audiophile" HD 599. The sound of the PX / PMX 95 was musical, perky and captivating, not muddy and not harsh, very transparent, the golden mean, I was very pleased with them, besides, you can replace the ear pads with more transparent ones to reduce bass and increase detail and brightness if you want and vice versa. The more expensive HD 599 cannot boast of this, plus they have a lot of crime in the sound itself in the form of an echo on the vocals and the sound that is perceived inside the head despite the open design. So the price is far from saying anything. It is a pity that they are no longer produced, I have not found a replacement for them for many years.
@@oluvsgadgets hifishark has some new PX 95, maybe you will have time to take them or wait for someone to sell again, this is a different model but the same line, the sound they should be similar, periodically appear there. It would be very interesting to know your opinion about them on the video
@@oluvsgadgets and by the way it is currently sold only in Germany in Hamburg without shipping in other countries, perhaps this is really your chance. And if you live in Austria then excuse me, I didn’t know that, I just saw a language similar to German on your website, so I thought that you were from Germany. I don't know much about this because I myself am from Russia
@@oluvsgadgets thanks glad to know that now! im buying mh1 because of your videos and wow im so amazed! thanks for the honest and unbiased review oluv i really appreciate it.
for about 2 years i went on a dumb headphone/iem binge trying to find the grail. in the end i settled with eq'ing my 6 year old hd 599's because that made them sound better than everything else. for IEMs i only use the cca cra now because it has my preferred frequency response and a neutral fit in ear... and it's a $10 throwaway. there was also a recent drama with KZ selling IEMs with fake drivers, which is what finally put me off the whole wired side of the audio world
@@sbsid1994 I just use simple peak filters with default peace settings. 1700 +4db, 3100 -4db, 11000 +4db, 14000 +4db. Midrange eq removes the clock speaker tonality for vocals and the treble eq gives them a little bit of extra energy. Didn't touch bass
Oluv, thank you for making this video! I became interested in audio gear after becoming interested in PC hardware, where there are much more well-defined price:performance tiers than in audio. With an Nvidia GPU, I know a 3070 will cost more and perform better than a 3060, or an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU will cost less and (generally) perform less than a Ryzen 7. But in audio, these tiers aren't so clear - a Sennheiser HD600 isn't worse than a 650 even though it is cheaper. A $300 headphone can sound much better to me than a $1000 one - this has been a hard concept for me to learn, but videos like these help a lot.
I own the HD 650 since 2013 - it does sound differently, i do know the HD 600 quite well, mind you. Listening to a OpAmp modded Essence STX, FiiO K5 Pro, and Lehmann Cube. The HD 650 scales better, when the Headphone Amp gets better.
You are an absolute legend, keep up the good work! About the music business being a money machine - isn't this the case with almost every aspect of consumerism? A stupid comparison I make every time is between old and new kitchen appliances - the ones from the 60s still work, and the new ones tend to need servicing way more often. Things are made today in a way that you are encouraged to change them frequently. It is just the way it is, and it is hard to find some brands/manufacturers who actually do a good job today, and that is why we are all on a constant hunt for products which are "best value" or "good bang for a buck". Regarding headphones and speakers, everybody hears a sound a little bit different (or simply has different preferences), so everyone is entitled to their opinion, but keep in mind that in every field where you have enthusiasts you WILL get bad comments if you trash a well known or higher-end brand. It is just the way it is. Having said all that, I wouldn't be bothered too much with what anyone says. You do your thing, and the support and acknowledgment will come (if it hasn't already).
if you want to rape your ears sure. I got issues with it and I think their target is not great But i must confess the smooth response of the Etymotic was the reason to dig deeper into this. And why I started to analyse why it sounds so much better than any other IEM I tried. The OE was the first approach towards this although I still underestimated the individual ear canal influence for the final result which I tried to correct for recently. The response of the Etymotic is far from perfect but due to its smoothness with no obvious peaks the brain will immediately take it as granted. Most experts will differ but IMO a smooth response with no obvious peak is more important than the overall timbre which can be either bass heavy or treble heavy to some degree as long as it’s not excessive you will get used to it after a while. The problem is most also get used to a response full of peaks, although if they start to interfere with the peaks of your own HRTFs it becomes really nasty. But many obviously still don’t care otherwise I cannot understand how a product like the Q45 can even be accepted let alone sold.
@@oluvsgadgets Etymotic gets comfortable after some time as you mentioned in your ER4XR video. The response of the Etymotic ER2SE follows the Dolby Cinema X-Curve when compensated for a flat in-room DRP response. "Neutral, honest, transparent, very detailed, with lots of air around instruments. Yes, the soundstage is of course not somehow broad, but it's realistic." - your ER4XR video. You then went on to shill the ER2SE in the comment section of that video.
Hi Oluv, can you maybe do some sound tests with smart speakers? The Headphone tests you do recently are not very intereting for me, but smartspeakers are becoming a growing market and may be a good way to get some more viewers. I'm thinking like the small ones from Apple, Amazon, Sonos etc. Just for sound quality, not the smart stuff. I've seen some reviews, but they all have shit recording quality, and you are still the gold standard. Would be awesome! Thanks!
I don’t have the money to buy all this. The sound will be crappy anyhow, get a Sonos or some other stuff. But it will never sound as great as a decent headphone or IEM
@@oluvsgadgets I know they don't sound great, I have many other big speakers to enjoy music. Just want them as a cheap convenient alternative for the occasional background sound with voice commands. If you could make it happen somehow, it would be awesome.
My 20 year old HD600 sounds different than a new HD600. .....also I am very confident that by me being an IT guy listening to an HD600 at my desk all day for 20 years has burned that into my head as a reference. I got an early HD800 and SPL Auditor amp. I loved the soundstage of it but I couldn't listen to it for more than about 45 minutes It was fatiguing in a way that only and audiophile that has experienced this would understand. After awhile, something about the impact of the treble? hurt my brain. ......anyway thank you for making these videos, I agree with your opinions far more than I disagree with them.
My AL Cheapo Chinese made AUSDOM wireless handphone costs less than $100 sounds quite good with some equalization. I like to disagree with Oluv, good sound handphone depends on more factors than just the frequency response of the drivers. Having said that frequency response do account for a dominant factor in sound reproduction.
If the driver and construction has no obvious flaws or causes some distortion you won’t hear any difference to a “high-end” driver if both will produce the same response at your eardrum. Most changes and effects regarding sound stage, detail etc are just a result of different responses
@@oluvsgadgets The material used in the drivers do give a characteristic sound e.g. electrostatic driver vs convention drivers, I am confident if you design 2 headphones with the same freq. resp. using these 2 drivers, they will sound different. If you disagree then we agree to disagree.
@@yttean98 they sound different because they do not produce the same response. It you equalize some dynamic driver to offer you exactly the same response at your ear drum it will sound just the same as an electrostatic. I will prove this in future
Both are harsh but the HD800S has a more even harshness the entire treble is boosted equally while the HD560S peaks around 5khz thus masking upper treble more. The HD800S of course also has the nicer sound stage although I couldn’t figure out what the reason is for that difference
@@JTB-- sound stage is still just a result of frequency response. But hard to actually measure. But the HD800S equalized will lose some of its “magic” it’s definitely the interaction of the ear cups with your concha that adds additional resonances or even phase shifts which may contribute to this, but in theory if you manage to get exactly the same frequency response the HD800S would give you at your ear drum it should result in a comparable sound stage. Keep in mind binaural localisation is just a matter of the sound waves being modified by your HRTFs from different angles of the frequency response. If a headphone measured matches that of speakers playing from front you should get a more realistic imaging and sound stage at the same time, I noticed that sound stage can change considerably on how upper mids and treble is rendered while not changing anything else.
the best improvement of the sound I got was from magic mushrooms
Weed also helps it even extends the high frequency limit
Yep. The mood you're in definitely changes your perception of sound.
@@oluvsgadgets lmao, god speed you crazy Austrian
🍄 💕
@@oluvsgadgets how do you know?
best audio reviewer in youtube for me so far
You have a fresh and very honest take on the products that you analyze. Fantastic job. The gullibility of audiophiles is what astonishes me the most, even after all these years.
