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How Insensitive! Part 1 of a Series

The Four Questions
Every prospective headphone and amplifier buyer needs the answers to these four questions:

These are basic questions, but headphone and…

What's in a name?
And BOOM! Acoustic Research, a brand long recognised amongst audio enthusiasts, shows up with their new planar magnetic AR-H1 at CanJam at RMAF 2017. Color me surprised!

Wait a sec...didn't I see recently that Acoustic Research was making outdoor patio speakers? Yep. So, who is AR anymore? Turns out they're is one of a dizzying array of brands owned by Voxx International including (and this is only naming a few that you might recognize): Terk (antennas); RCA (now making clock radios, cables, remote controls);…

Sound Quality
Bass on the Acoustic Research AR-H1 is tight, undistorted, and well extended. I do like a modestly elevated bass and the AR-H1 is flat, but open headphones rarely have an elevated bass response so no knocks there. Plenty of nuance and texture here, decent power handling as well. Bass is the strong point for these headphones.

Midrange is a little rough and sometimes hard sounding—especially at higher volumes—but the big problem is the upper midrange/low treble (1kHz-3kHz) is somewhat recessed causing the overall tone to lack presence and seem a little distant.…

Raw frequency response plots show a flat bass response to 200Hz. I like some emphasis, but bass response on an open headphone is rare. Midrange response from 200Hz to 1kHz is quite uneven. THis isn't necessarily a problem as the HiFiMAN HE1000 also has this character and is a very pleasant headphone to hear, but in this case I did hear these cans as lacking some coherence through the midrange and could get a little hard sounding—especially at high volume. The rise from 1kHz to 3kHz is a little rough, but more…

The Listening...or...Rumble in the Jungle
As you may recall, in Episode 20, I proposed that headphone amplifier's output levels and headphone sensitivities should all be reported in dBu. dBu enables any consumer to quickly predict the SPL of various headphones with the various amplifiers, without needing to use algebra or logarithms. They can simply add or subtract to arrive at a basic assessment of the output level (drive) capability of the amplifier matched with the headphone and the potential impact of amplifier noise.

So…

I know...I know...HD 660 S...I'm working on it, but can't rush the listening tests. So, I figured I'd get this one up...'cuz it didn't take much listening.

JBL Soundgear ($199)
Not long ago I wrote enthusiastically about the Bose SoundWear Companion neck-worn speaker. It was my first experience with such a device and it was, and continues to be, a very pleasant one. Way better than I expected. So, I figured I should look into some of the other options for this new type of device.

JBL was kind enough to send me their…

I'll not wax poetic this time regarding the long and storied history and my experiences with the HD 6xx family of Sennheiser headphones. For that, simply go have a look at my "The Very Important Sennheiser HD 580, HD 600, and HD 650" review.

For now it's sufficient to state that the Sennheiser HD 600 and HD 650 are probably the most highly regarded enthusiast headphone in the world, and I highly recommend both. The HD 650 is a bit too warm sounding for me (just a bit), and the HD 600 is my favorite of the two.

The…

Sound Quality
On a gross level the HD 660 S sound is similar to the HD 600 and 650. Zooming in a little closer I'd characterize the HD 650 as the warmest of the bunch and the HD 660 S the brighter of the trio. Overall, I'd characterize the HD 660 S as a little lean.

To my ears this comes from two things: The HD 660 S has less of a broad upper-bass centered hump it's virtually flat from 100Hz to 1kHz, and the bass falls off gradually below 100Hz. But I also hear a more forward presence region from 1kHz to 3kHz. To my ears the HD 650 (in stock form) does warrant the "veil"…

I'll be doing some comparisons with the older siblings, so will offer you links to the HD 600 and HD 650 measurements.

Raw frequency response plots for the three headphones show the HD 660 S is essentially flat from 100Hz to 900Hz while the other two headphones are gently humped below about 400Hz. You can also see that the HD 660 S response begins to rise more quickly to the 3.3kHz peak at about 900Hz while the other two are more scooped on the rise. I feel this tonal profile causes the HD 660 S to…

How Insensitive! Part 3: The Measurements
May I have a drumroll, please! Here is the expanded amplifier measurement chart, presenting the essential measurements in a way that consumers can actually use, without forcing them to become engineers. At first it appears to be a daunting looking chart, but consumers will be presented with only a few of these measurements.

The Pass
I added one…