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Sound Quality Overview
Regular InnerFidelity readers will know of my willingness to think the Harman Target Response curve is a step in the right direction. (Articles here, here, and here.) From what I can tell from measurements, the first category of headphones that seem to be approaching this tuning is the compact, circumaural, sealed, mobile headphone category. Headphones that most closely approximate this curve in their raw measurements are (roughly in order of best fit to worse, click for graphs): Oppo PM3; NAD VISO HP50; Audio Technica ATH-M50x; Focal Spirit…

Raw measurements show some significant variation in seal as I moved position on the head, possibly evidencing pull from the headband wanting to torque the bottom of the earpiece away from the head.

Though dropping off in the bottom octave, bass from 40Hz to around 200 Hz has a 5dB boost over the base mid-range reference point (roughly -30dB @ 250Hz on raw response). Thereafter it starts a slow climb to 1Khz, at which point it starts climbing faster to its eventual peak at 3kHz. The profile between…

Sennheiser HD 800 S ($1699)
When introduced in 2009, the Sennheiser HD 800 rapidly became recognized as one of the world's best headphones, having unbelievably good transient response and detail retrieval, spectacular imaging, and being competitive with the best electrostatics and planar magnetics—having some trade-offs here and there.

But the HD 800 is also quite problematic. It has a sharp sounding peak at around 6kHz that will, at times and with…

Shortly after pictures of the HD 800 S began appearing, the enthusiast community was abuzz with speculation about what Sennheiser had done in that middle hole. Never have so many stared at a black dot so intently, but one Frenchman stared so hard it began to give him super powers...or so he thought.

The HD 800 S became available in Europe, and our hero—Sorrodje from SBAF and tellementnomade.org in France—whipped out his now super-powered wallet (or so he thought) and bought a set of new HD 800 S late last year. He quickly retired to his secret lair and, armed with baguettes and…

Ed Note: The above plot is for the HD 800 S sent to me by Sennheiser and will be the topic of the following description. I have, however, put together a .pdf booklet of most measurements I took for this review, which includes the other two HD 800 S measured, and a number of other HD 800 measurements both stock and modified.

Raw frequency response plots show some changes in bass response with movement on the head. Impedance plots show the primary driver resonance at 110Hz; raw FR plots show ever…

This is the most comprehensive equipment review I've published in Innerfidelity, as the quality of the gear under test and its astounding price/performance ratio warrant our full attention.

The Oppo HA-2 is a compact DAC/headphone amp about the size of an iPhone 6, a little heavier, but that includes a high-current rechargeable battery which can be used as auxiliary power for your cell phone. It's finished in brushed aluminum covered with a smart stitched genuine leather cover which evokes the look of a classic carry-round…

Pretty much every day I get emails from folks who make fashion headphone touting both their beauty and sound quality. Sadly...frustratingly...these headphones almost never seem to pan out. It's gotten to the point I usually just delete the email and move on.

So, one day, I get an email from Caeden offering their new Linea No. 10 for my consideration. A good looking headphone, seemed a bit more credible than the emails that come direct from China. I didn't delete it, but I paused too long to answer and shortly forgot about…

Sound Quality
In absolute terms the sound of the Caeden Linea No.10 is just okay: bass is a little thick and murky, encroaching somewhat on the lower mid-range. Apart from that the mids are fairly good; vocals sound fairly natural. But as we transition from mids to treble I find a significant roll-off making voices sound fairly veiled. The treble too is somewhat laid back, and has the rather unusual characteristic of turning "sss" sounds more toward a "th" sound. A withdrawn mid-treble. High treble remains fairly intact.

So, it's easy to nit-pick these cans. But! The overall…

Measurements Bluetooth

Wired
Raw frequency response plot show relatively little change when repositioning on the head indicating an earpad seal that works quite well. Roughly 5dB boost in the bass is desirable, but it extends to about 250Hz, which is about 100Hz too high causing some bloating of the lower midrange.

The gentle rise in the midrange starting at about 500Hz is good; it should ideally start lower, but…

[Editor's Note: Through a long and tedious process it was found that the Focal Utopia and Audeze LCD-4 reviewed here at InnerFidelity in numerous articles were found to be not representative of currently manufactured product. This article is therefore not entirely indicative of our current impressions of this product. To get a complete understanding of our evaluation the reader should start with this summary article and work back through the articles leading up to our current understanding.]

For me, the story of the Audeze…