I absolutely agree with you. More expansive and the latest product doesn't mean better. I'm happy with my HD600 with my iPhone or MacBook.
thats the beauty of having a good headphone in the first place, those aint get outdated every 2-3 years unlike others component like phone, gpu, cpu, ram etc etc and sound is very subjective which very person to person, some prefer bass, some prefer color in the music where boosted some frequency doesn't matter which makes it enjoyable to that person, some prefer flat natural sound and some listen their music very critical way where every single detailed and color tone they need to hear, so wasting so much money for iem/headphone is stupid, i had HD560S and im more then happy, im not a bass guy, i prefer detailed clean music where i sperate lows, mids and highs easily and i prefer wide soundstage where hd560s does the job more then well so why i need to speed 1000$ for a headphone, you better save that money and upgrade something else
Best video on the whole internet explaining it. Brain power and the way our body perceives sound should never be underestimated. Thank you sir for taking your time. I am looking to get the Earfun for upcoming holidays. From a build quality standpoint, do you recommend the first or second version?
build quality definitely second. its just overall better hardware wise
Oluv, I wanted to thank you so very much for your honesty about audio gear. Every year, we audiophiles are sold on the supposedly bigger better gear, but what we are really doing, is going greater and greater in debt, the further we get. I also appreciate that you are setting up tuning profiles, to remove the harmful peaks, that can destroy our hearing. You are amazing buddy thank you!
Neutron Player has a huge set of presets that emulate a long list of brands and models of every possible brands of headphones. Those, in conjunction to the parametric EQ, can make any headphone sound amazing. Takes time to find your perfect sound but it works. You can also make the EQ separate for each ear. But overall, I just learned from you why it happens. In all years in the pursuit of a perfect set of headphones, never thought about the anatomy of my ears! And you're right! That explains a lot! Thanks for the tip :)
Where in Neutron?
Very capable player but the EQ isn't system wide. For that you either need Poweramp Equalizer (system wide and allows 100+ Parametric EQ bands + option for left, right or both) but is of course limited on how loud your phone can drive the headphone so I mostly use Qudelix 5k.
Brain burn in is very real. I notice the difference the most after waking up in the morning and putting headphones on shortly after. Everything sounds way "better" when i first wake up... by the time im heading to sleep everything sounds "muddy" in my experience, i wear headphones for many hours a day every day
Same for that first cup of coffee in the day...and that first cigarette (...back when I smoked some 12 years ago).
@@jb678901 yup i agree with all that also (former smoker aswell)
Wie sagt der Bayer? _"Andersherum wird ein Schuh daraus"_ ... morgens ist das Ohr schlecht durchblutet, alles klingt muffig, spät abends ist die Bühne breit und der Klang großartig.
Schönes Leben noch, Holzohr.
I'm not so sure. My music listening in the dead of night before I sleep sounds absolutely heavenly. Best of all by far.
During the day the brain is too hyperactive, hyper stimulated, focusing on this or that.. on potentially relevant sounds...and ideas! "Real life" takes over and commands attention relegating music to a "side alley".
@@juanmillaruelo7647 music definitely sounds best for me when i’m laying in bed really tired, ethereal almost
Sorry for too much commenting. lol I also forgot about time domain/phase as another sound property of drivers. All drivers also differ in this regard, but I don't know exactly how this property affects the sound. I do think that this acoustic property is especially relevant for and prevalent in multi driver designs, including those in speakers as well as multi driver headphones (well, IEMs primarily, because there are virtually no multi driver over ear headphones).
IMO, Earfun should be fully cooperating and supporting this guy. I bought the EarFun Free Pro's and then went for the Patreon membership that provides access to Oluv's custom tunings, etc. Love my EFFP's tuned w/ the resonant 6400Hz profile (using online tone generator to identify my personal tgt, using with my most comfortably fitted tips). After using them at the office for awhile now, three other colleagues jumped on board...2 for the EFFP's a couple of months ago and one last week for the EFFP2's. Now these guys are all curious about the custom tuning. I am clear on that point...go for the Patreon membership and enjoy!
Thanks for this very informative review. I am by no means an "audiophile" like you and many of the other commenters here, just an ordinary music listener that that has purchased some some expensive headphone, but quickly realized the law of diminishing returns for the money. I loved the audio demonstration of the various tunings and could definitely hear the difference. Do you plan to do something like this for a more commonly available headphone that many people use already, such as the Airpods Max or Airpods Pro? That way you don't have to buy a new set of earbuds. Thanks!
Hey! I'm planning to buy a Marshall Stockwell II, seeing your review about it against the marshall emberton helped me a lot in choosing between the two! I was just wondering if there are other speakers of the same price that you would recommend me taking a look at before buying a Marshall Stockwell II?
Thanks a lot man!
i was truly amazed when i compared my tuned Free Pro 2 (6500hz) to an optimized Q30. They sound completely the same, what proves to me that this is the truth for my ears. even when one earbud in one ear and one cup on the other ear... completely the same sound. thanks alot olaf
I paid 10 euro for your patron, and it is one of my most rewarding subscription. Highly recommend.
How does it work? Can you use it on other IEM’s?
@@andersbj1 I can apply it to some other earphones, but the key is to learn how to do it and what to look for.
Very compelling points. Thank you for sharing.
I have one question though: Is that someone chewing or munching on something that I'm hearing in the background?
Really good knowledge, thanks for sharing.
I've got some higher end headphones a while ago(hifiman Ananda which many(crinacle, Joshua to name a few) consider one of the most balanced sounding headphones in terms of frequency response). I EQ'd it to my liking. More sub bass, like +9db, balanced the 1-3khz area and eliminated the dips at 5.5kh 9.5khz, then dropped everything above 5khz about -1db. It sounds really good and incredibly natural, the slight zigzag that you brush on is not really a problem as it is is less than half a db at the worst on my Anandas.
Then I decided that I want to upgrade, because I felt like it. I got the big brother Arya, it sounded a little "off", but after I EQ'd those too, they sound almost like my Anandas, with a slightly more pronounced high end.
But the main differentiating factor is the separation and the resolution of the overall sound. You won't get that resolution or separation/layering on cheaper sets no matter the EQ. The Aryas take that separation to a whole new level as it almost sounds like there are 3 different sound sources for different frequency ranges. The bass sounds like it's coming from all around you, the mids are clearly in front and the highs are somewhere in the middle of those two. The Anandas tended to not differentiate like that, but still displayed the overall sound from a slightly elevated frontal position, which is okay, but on some genres/songs when there was a lots of sound at the same time, the Ananda felt like it was losing detail/blurring, where as the Arya presented everything crystal clear. My AKG K712 Pro(EQ'd them too) are detailed, but they always struggled on "noisy" tracks as everything would blend together escpecially at below 200hz, They also have a flatter sound stage, like they literally don't have verticality to the sound but they manage a spacious and accurate stage say for the verticality aspect.
My source is a Modius/Magnius stack from Schiit, VERY good measurements so the source is clean and not a factor.
Many consider the AKG K612 to be "dead" flat, and on FR graphs they are. But they aren't the best headphones because they have just okay technicalities, their presentation is soft, "small" and they lack texture especially in the bass region. The Anandas and the Aryas are described usually as big sounding with a large vertical sound stage and because they are planar their bass is very rich in detail and they have more "slam". They give off a more "convincing" performance regardless of music.
When you EQ headphones to the same curve, you are left with the technical performance that has the driver as the centerpoint, no matter how much you EQ, a less detailed driver is never going to perform as good as a technically superior driver, be that planar, DD, estat or AMT. A bad estat is easily worse than a good DD and vice versa for any other driver type or pairing.
FR determines the tonal balance and very little after that and once you EQ high end sets, you get that technicality combined with the good tonality.
I wouldn't say ALL high end hifi is bullshit and snake oil, but a lot of it is, don't even get me started on goddamn cables.
How would you measure “detail”?
I tried some Electrostatic ones and some of the higher end stuff I could find in that headphone boutique and none really managed to offer me something “new” or better. Most were heavily boosted in the treble region which of course also contributes to some enhanced perception of detail, bass slam can be mostly explained with different coupling with your ear I had some funny effects with some planar magnetics which suddenly became bassheavy when I elevated them more etc. From my own experience so far I did not perceive any magic from any of those headphones but of course I didn’t have the chance to try them all
Totally agree with you. At the moment i own Hd560s and Sundara . i like both very much. Without Eq i prefer hd560S for the beauty Mids but Sundara is more resolving and is holographic. With EQ sundara is much better and become my favourite one. There no competition when i ear very complex and heavy music like symphonic metal or progressive metal , Sundara with EQ become a beast. However, generally the more you go up in price the more the headphone become transparent. details and trasparency Are not factors that guarantee pleasantness aniway. If you don't like the timbre even 3000 euro headphone may sound horrible to you
@@ProgInside83 Lateralus very nice 😀
@@oluvsgadgets human ear is very sensitive „measuring“ device. It was not designed to measure frequencies or amplitude, but the orchestra (with many instruments) cannot be so easily dismissed.
