Comments on Profile Post by Ti_Leo

To me "more true" refers to timbre, the ability of a headphone to reproduce the sound of instruments as they sound in person. Of course there are other factors as well, but if the timbre is off it cannot sound true to me.

I think a good part of that is how well amp can control the driver so it's able to properly reproduce the analogue signal being fed into it, tiny little textures and such. That said, yeah relatively accurate timbre is a big part of that too even if resolution of fine detail might not be great.

Maybe it's microdetails? But the volume is not so high, so maybe I can't hear that much of micro-stuff? But I don't think it's macrodetails? It Hifiman the "macrodetail king"? I never get the "true sound" feeling using Hifiman.

It's honestly a bit of everything. Let's say timbre is spot on but macrodynamics are flat, that's not going to sound true either because you're not going to get the dynamic contrasts you expect if you were hearing those instruments live. Microdetail gives you the little things like sustain or the sounds of bows against strings, the reverberations from drums.

Sorry I was interrupted while typing the last comment.

I did think about timbre, sure, if timbre is off then it sounds fake, but I don't know... accurate timbre is there a diminishing return on it? Or I mean, accurate timbre might not contribute that much to me? Since I just don't how real things sound like... But come to think of it, maybe, because this "true sound" feeling often links to "rendering" to me

Having enough plankton or ability to translate the sound in a way that isn't plasticky or metallic is enough for me to get my head bobbing. If I was to break plankton down, it's just a harmonic/efforless combination of macro and microdynamics with macrodetail and to a lesser extent, microdetail that is enough to resolve sound properly

And that's the hard thing for me to compare headphones: bad FR can be detected within seconds, but I just can't really tell if I'm missing the plankton or micro-stuff. The only measurement for me is whether I'm happy after > 1 hour of listening (or mushy if I focus on female vocal). (if the FR is passable at least)

It's also relative, once you hear something that's all around better in those areas it's hard to go back.

To me, if comparing headphones with totally different plankton profiles: Susvara OG and Caldera Closed, both have more than sufficient plankton to keep me happy for hours, but their FR and is totally opposite and even timbre is also very distinct from each other yet both resolve instruments and vocals, synths properly to me that I never felt bored or spending time critiquing their sonic profile

"More true" is relative to the listener. We all have different preferences (although good sound needs plankton). For me I place heavy emphasis on dynamics and transient performance as well as resolution.

I can't stand "boring." Boring usually means the sound is either insipid or just lacking.

Oh! I think transient performance makes sense, if it effects more on how the form of a sound was generated: like a plain digital file or like a stringy thing. It's more on how the beginning and the ending of a sound was rendered? So it should be dynamics, right?

I'm using a ribbon headphone, Gold Planar GL1200, if I could only use one word to describe the two CN ribbon headphones I've used, it should be "dynamics".

I might use the word "boring" wrong, since I wanted to isolate the fact that it's not some V-shaped FR made me lose it. But the headphones do sound a bit plain, as there's nothing special about the FR to me.

But I love these! It has the power that drags my attention as I play music through them while play rougelike games

@Merrick Agreed! But it kinda sucks in its own way. I somehow lost the joy of swapping headphones in my mid-fi purgatory: every headphone has its noticable specialties. Using better headphones makes me take the better SQ for granted and then when I try those "lesser" headphones I liked, they suck...

But hey, guess I need to do some gears purge now.

Oh geez, the dreaded "fun" tuning. "Fun" usually means it's terrible. Can't stand those either.

Swapping gear in mid-fi purgatory is just....madness. I value gear more that let me actually listen to whatever I want

To me, fun tuning can be some good sub-bass with slight upper-bass (?) boost to color the ambient warm-ish with hard hitting bass. And I don't think the "straight line" bass on most planar headphones is fun, but it's like this is the trend. Sigh.

True, the short term for my last comment is "spoiled". Do I like be spoiled? Yes, please!

Mid-fi purgatory seems fun when you first start because everything sounds a bit different and you learn what you value in sound. Then you hit a point where you go up to hifi and realize why mid-fi is purgatory.

To me, it’s plankton combined with a FR that doesn’t emphasise any particular range. I think the point is that the relative volume of overtones to each other must be correct to make an instrument sound like it does in reality.