Hi, I’m new in the “headphones” world and I usually bought the first cheap option with good reviews on youtube and never really informed myself. My current headphones (Anker Soundcore Q30) are almost dead and I want to make an informed choise about my next one. However I feel like there are a lot of things I know nothing about.
For example I read a lot of good things about Sennheiser but the first pari of headphones I saw in my price range (ACCENTUM) have 37mm drivers. My Soundcore Q30 have 40mm drivers and I always thought that “the bigger the better” for the driver. From what I heard, however, the ACCENTUM are consider higher quality than Soundcore Q30.
What I’d like to know is: what should I really look for to understand the quality of the headphones?
I’d mainly use them to listen to music (some Metal, Punk but sometimes Rap, Classical or movies and videogames OST) in my house or outside (so good ANC is always appreciated).
Thank you very much! Right now I stream music with Qobuz (that has Hi-Res audio) and I'm building my offline library of flac files.I never really looked at my phone bluetooth version/drivers ecc but I bought my phone last year so I think it should be decent.
However I'm struggling to understand the whole "frequency response" thing. I can find various graphs but I don't really know what they mean.
Frequency Response is a measure of if your cans can play from very low notes to very high notes all at the same loudness. The most important thing in those graphs is that they are flat, meaning even. The next most important thing is where the bass response drops off. Lower is better.
It is true for all speakers and headphones, but it is not as straight forward for headphones because everyone's ear is shaped different thus will mess with the FR. Good headphones are flat and go down to at least 30Hz. Lower is better.
Depending on your player, you may use Digital Signal Processing to help flatten things out. Its complicated, but the results can be fantastic.
I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but open vs closed is an important consideration. Open tend to be better IMHO but only if you listen in a closed controlled environment. If you are surrounded by noise, closed backed headphone are better because what little you gain in playback fidelity is dwarfed by cutting out the noise of kids playing, the kitchen fan running while dad cooks and people talking on the subway. Good sound isolation is heaven when needed, but also slightly impacts bass response. I have both and use the right one for the environment.
Thank you very much for the explanation! I'll pay more attention to that! Yeah for my use case the closed backed headphones seems the way to go. Thank you!
To add onto @StinkyFinger@lemmynsfw.com's comment on flat response, "flat" here means "compliant with Fletcher-Munson curves," also called Equal Loudness Contours. Loosely speaking and trying not to muddy the waters too much for you, for a given SPL and frequency band, the human ear has an average response. Flat headphones, like those for critical listening in studios, tend to more closely mirror these curves. FWIW, most people do not like the sound of truly flat speakers and headphones. Most casual listeners tend to prefer audio gear that tracks a little closer to the Equal Loudness Contours.
For example, my favorite studio cans have this response graph:
These cans are considered very flat. Also looking at the graph, you'll notice some dips and wobbles. like around 4kHz, 8kHz, and again around 16kHz. These are resonation, and resonances are generally considered Not Good. Are resonances dealbreakers? It categorically depends, typically how transient the resonance. Shorter resonance -> mo' better.
And to add to your very good reply, most people also do not like the studio monitors sound. Younger listeners are more likely to choose bassy booming gear, while older farts like me would rather have it brighter (more higher frequencies delivered) as our ears tend to degrade with age in that part of spectrum. To make the right choice, nothing can beat going somewhere and listening different gear with your own ears and preferred music, unfortunately.
Oh, almost forgot. OP!!! THIS IS A RABBIT HOLE! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE BEFORE IT SUCKED YOU IN FOREVA!!!
I regret that I only have one upvote to give. Everything said by @Bloodyhog is spot on. There's just no replacement for a proper test drive. And most casual listeners' preferences will shift over time.
It's much too late for me, bruddahs! Run, save yourselves! 😆
But seriously, on the first day of my audio engineering degree, the professor said, "You completed the prereqs, you got accepted into the program, you know the degree description. This is your final warning: if you're here because you enjoy music, leave now. After today, you'll never be able to 'just' listen to some music." I have no regrets, but damn. There is no sitting down to listen to an album or concert without analyzing everything. To be fair, the two years of music theory and piano + one year of another instrument already warped that.
No music/sound degree here, just a looong "journey" towards quality sound ) Well, that, and a few musicians in the immediate circle. Which is funny as they mostly do not care about "fidelity", frequency curves and so on, just enjoy playing their instruments.