@@oluvsgadgets Headphones are subjective, if you can't tell the difference then you don't need to worry about it just enjoy what you think sounds the best. For a lot of people expensive headphones sound better and they can tell the difference, that's all that matters, if 5,000 dollar headphone is worth the difference to people then they should get it, if not then don't get it. No one really needs expensive headphones but some people want the best and like to spend more money on things they like, that's all there is to it.
Hi Oluv, great contents you are providing. You got me totally interested. I will deffinitely buy Earfun Free Pro 2 and patiently wait for your suggestions. Of course you can count on my full support via Patreon. I am really looking forward to try your tune out. According to your videos, it seems like you are on a way to find Holy Grail of Earphones. :-D Danke schön!
Would etymotic's solution be simplest? Placing the earbud as deep as possible in the ear canal, as close to the eardrum as possible, reducing the issue of different ear canal resonances due to different ear canal lengths. Making it basically the same for everyone?
Sure but it’s invasive and despite the deep insertion I still noticed a lot of change in the treble region depending on the tips, etc. Sometimes I needed several attempts to get the sound right.
I find Etymotic's ER4XR's to be sterile and disengaging, airless. Not to mention they're uncomfortable to wear. IEM's, in my experience, can be satisfying to listen to if you manage to find good ones, but they interact with your ear in a uniquely intrusive and artificial way, suffering more drawbacks than traditional headphones.
@@gramblor1 a problem of Etymotic is that the response rolls of quite quickly above 16k. For me it’s not such a problem as meanwhile my own hearing rolls off like that but for younger ones the lack of treble extension should be definitely hearable. The other problem is that Etymotic’s Target it slightly off therefore it could be the character being sterile you are getting. It was rather the smoothness with no obvious peaks in the frequency response which drew my attention most.
Also remember they the ER4XR will change the response a lot depending on the output impedance I had to use some resistors to get the desired compensation otherwise it was too muddy
@@oluvsgadgets I'm not that much younger than you. My main issue with the ER4XR is how cramped the soundstage is, which creates a feeling of claustrophobia. Combined with it's uncomfortable fit, it's simply not an appealing iem to me. The Tin T2 or Tin P1 have similarly neutral signatures but with room to breathe, so I much prefer them.
@@gramblor1 ah Tin Hifi. It's just treble boost that make it feel airy/more room. Smoothness in treble that Oluv said is not found in T2/P1. If treble has a lot peaks/dip, it's not neutral.
WoW! Thank you; always knew this, but thank you for the reminder ✌🎧😎👍
Thank you mr.Oluv.👏👏👍🖐️
Great video. I have the EarFun Pro Oluv Edition and like the sound very much (to my taste a little bit too much emphasis in the highs). I am totally open to spend 10 Euros for an updated version. But what is my ear canal resonance? How can I measure it? How does the tuning work? Is it an update of the dsp setting within the headphones (which would be great) or is it an EQ setting?
It's all in Patreon. I have two units of the Oluv's Edition, one updated and other one OG. The updated one's way better at this point.
Oh, yeah. Before I forget: the EQ it's saved within the unit. U can mod it, save the settings and then forget about the modding tools. Your EarFun Free Pro will be tuned with this new settings after that.
@@ArmidaMusic Thanks Carlos, sounds great! And ear canal measurement is simple and reliable?
It’s all described on Patreon, you just need to perform a sine sweep with the raw tuning applied and monitor where it becomes loudest, then select a tuning closest to the frequency you found and you should get the same sound I am getting. You can save 4 different presets and switch between them through the app, the app is only available for Android though
@@oluvsgadgets is there any plan for iOS?
Really appreciate your efforts in debunking the nature of the hobby. The human brain is filled with biases, heuristics and even illusions like audio pareidolia which most companies took advantage of to make money from selling their products. Audiophiles are more susceptible to this flaws of the brain due to their love and appreciation to 'good - sounding' products. Your take on how a headphone/ iem should sound based on the individual's target curve to get the smoothest response is the hard truth that is hard to swallow. The mind of most people are ingrained with certain high end products or brands have the best tuning ever and hold that believe dearly. in other words, people are not aware that they are biased in some ways. Just my suggestion here: apart from working on the tuning for the earfun free pro to give a rough idea to find out one's resonance peak, why dont you help figure out a way to interpret the measurements of iems and headphones from the internet to suit one's personal targer curve? for example, what should we look for from a measurement of an iem measured by crinacle that would suit our taste? Im not sure if youre aware of these but even crinicle and super emphasized on not taking their measurements seriously due to the coupler resonance at 8k. they say that its not actually there and its just an artifact from the measuring rig and should be dismissed. if you somehow find a way to interpret the data that is already available in the internet to suit one's personal resonance peak and so on, it would be a tremendous help for the people to find a product that would sound good to them. perhaps this could be done by comparing your measurements to their measurements to see where the differences are and in the end you can come up with a guideline on how to interpret the data provided by others. they have done their part imparting objective data on their side. Perhaps you could interpret the data from a subjective perspective and teach us how to do it?
Unfortunately the peak is not an artefact but is really produced by the given system and it will vary in frequency depending on the resonators length be it the coupler or the ear canal. I had some dispute with Crinacle because of this as I tried to explain him that his measurements are not transferable to any listener because nobody will get the resonance at 8K but way below I get it 2k lower and already a 300hz offset in resonance can habe extreme effects on the final response like I could encounter on my own by getting clogged ears after a while which changed the sound of a given IEM completely for me. But compensating for that shift I managed to get the same smooth response again. That’s what I tried to point out but nobody really is taking it seriously. For me none of the graphs shown make any sense as they just do not represent the result I will be getting from an IEM. The Blessing 2 measures exemplary with a peak at 8 but it will sound horrid with the peak at 6.5 which seems to be the average taken over all values I got meanwhile.
@@oluvsgadgets Thanks for your enlightenment on the matter. I totally get it now why youre saying the measuring system used by other reviewers are misleading in some ways. Now i understand you even more ans I sincerely hope that you can achieve your goals and make an impact to the audiophile community. stay strong and keep going. Ill try to support you in any way i can.
Makes perfect sense. If a person can be convinced that a cocaine snorting, crack smoking, prostitute buying, government bribing, two-timing, sister-in-law screwing, money laundering, dead-beat dad is somehow the "smartest man" the former Vice President of the USA has ever met...then that person can be convinced of anything. Human bias is the savior of tyrants and snake-oil salesmen.
Great video Olav. Still love my ZMF Verite though…
Been rockin to my bass modded Akg q701 with Brainwavzxl hybrid pads for the past 7 years now. All these thousand dollar headphones are overkill and unnecessary for good sound. Love the sound of my headphones. I have never heard any other headphone sound demo that comes close to my sweet sounding headphone. Good work you are a common sense man in this ridiculous world of headphones.
Hi Oluv. Thank you for your hard work. I'm tempted! Question: Can the earfun be set up with different EQ for left and right? I ask because I think my right side has a slightly bigger ear canal. It would be cool to try and compensate. Also, what happens if you listen to music louder (like heavy metal), do these headphones have a different response for such volume levels? Thanks!
It’s an interesting idea and basically it could be maybe accomplished by linking 2 different units with different settings. Could also work with the same unit by just using one at a time for creating the setting, with both units set up differently and then linking them again although they should be linked anyhow if you take both out of the box again. I could try this out actually if you are interested.
The EQs should remain separate for both I actually had this already by accident and had to update the settings again afterwards for both.
The setting will remain constant throughout the entire volume range there is no dynamic adjustment according to volume level. If you listen at high levels you may want to adjust the setting to your preference, they are totally customisable
Just tried it and it works, you can set different EQs to both units. you just need to work with both units separately. although it gives an error message when trying to save the EQ setting because the "partner was not found", you can do a real time update to get the setting into one unit first, then put it back into the box, and do the same for the other unit. The separate settings remain active also after power down, and both will play with different settings, you could even cure some imbalance like that, but it would be even more work to equalize both separately.
Thanks for the video. I too have noticed how differently I hear thinks depending on mood and time of day. Also I am a big Beyerdynamic fan and I my experience for example with the DT990 seems to differ from some of the reviews out there. What I hear is a warm sounding fairly punchy and detailed headphone. Not super bright like a lot of people. I am 50 years old though and I wonder whether that too has something to do with this (although my son likes them too). I think age and sex though makes a big difference. My wife can hear much higher frequencies as me.
I have owned the DT990. I ended up reselling them after 6 months because they changed the sound of the songs I was listening to. It was sometimes pleasing to the ear! But so far from reality. The worst was when I was recording my own songs in my home studio. It had nothing to do with my monitoring speakers and other headphones.
@@ericouicestmoimeme I really love my dt990s. Sometimes I use something called wavelet which is free app which allows you to change the EQ to match the harmen curve. I use a proper tube amp as well which gives the sound a lot more depth and control. It's a great setup and blows my speakers really out of the ballpark
I bought several IEM's since last year, last one was Etymotic ER2SE.
Tuning wise it's better than all of them but not perfect (around 2k is too elevated and treble is a bit too subdued). I just EQ it to Etymotic target (since it basically aiming for it) and that works perfectly. They also image incredible well.
Before that I bought 7hz Timeless (new planar magnetic).
And before that it was Fiio FH3 and before that Moondrop Starfield.
These all have their issues, mostly related to bass being elevated where it shouldn't be and ever since I got ER2SE, I found that even Moondrop Starfield is instantly much better with less bass.
So Sennheiser HD560S and Etymotic ER2SE are for me now the Standard for what sounds good.
you should check the Earfun Free Pro 2 with my tuning
Thanks, very interesting video! When I have an Earfun free pro 2, can I use your tunings from your patreon (when I pay of course)?
You will get all the tunings with the enthusiast tier (€10)
Thanks olav, I agree for the most part.. my take after years.. the 2weaqkest link and thus we could get thwe most gain, miust be in te recordi gs/mixed and I am not talking about the 96 khz or 24 bit more the stuff like the soundstage etc... on a lucky day day I bought a second hand Sennheiser IE800 And it works like a charm for me, the hardest part is the right silicone earpiece..
Hi, thank you for your work. What do you think about EQ an headphone by compare with tones pressure on reference speaker placed front of you ? There is a program for that but I don't find it. You need to listen a fixed tone (ex 500Hz) between every step to recalibrate your ear. I found this very interesting but I havn't the needed gear (and time :D)
You would optimise too much for your own HRTFs which would result in too wrong results for others probably. My goal was to offer the same strict response with as little deviation as possible to everyone. But of course if you want to optimise for yourself I would probably take the effort and perform such an equalising. But I found that in my case the Harman curve is a pretty decent approximation of a neutral speaker with some place for discussion regarding bass amount, so I didn’t feel the need to perform this test on a strict basis so far but I would really like to do it once
@@oluvsgadgets Thank for you reply. Of course that was a self equalisation. About your projet, I'm waiting a wired solution for my needs 😁
hello oluv
I am honestly curious what you think of the Koss KSC75 headphones. Have you had the opportunity to listen to them? They are often described as a kind of "audiophile pass". they cost relatively cheap for their capabilities and in my opinion (they serve as my everyday headphones) they sound incredibly flat, have a great separation of instruments and a wide sound stage.
They have a lively, airy sound.
It seems to me that they are a perfect example of the fact that great headphones do not have to be expensive.
They arleady have a "legend" status on the internet.
Have a good day! Greetings from Poland :)
They are decent for what they are but they are just cheap on ear headphones which cause even more variation in sound between different listeners
Audio Technica M20x M30x M40x sound way better than KSC75
I didn’t listen to Koss KSC75 but I really liked the Sennheiser PX / PMX 95, if you find them somewhere at the flea market be sure to try them, I would call them legendary too because the sound they really have the golden mean among open headphones, there is no crime in the sound and he himself very pleasant, natural and musical. My experience of using them for many years, did not find better headphones for this period, and even more so at a comparable price. Great for any genre of music.
@@Smzxe audio technicas are way overrated IMO not sure why everyone is praising them
@@oluvsgadgets I don't know they are overrated
have you actually tested the M40x?
I have heard M20x it was sounding alright
I was using in ears from 2 years now but I stopped
I don't like in ears now because they cause infections block hearing and And irritating they can even damage hearing
No matter what volume you're listening in in-ear earphones they will damage your hearing
I was listening to 70% volume then I switched to 40% volume but my left ear was hearing less it caused infection
But I stopped using in-ears now my ears are totally fine
I'm lucky my hearing is fine I stopped using them
I would rather prefer listening to Speakers or Over ear headphones
Don't ever buy in-ears everyone if you want to live a happy life
Just hear things around in your life
In the end it's like with shoes/clothes. You can pay 100$ or 1000$ for factory made shoes, but custom shoes from a shoemaker will suit you perfectly. Every factory shoe CAN suit you great out of coincidence, but a high price tag is no guarantee that it fits better. So if someone really wants to pay more to get something better, custom made products are really the best way for that. It's really ironic that this topic gets nearly to no attention, outside from places like here, especially given the high price from some "high-end" products, that are also only factory made with the average person in mind.
Hi, interesting channel. I am wondering if you heard new 1MORE Evo tuned by a 4-time Grammy Award Winning sound engineer, Luca Bignardi. I find them pretty neutral. What is your recommendation for best IEM up to $200-300?
You really have something here.
The original oe tuning allready sounded nice but the new one tuned to my own resonance(7000hz) sounds obviously smoother and more correct.
I will probably get the free pro 2 if you can get the tuning right.
Hi! What ear mics do You use to reccord the sound? Tnx 4 replay :)
So you picked the Earfun Free Pro 2 instead of the EarFun Air Pro 2 like you mentioned in the comments in the video "Earfun 3rd anniversary sales and other surprises"? Were the EarFun Air Pro 2 not as good or too difficult to tune? Or was that just a typo?
I personally do not like the fit from the Air Pro 2 and it won’t remember the settings after power down.
Hallo Olaf,
das hat zwar nix mit diesem Video zu tun, aber hast du schon gewusst das es seit kurzem das Firmware Update 1.35 für den Motion Boom gibt? In der Update-Beschreibung steht nur "Fehlerbehebung". Vielleicht beseitigt es ja die Bassschwankungen bei niedriger Lautstärke, die einige mit dem Boom und dem Boost upgraded haben.
Ich kann dazu leider nix sagen, da bei mir, mit meinem Huawei Honor Android Smartphone das Problem bei beiden Speakern nicht auftritt.
Eine fröhliche Weihnachtszeit wünsche ich, bleibt gesund!
Just got some Sedna Earfit Crystal for my Earfun free pro Oluv Edition, really nice seal, sounds great.
Oluv - Don't you think there's a difference between Balanced Armature\Dynamic\Planer drivers?
Decay, speed, whole lot of science and proof behind different technologies besides tuning...
Won't you agree that they have different performance in decay even if EQ the same?
there will be for sure differences to some degree, but it's questionable if those would be hearable at all. Biggest errors in a reproduction system are THD and resonances. If your system suffers from this the fastest decay doesn't matter as the resonances (in this case peaks from the driver, your earcanal etc) will mask every other aspect. You need to correct for those first before even talking about aspects like speed, decay etc.
There is no such thing as speed. If your driver is not moving at a specific speed you wouldn't hear those frequencies. Speed is just a shift in frequency response.
@@Tesseract9630 sounds actually plausible to me and proves why I get way more details as soon as the treble smoothens up becoming transparent so that you can see through up to the highest registers without any peak obstructing the view.
Hi i have fiil t1 pro. I hope you have a guide on the proper tuning of it? By the way im not very technical in music, but i want the way you tune the sounds
A lot of people aren't comfortable with EQ aka "digital manipulation" so they want the best sound they can get without. To some extent more some expensive headphones offer things the cheaper ones don't so in this situation it is fine to spend the money if that's what you enjoy. It is far from optimal, but for most it doesn't really matter anyway.
Most listeners also have preferences for sound that might not match the most realistic or accurate reproduction.
That said I do appreciate you working on this stuff and I think there is potential for something good to come out of it.
What about the ER2? I think those would have smoother response in practice. Is it too dark sounding for you?
I loved it and it was my main inspiration when I did the original OE tuning. In the meantime I think the target it just not correct and I have issues with the deep insertion as my ear canals are rather narrow
It's in the uncanny valley of "neutrality" for me for sure. Not quite right but also not very wrong either. And the smoothness and clarity of Etymotic IEMs is unmatched.
@@SoundWaveTrax it’s exactly that smoothness that I am trying to achieve here
I remember in early 2000 on polish hi-end audio forum (back then there was a lot less bullshit and many ppl actually understand audio on a level where discussion made sense) we discovered that on hd580 and hd600 all of us had a dead spot on sine sweep (ranging from -10dB to -inf in ~50% of the cases) somewhere between 6k and 10k. Mine is at ~8k -inf, and until today on all hd600 like phones (580, 58x, 600, 650, 6xx) I have this dead spot. Anyway over lat 20 years I still use hd600 as my main and reference headphone. I also have have earfun OE and consider them well sounding and balanced.
Of course as people didn’t have that much money to spend on snake oil and had to make careful research before spending 2 months of salary on some headphone, thanks to UA-cam influencers everything has changed in the meantime and every new headphone released becomes a must have…
@@oluvsgadgets years ago youtube became themtube because the msmedia were so annoyed that normal grassroots folk were getting more views than them (and also exposing msmedia for the lies they spin) so they set up all their little actor shills to be top youtubers to push their narratives and many agendas forward . Its all been exposed many years back . Google has also silenced thousands of legit real doctors and top professors over the past 2 yrs ---- i wonder why .
@@JonnyParker- It’s absolutely true. Countless independent media haven’t seen an increase in their subscriber count in years, despite having videos getting 100k+ views regularly. UA-cam is actively suppressing certain creators
@@oluvsgadgets Hi big fan here, have you try expensive cables such as usb cable, interconnects cable and expensive dacs ? Opinion ?
@@nicktan4530 Snake oil
I think the same is true of our eyes that we get used to looking at different devices. I have been trying to calibrate ("equalize") various old CRTs lately.
good luck with that, you always need a reference, without reference you can get great result but they will be off in absolute terms.
Can you apply this tuning to any PEQ, or is it dependant on the driver's themselves? I have UAPP on Android with PEQ, but I also use Amazon HD, so I presume I would need a system level EQ, or something that tapped into the Bluetooth stack to use that. I don't actually use a Dongle DAC I just route UAPP via Bluetooth.
You directly adjust the PEQs inside the unit
The thing about ears and brain adjusting to certain sounds always made me wonder: what do you personally use as your reference? I sometimes feel like my brain will just happily adjust to anything I use and I can only detect differences when switching. Feels like my memory of frequency responses is really really weak. There are so many variables and I listen to music on so many different devices and in different environments that I don't think I could ever be able to do what you do: just put on a pair of headphones and be able to tell their frequency response is off (I'm talking about Bose levels of "off", not nuances). Is it a matter of having a reference to come back to, or more trained and sensitive ears, or both?
I once sat down and tried equalising the HD600 to my ilouds just in terms of frequency response. Actually the Optimum Hifi profile from Oratory1990 was already very close to that timbre I just needed some slight further adjustment. Now the HD600 with EQ flat profile is more or less my reference to get the overall color similar, although the HD600 with flat still has some flaws, but those are probably just my HRTFs, but the equalised Earfun sounds smoother, it has hardly any dips or peaks in the treble region, just butter smooth given that you listen with the indented tuning for your own ear canal resonance.
As long as the brain doesn't need too long to adopt to the new sound, it should be fine I would say. For me it's actually when I am listening to the HD600 and switching to my Earfun tuning it just opens up more with more transparency, more smoothness, more detail and way better sound stage. Sound stage is totally 3d-like more similar to the HD800S.
Pink noise must be smooth with no obvious harshness, it can have a color, some area may be boosted, just like it's the case if you turn your head around while listening to pink noise it will change the timbre, but it must never sound harsh with some frequency dominating. If this sounds right the music will sound just amazing. Btw, the HD600 is already pretty flat to begin with, thus it doesn't need much correction at all.
@@oluvsgadgets Thank you!
@@paweadamczyk4096 you can basically choose any headphone and just apply one of Oratory's EQs, but most are only available with Harman's bass shelf. Optimum Hifi is the same just without that bass boost. Then check if a sine sweep is more or less constant. It will raise up to 3.5K that's normal but up from there there shouldn't be too much variation in amplitude anymore. I still get a dip at 5.6K and a peak at 6.8 and 8 despite the flat EQ, but that's probably my indidvidual ear resonances.
@@oluvsgadgets EQ pshhh, TIMBRE ftw!
I've wondered about it for a while, why does auto-eq always sound so horrible? Is it because of the introduced phase as function of frequency?
It depends what you tune. With IEMs it’s close to impossible to get a usable result without optimising for a given resonance
what equipment is necessary to load another eq onto these earfuns?
S12iem i got for £95 competitive or even beats iems at 300-500+ and one i tuned it was an truly magical experience and my hd599 ones tuned i enjoy more than hd600s at over half the price with no extra cost on dac/amps so people get caught up in model number or expense fallacy and burn money for no reason when the performance is negligible if not worse
So am I right that I can buy the Ear Fun Free Pro 2 and then await for Oluv's tuning (which I apply via EQ somehow through some app?)
Or is there going to be a specific Earfun Free Pro 2 Oluv Edition that I need to buy?
Bit confused
No just the regular version there won’t be any special edition
I think, if I'm not confused, the oluv edition comes with oluvs first eq already flashed on, but you could buy the non oluv edition of the free pro 1 (apparently the raw tuning is better) and pay 10 dollars on the patreon and apply one of the eqs.
@@666dreamboat yes exactly after i discovered a way to access the internal settings thanks to one of my viewers I wanted to improve on the original tuning and also adjust this tuning towards other ear canal resonances, to offer the same response to everyone. that’s actually hell of a work.
@@666dreamboat Fantastic, thanks for the clarity
@@oluvsgadgets Thanks for all your hard work, it's not unnoticed
ONE question, q30 vs Bose qc35|| vs xm3 vs b&w px7 for IPhone 13pro max and fiio btr5
Price is doesn’t matter, Bon Jovi Zimmerman Braveheard movies(action) Ed Sheehan
Recommendation?
I love some “wide soundstage”:)
Hope eqs for earfun free pro 2s are released! Thanks for the info
If enough people came and supported my effort sure…
@@oluvsgadgets Sounds good sir, ordered the free pro 1s to do so! 🧐👌
@@locotek I would have got the Pro 2, it is much better hardware wise and reacts better to EQ obviously.
@@oluvsgadgets Have those as well, waiting for the eq stuff to get finalized for them! Thanks for your hard work
What about distortion and ringing of the drivers? Surely, some have more distortion than others and ring more at certain frequencies, which can also affect the perception of sound quality. There are many headphones that have several percent of distortion even in the mid high frequencies from 2-4 kHz where out ears are most sensitive. I am not sure exactly, but I heard that our ears can perceive distortion above 1%, especially in the higher frequencies.
There are also headphones that have resonances/ringing. Below 1kHz, ringing usually manifests itself as slow decay across a broad range of frequencies, encompassing all or most of the bass through low midrange frequencies. I am pretty sure that headphones with too much decay below 1 Khz will be perceived as having slower/mushier/ less controlled bass vs. those that have quicker decay down there. As for frequencies above 1Khz, resonances usually come in the form of peaks affecting narrow frequency ranges. These may have the effect of reducing perceived treble clarity.
I believe closed back, over ear headphones are most susceptible to ringing issues, where most of these problems are due to cup resonances. Inexpensive dynamic driver open back headphones usually suffer from fairly high distortion the the bass, whereas planar headphones have what is known in audiophile circles as "ortho walls", but I heard those are barely, if at all audible.
Would be interesting to test try this out with some blind test
Would you guys recommend getting the free pro or wait to get the free pro 2 until oluv’s tuning is complete?
For the price get pro first then the 2... the pro is already done...the 2 is a working progess.
Given the price, I'd probably just grab the first one for now
Thank you👍 . Is it possible to buy the music used ? I remember you know well the musicians. Regards
Sure here you have their releases:
soulpersona.bandcamp.com
Also check out Princess Freesia who is working on an own solo album right now:
soulpersona.bandcamp.com
Here is her new album project: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/princess-freesia-new-album---return-to-pleasure
Do the earfun pro 2’s have pressure equalization like AirPods Pro?
What is the best headphone for sound that is around 200-400 dollars? Don’t want to spend a thousand dollars and want to pair it with ifi dac 2
Thank you for this! In the last few years I've been looking for a set of IEMs that 'just work', from cheap like Tin and KZ, and now with expensive Moondrop gear - but I keep running into odd issues that I've been calling "ergonomic" problems: The shift in sound from insertion depth and units that slowly work themselves out of your ears because of weight or size...
In particular, I always wondered why the KZ AS16 sounded so good to me with that insane 7kHz peak, while the 'smoother', 'more accurate' accurate B2:D and S8 have an odd mid/upper-mid response. It has to be something in regards to the bore size and insertion depth. I notice the Moondrops don't shift in sound so much as other brands in regards to insertion and jaw motion. I always felt like the B2:D had 'hollow' upper mids and it must be due to the target. The S8 is better for me but now I want to play with the resonance more. My personal EQ for these adds a db or so across 2k-4.5k and it feels smoother to my ears with that bump.
Hey oluv,
Der neue boomster von Teufel kann jetzt sogar per tws als paar gekoppelt werden. Also stereo im Grunde. Ich glaube der würde dir tatsächlich gefallen. Wollte mir den mal holen und bei Interesse kann ich dir den zusenden.
Great. Finaly someone who makes sense on this topic.
Absolutely agree, you don't have to spend thousands of $$ to get a great sound experience. Every time I listen to my blon-bl3 I am astounded by how good they sound for so little money, given that I have headphones for 200$, 800$. They are definitely not as fast or detailed but they matched my ears in a way that the Soundstage they create for me is wider than anything I heard before, and they present the sound in ways that you really aren't missing anything from the music.
“Speed and detail” are just a consequence of FR.
@@beliveinurself I would disagree here, because I definitely noticed that planars bass notes decay tangibly more quickly compared to dynamics. I think this is what is actually meant by "speed".
As for "detail" it is much more confusing to me, because in all of my decent headphones I can distinguish MP3 from Flac with the same rate of success even though some of them seem more detailed at first, which means what? they are all bad, or they are all equally good in the detail category ?!!
@@beliveinurself so if I EQ my Jabra I use for work, can I reach the same details and speed of my Shure 1540 or Sundara...... OK.
How good is the Blon really?
The Jbl Xtreme 3 has been updated with an Equalizer in the portable app. Can you maybe a video over it?
I don’t really care
You don't really seem to touch much on Etymotic iems, but they are as close to perfection as you are describing due to their extremely deep insertion, which not much else aims for. They're designed to seal against the bony part of the ear canal and eliminate resonances from the fleshy part towards the outside of the canal. Many other IEMs have resonances due to the shallower insertion and peaks/dips that aren't present in Etymotics with a proper deep seal. At this point you can then EQ the lower distortion models like the ER2SE to your preference, but the stock tuning is extremely nice and I have never heard treble as well tuned.
Etymotic can actually vary just the same with treble depending on which tips you use if there is some overpressure inside your ear etc and it’s simply cumbersome to wear. I often needed serval attempts to get the fit right.
@@oluvsgadgets I pull back from the side of my ear and twist the IEMs in to ensure I never get blocked off sound and maintain proper insertion depth
I’m an Ety fan but the fit itself can throw off the frequency presentation. Also, each person is somewhat unique. For me, the Blessing 2 is very much along the same lines. No song sounds particularly harsh unless it’s in the recording. They may sound boring at first but give them time. Combined spatial DSP and SubPac it’s my own private hifi / home theatre setup. Really comfortable too (though this as well is independent). The new Etymotic Evo has some similarities in presentation to the Blessing 2. Etymotic along with Sennheiser are pioneers. Consider the age of the original designs the ER4 and HD650 / 600 are still top picks today.
Oluv, have you tried Sennheiser Momentum TW 2? I think you might wanna borrow them (and then probably buy them 🤣) because I think they overplay any in-ear and you probably could use it as a reference for tuning your new earbuds. Anyway - all the best!
Are you serious or kidding?
@@oluvsgadgets no, I am not. A friend of mine bought them and compared to your Ear Fun (which I nought a while ago) and Ear Fun Pro (which he bought a while ago) they sound significantly clearer and detailed. I was hoping to see a video about them on your patreon but I was not successful when looking for it.
@@SamuelNovota Earfun Free Pro with default tuning? surely it will sound better than those, but it's still crap with horrid peaks in the upper mids and scooped out mids. They sound just like all the other IEM crap being sold. Try my latest tuning for the Earfun Free Pro optimised for your ear canal resonance and then compare again...
@@oluvsgadgets hahahahahha if Pro is crap - what about your first Ear Fun (no pro version)? I have no idea where to get or how to set your EQ. I highly doubt it will make such a difference but I am willing to try it. I still cannot tell whether you have listened to Momentum TW 2 or not. Have you?
@@SamuelNovota the Earfun Free was a desaster I just had some days and the final result was nowhere close to my intended tuning, the overall balance is just off with too much bass, there was no time anymore to correct for this, but it would have become great if it worked. The TW2 is horrid by just looking at the measurement, with a peak at 6.5 another one at 10 and no mids, do you really like that sound, what's your usual reference? crinacle.com/graphs/iems/graphtool/?share=IEF_Neutral_Target,Momentum_TWS_2
How to deal with the effect of Fletcher-Manson curves, the change in the perception of the frequency response when the volume changes, especially noticeable at high frequencies at high listening volumes. It would be nice to implement the technology to compensate for this effect in bluetooth headphones. I use different EQ presets, or I don't listen loudly. Or this effect is not so noticeable for the rest, it’s interesting.
The thing with those curves, is that they're natural and inherent to our lives.
Take it away and compensate for it, and it's less natural sounding.
@@mikafoxx2717 On the contrary, natural sounding at low volume becomes uncomfortable at high volume. Adjusting the frequency response for high volume returns comfort and natural sound perception.
End game IEM's & DAP for me is ThieAudio Monarch MK1 + ThieAudio smart cable paired with Cayin N6II with swappable DAC+AMP modules. mobile setp is my iPhone 12 pro Max + EarFun Free Pro which sound 3X better than Apple Airpods Pro.
There should be some research into those frequency bumps and the occurrence of Tinnitus. Those bumps look very high dB wise, relative to the average volume. So you might think something is not loud at all while a certain frequency it's already damaging your hearing over extended periods of time.
I've purchased all my headphones based on your reviews and they bring a smile every time 😊
I would love to see oluv get a hands on the lcd5, eq it and then compare it to the earfun, I wanna know if there is a difference in resolution, soundstage, imaging or other technicalities. Since although I agree to oluv on most part, I still believe the drivers quality/technology implemented is still as important as the frequency response, theres a reason why other audio reviewers like crinacle or Resolve dont take fr as the most important part of the headphone/iem and why they would justify an expensive price tag . The raw resolution on the drivers is the limiter and the most important thing I consider in iems/headphones and I could just simply mod it or eq it to my liking, and I really dont know if that dual composite dynamic driver of the ear fun pro is the best in that regards.
This is exactly my thought aswell. Even if i eq a cheap iem perfectly to my preference so that the tonality is basically perfect it still sounds extremely undetailed and congested in comparison to something like a hd800s. I agree with oluv that the tonality is the most important thing when it comes to soundquality but he totally ignores that there are other aspects to soundquality like detail and soundstage which unfortunately cannot be fixed with eq.
@@Florianski if your cheap driver doesn’t have any resolution it’s because some frequencies are still masking others. You need to get a smooth response with not obvious frequency dominating then you will get more detail than out of a “high-end” driver with peaks all over. The target is not even that important as the brain will get used to any timbre after some while. The trick is to have an even spectrum without any harshness as this will tend to mask frequencies nearby and also interfere with other parts of the spectrum. It’s not easy and it always takes me hours to get that response half finished until I start to work on the details.
My current tuning for the Free Pro 2 sounds just as detailed as the HD800S just without this expressive treble boost. I will also try to prepare a tuning which simulates the response of the HD800S then you can check if you hear any differences
@@oluvsgadgets no seriously, i have used many different headphones and iems in very different price classes (from 10 euros up to over 2000 euros) and i always tinker around with eq until i like them. I have tried to do it by ear but this usually didnt satisfy me so i tried softwares like toneboosters and the auto-eq project (these work similarily to sonarworks). With these eq presets the tonality of even a cheap kz iem becomes basically perfect. But when i compare the kz iem with eq and the hd800s also eq'd to the same target so that their tonality is almost exactly the same the lack of detail really becomes aparent on the kz. Try it out on some really busy orchestral recordings where many instruments play at once for example the soundtrack of "Ark survival evolved". Here the kz really struggles and all the instruments sound mushed together like one thick soup and the hd800s manages to make me feel as if i am in the middle of the orchestra and i can hear every individual instrument.
Now i completely agree, that the price to performance ratio of high end headphones is garbage, a cheap iem with good dsp will get you easily 80% there. But its just wrong to say that there is no other aspect to soundquality other than the frequency response.
Detail is just frequency response. This is very apparent when you EQ the HD800. When you tame the treble it loses a lot of its sharpness and the imaging can suffer too (especially if you eq the upper treble).
An ER2 or ER4, when properly inserted, will have just as much detail as an HD800 but without the sharpness. IEMs don't do soundstage as well because they have a more direct sound (no outer ear interaction).
@@SoundWaveTrax then according to your logic all iems should sound exactly the same if they are eq'd to the same target. But that is absolutely not the case (ive tried this myself). How do you explain that?
At this point in time, that band should be paying you for Media Exposure!😉🤫🤭😇 How do I figure out my ear canal resonance if interested? I have no idea of mine. Is there a sound test? Considering the pro 2 with the feature you are developing.😇
You just perform a sine sweep and check where you get the highest amplitude
@@oluvsgadgets
Thanks!🤗
Thanks you 🙂
I know they are mostly expensive but what are your thoughts on CIEMS ?
If the mold also accounts for your ear canal resonance meaning that it’s adjusted towards your resonance it’s the only way but I assume CIEMs are just to get the perfect seal and fit. I never had the chance to try one
I have the Earfun Free Pro 2, so I am interested to hear that you were involved with their production. Will you do a video just about them? Great sounding and fitting earbuds, very respectable features, but I hate the stock tips
I was not involved in any way and I am not getting any shares from the sales. My tuning I am working on right now will sound even more amazing than what I managed before
@@oluvsgadgets my mistake, in the video it sounds like you’re saying you are/were working on the earbuds, but I realise now you meant the new tuning. Thank you for clarifying. Would still be interested on your opinion of the new buds
@@scannermobs they are better than the previous ones in all regards and sound is customisable anyhow although the raw tuning is different and I would even say worse now I opted for another tuning now and have the impression as I managed even a better result now, it sounds more open more spacious and more detailed.
You should create your own headphones with an over ear and in ear with different options for different ears. I would buy that instantly!
It’s in works
Are you saying that anker q30 and earfun oluv edition are going to sound better than my lcd-x and sundara?
Sundara? hahaha... the Q30 not, but the Earfun Free Pro 2 with my current tuning you bet! What makes the Sundara or LCD-X so special? Please tell me!
@@oluvsgadgets They sound better than my cheaper headphones and iem, I have more fun listening to them and they sound more musical and emotional to me. Also the build quality and materials on lcd-x is amazing feels much more premium than everything else I got.
@@omarion2k well then, enjoy them, but I would encourage you to try my tuning. You will forget then about all snakeoil....
@@oluvsgadgets Thanks I am going to try it for sure to see how it is.
What headphones would you buy for yourself if you had only around like 200$ ? Just for enjoying music at home
In regards to my previous comment, I can add that I do seem to clearly hear differences in driver quality between different headphones. For example, my AKG K553 Pro is a nice headphone, but the treble just isn't as clean as that of most decent open headphones and I don't think it has anything to do with frequency response. This headphone has a fair bit of ringing in the highs that is seen in measurements and I think I definitely hear these issues. The highs on them lack refinement and finesse vs something like HD600 for instance. Details may all be there, but fine texture of cymbals, micro detail if you will, is significantly smeared/masked on the K553 vs HD600.
I also strongly believe that my Hifiman HE-560, Sundara and Focal Utopia for example have higher bass quality than my HD650. There's just no way frequency response EQ can fix this. The bass on the HD650 is always audibly looser, less controlled and just murkier, less clear sounding overall than that of the other 3 and I am sure it has to do with the significantly higher distortion and/or slower decay on the HD650 vs. the others.
However, I also think fast decay can "override" high distortion and cause sound quality to be perceived as higher than it would appear just based on distortion measurements alone. This seems to be the case with my Shure SRH-1840. This headphone is measuring with very high distortion in the bass and low mids, reaching up to 10%, even at moderate volumes. However, the headphone also has pretty fast decay in those same frequency ranges. I perceive the bass quality of the SRH-1840 to be in some ways cleaner than that of the HD650, even though the Shure has higher distortion. I am not 100% sure, but I think the HD650 has slower decay in the bass. I think this perception may be due to the fact that we hear higher distortion less well at lower frequencies, whereas slower decay may be more audible.
Hopefully we are able to solve this mystery someday because that has been my experience for many years. You cannot just EQ an MH755 and suddenly get the same delicate treble texture, soundstage width, imaging, and dynamics of high end headphones with more exotic drivers
@@metal571 Absolutely. Thats also my experience.
@@metal571 Totally agree. Technicalities and timbre cannot be shown on a FR graph and no matter how much one can correct it, it's not going to turn a loose muddy mid bass leaky headphone into a tight fast and textured bass. FR is only one part of the whole.
Do you have any wired earbuds that you recommend under $100? Seems to be a dying market
Thank you for your insights. I too have come to the conclusion that headphones cannot sound as clean as IEMs due to the inherent interactions headphones have with the head and ear. To me there are certain benefits to the experience of listening to headphones - soundstage and impact of bass, for example. But none of my headphones, including >$500 ones I own, ever come close to the clean sound that can be reproduced by even a $50 IEM.
You need to experience it once to believe it. My first time was with an Etymotic, as I never heard such a smooth sound from any other headphone just the balance was never quite right on any of them
@@oluvsgadgets I agree! The frequency response of most headphones simply look like - and sound like - a hot mess. Sitting at my desk listening to headphones such as the Eikon, Elex, and Sundara they cannot compare in terms of smooth and clear sound of TWS such as the Sony XM4, or IEMs such as the Tripowin Mele or even Blon-03, much less more capable IEMs such as the Kato, S8F, or Oracle. Then with the power of EQ these in ears can be improved to another level! Yes, over ears definitely have a more enveloping experience with bigger soundstage and impactful bass, but if the tonality is hard to listen to, then it is not worth the trade off. BUT, I appreciate that this is not a universal opinion and I respect those who feel differently. I don’t understand them, but I respect them!
@@jamesmiller4487 exactly my thoughts. I wonder how you would perceive my current tuning for the Free Pro 2 I am currently working on. The Elex sounds broken against it, as if it was chopped by some distortion-effect, although tonality-wise they still resemble each other, it is just this transparency, this 3d-ness which is completely missing from the Elex. The Free Pro 2 basically destroyed most headphones for me.
@@oluvsgadgets I am planning on buying the Free Pro 2 and signing up as a Patreon to find out! 😀
@@jamesmiller4487 give me some days to finish everything, really curious to hear your verdict then. drop me a line once you are in so we can discuss a bit more.
Only qudelix 5k has a 30 parametric equalizer, it's a bluetooth adapter, and it's a good quality amp/dac
Can the tuning app be accessed on a PC? If we don’t have an Android device
Unfortunately only android
Watching 10 min and after that reading 5-6 comments I got reminded about Aesop's fable The Fox and the Grapes.
As for the price, I agree with the author, there was once a Sennheiser PX / PMX 95 with a natural musical sound, much cooler than even the current "audiophile" HD 599. The sound of the PX / PMX 95 was musical, perky and captivating, not muddy and not harsh, very transparent, the golden mean, I was very pleased with them, besides, you can replace the ear pads with more transparent ones to reduce bass and increase detail and brightness if you want and vice versa. The more expensive HD 599 cannot boast of this, plus they have a lot of crime in the sound itself in the form of an echo on the vocals and the sound that is perceived inside the head despite the open design. So the price is far from saying anything. It is a pity that they are no longer produced, I have not found a replacement for them for many years.
Would love to hear the PMX 95 once, never had the chance
@@oluvsgadgets hifishark has some new PX 95, maybe you will have time to take them or wait for someone to sell again, this is a different model but the same line, the sound they should be similar, periodically appear there. It would be very interesting to know your opinion about them on the video
@@oluvsgadgets and by the way it is currently sold only in Germany in Hamburg without shipping in other countries, perhaps this is really your chance. And if you live in Austria then excuse me, I didn’t know that, I just saw a language similar to German on your website, so I thought that you were from Germany. I don't know much about this because I myself am from Russia
hey oluv have you tried the Sony MH755? many peoples said that MH755 is better than MH1, MH755 is harman target too
It’s worse actually, it’s also above the target just too shouty overall
@@oluvsgadgets thanks glad to know that now! im buying mh1 because of your videos and wow im so amazed! thanks for the honest and unbiased review oluv i really appreciate it.
for about 2 years i went on a dumb headphone/iem binge trying to find the grail. in the end i settled with eq'ing my 6 year old hd 599's because that made them sound better than everything else. for IEMs i only use the cca cra now because it has my preferred frequency response and a neutral fit in ear... and it's a $10 throwaway. there was also a recent drama with KZ selling IEMs with fake drivers, which is what finally put me off the whole wired side of the audio world
Can you share your e.q settings for hd599
@@sbsid1994 I just use simple peak filters with default peace settings. 1700 +4db, 3100 -4db, 11000 +4db, 14000 +4db. Midrange eq removes the clock speaker tonality for vocals and the treble eq gives them a little bit of extra energy. Didn't touch bass
The Earfun Free Pro sounds great around 6000hz and 6200hz.
Can be used for any iem and overhead headphones
What are these binaural microphones he’s using ?
Can u review the B&O H95? Everyone I know raves about it
So true!!
Kommen noch die Bose Soundlink flex ?
Oluv, thank you for making this video! I became interested in audio gear after becoming interested in PC hardware, where there are much more well-defined price:performance tiers than in audio. With an Nvidia GPU, I know a 3070 will cost more and perform better than a 3060, or an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU will cost less and (generally) perform less than a Ryzen 7. But in audio, these tiers aren't so clear - a Sennheiser HD600 isn't worse than a 650 even though it is cheaper. A $300 headphone can sound much better to me than a $1000 one - this has been a hard concept for me to learn, but videos like these help a lot.
I own the HD 650 since 2013 - it does sound differently, i do know the HD 600 quite well, mind you. Listening to a OpAmp modded Essence STX, FiiO K5 Pro, and Lehmann Cube. The HD 650 scales better, when the Headphone Amp gets better.
You are an absolute legend, keep up the good work!
About the music business being a money machine - isn't this the case with almost every aspect of consumerism? A stupid comparison I make every time is between old and new kitchen appliances - the ones from the 60s still work, and the new ones tend to need servicing way more often. Things are made today in a way that you are encouraged to change them frequently. It is just the way it is, and it is hard to find some brands/manufacturers who actually do a good job today, and that is why we are all on a constant hunt for products which are "best value" or "good bang for a buck".
Regarding headphones and speakers, everybody hears a sound a little bit different (or simply has different preferences), so everyone is entitled to their opinion, but keep in mind that in every field where you have enthusiasts you WILL get bad comments if you trash a well known or higher-end brand. It is just the way it is.
Having said all that, I wouldn't be bothered too much with what anyone says. You do your thing, and the support and acknowledgment will come (if it hasn't already).
etymotic er2se has been endgame for a long time
if you want to rape your ears sure. I got issues with it and I think their target is not great
But i must confess the smooth response of the Etymotic was the reason to dig deeper into this. And why I started to analyse why it sounds so much better than any other IEM I tried. The OE was the first approach towards this although I still underestimated the individual ear canal influence for the final result which I tried to correct for recently.
The response of the Etymotic is far from perfect but due to its smoothness with no obvious peaks the brain will immediately take it as granted. Most experts will differ but IMO a smooth response with no obvious peak is more important than the overall timbre which can be either bass heavy or treble heavy to some degree as long as it’s not excessive you will get used to it after a while. The problem is most also get used to a response full of peaks, although if they start to interfere with the peaks of your own HRTFs it becomes really nasty. But many obviously still don’t care otherwise I cannot understand how a product like the Q45 can even be accepted let alone sold.
@@oluvsgadgets Bahahaha
@@xXxRK0xXx hahaha…
@@oluvsgadgets Etymotic gets comfortable after some time as you mentioned in your ER4XR video. The response of the Etymotic ER2SE follows the Dolby Cinema X-Curve when compensated for a flat in-room DRP response. "Neutral, honest, transparent, very detailed, with lots of air around instruments. Yes, the soundstage is of course not somehow broad, but it's realistic." - your ER4XR video. You then went on to shill the ER2SE in the comment section of that video.
Hi Oluv, can you maybe do some sound tests with smart speakers? The Headphone tests you do recently are not very intereting for me, but smartspeakers are becoming a growing market and may be a good way to get some more viewers. I'm thinking like the small ones from Apple, Amazon, Sonos etc. Just for sound quality, not the smart stuff. I've seen some reviews, but they all have shit recording quality, and you are still the gold standard. Would be awesome! Thanks!
I don’t have the money to buy all this. The sound will be crappy anyhow, get a Sonos or some other stuff. But it will never sound as great as a decent headphone or IEM
@@oluvsgadgets I know they don't sound great, I have many other big speakers to enjoy music. Just want them as a cheap convenient alternative for the occasional background sound with voice commands. If you could make it happen somehow, it would be awesome.
@@lemmontree1 take the Sonos Roam
My 20 year old HD600 sounds different than a new HD600. .....also I am very confident that by me being an IT guy listening to an HD600 at my desk all day for 20 years has burned that into my head as a reference. I got an early HD800 and SPL Auditor amp. I loved the soundstage of it but I couldn't listen to it for more than about 45 minutes It was fatiguing in a way that only and audiophile that has experienced this would understand. After awhile, something about the impact of the treble? hurt my brain. ......anyway thank you for making these videos, I agree with your opinions far more than I disagree with them.
My AL Cheapo Chinese made AUSDOM wireless handphone costs less than $100 sounds quite good with some equalization. I like to disagree with Oluv, good sound handphone depends on more factors than just the frequency response of the drivers. Having said that frequency response do account for a dominant factor in sound reproduction.
If the driver and construction has no obvious flaws or causes some distortion you won’t hear any difference to a “high-end” driver if both will produce the same response at your eardrum. Most changes and effects regarding sound stage, detail etc are just a result of different responses
@@oluvsgadgets The material used in the drivers do give a characteristic sound e.g. electrostatic driver vs convention drivers, I am confident if you design 2 headphones with the same freq. resp. using these 2 drivers, they will sound different.
If you disagree then we agree to disagree.
@@yttean98 they sound different because they do not produce the same response. It you equalize some dynamic driver to offer you exactly the same response at your ear drum it will sound just the same as an electrostatic. I will prove this in future
@@oluvsgadgets you can't prove it from youtube beacuase we all hear with our devices with their own characteristics. We only can hear FR differences
HD800s or HD560S, which do you prefer and why?
Both are harsh but the HD800S has a more even harshness the entire treble is boosted equally while the HD560S peaks around 5khz thus masking upper treble more. The HD800S of course also has the nicer sound stage although I couldn’t figure out what the reason is for that difference
@@oluvsgadgets I think the deeper cups on the 800s give it that soundstage
@@JTB-- sound stage is still just a result of frequency response. But hard to actually measure. But the HD800S equalized will lose some of its “magic” it’s definitely the interaction of the ear cups with your concha that adds additional resonances or even phase shifts which may contribute to this, but in theory if you manage to get exactly the same frequency response the HD800S would give you at your ear drum it should result in a comparable sound stage. Keep in mind binaural localisation is just a matter of the sound waves being modified by your HRTFs from different angles of the frequency response. If a headphone measured matches that of speakers playing from front you should get a more realistic imaging and sound stage at the same time, I noticed that sound stage can change considerably on how upper mids and treble is rendered while not changing anything else.
first 2min was the catch .
nice words