Assumed Good Hearing. No one checks if reviewers' hearing is OK!

The HEADPHONE Community
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Lovely response. Lends support for the benefit of measurements, and you guys rock. Your reviews are some of the best in headphone land. Very high standard of review, from all of you. Well done. Measurement just goes one further to remove any element of bias.

Wish you all would do a bit more review of IEMs, cos that’s all I listen to now. Ditched my AKG K702’s, after 10 years, cos I found an IEM that spanked it in every single way possible, clarity, resolution, stereo placement, balanced frequency response, whatever, just ahead of it.

But I must add, comparing the measured responses makes it easy to explain why the K702 is deficient - not enough bass, and harsh treble.

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While binge watching Youtube videos on all things audio, a regular pastime, I found this relevant comment, posted on a review.

“As we age unfortunately our hearing degrades, especially high frequencies, 99% of reviewers probably have not had their hearing checked, I’m over 50, had my hearing checked a couple years ago and I’m unable to hear anything over 13k. My recommendations is for all hifi reviewers get your hearing checked, especially if you are reviewing headphones”

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The link to video is below

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Yes, older people suffer from high frequency hearing loss. I’m not sure that’s exactly what’s goin on here though OK1. Because Erin at EAC also makes some similar observations about the higher frequencies on the Concerto Meta… even though he feels this speaker is quite good, based primarily on the linearity of its in-room response.

There are a couple telling things in this speaker’s measurements though that might easily help to explain why some listeners could perceive it as lacking some air or treble.

As Erin mentioned, the direct on-axis response, and especially the listening window response which is calculated for multiple positions around the sweet spot, are noticeably shelved down on the Concerto. You can see this in both KEF’s measurements and also Erin’s…

https://www.spinorama.org/speakers/KEF%20Q%20Concerto%20Meta/KEF/index_vendor.html

https://www.spinorama.org/speakers/KEF%20Q%20Concerto%20Meta/ErinsAudioCorner/index_eac.html

If you believe Floyd Toole and the Harman research (and there are many people who do not!), then a speaker really needs to have a pretty flat on-axis response and also listening window to really be considered “neutral”. The Concerto does not quite seem to meet that definition based on the downward shelving of its direct on-axis response and listening window in the treble.

The Concerto also does not extend much above 14 to 16 kHz in the higher frequencies. It actually looks a little better extended on Erin’s plot. Though I’m more apt to trust KEF’s measurements on this. And their graph shows the treble extending to about 14 kHz, and then dropping off pretty steeply above that.

Most people won’t be able to hear much above that range. But it’s still an interesting thing to note, because there are some lower cost speakers that extend up pretty close to 20 kHz, or even exceed it. IAC, we already have two potentially good clues why someone might possibly perceive the Concerto as treble or air-shy. Here’s a third potential reason though.

The in-room response, while being pretty linear, is also pretty steeply sloped, at around -1.2 dB/octave. Whereas most neutral speakers on average probably have an in-room slope ranging a bit closer to -0.7 to -1.0 dB/octave, give or take, depending on who’s doing the measurements.

https://www.spinorama.org/speakers/KEF%20Q%20Concerto%20Meta/KEF/vendor/Estimated%20In-Room%20Response.html

https://www.spinorama.org/speakers/KEF%20Q%20Concerto%20Meta/ErinsAudioCorner/eac/Estimated%20In-Room%20Response.html

The sound power response of the speaker (which is part of the in-room estimate) is also quite steeply sloped at an estimated -1.82 dB/octave. This usually tends to range a bit closer to -1.0 to -1.5 dB/octave on average.

In summary, it’s not that hard to see why some people might perceive this speaker as lacking in some brightness, treble, or air, based on a fairly simple analysis of both its on and off-axis frequency response. Even if they have perfect hearing.

The Concerto also has a rear firing bass port. So if they’re placed too close to a front wall, or are not properly toed in toward the listening position, that could also reduce their brightness in the higher frequencies relative to the bass.

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Fwiw, I also thought your response was lovely. :slight_smile: And I’m glad you get your hearing checked. Good ear health and listening habits are important. And that is no joke!

You need to do more good reviews and measurements of over-ears though. :upside_down_face:

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Maybe this speaker is tuned for more modern living room situations with lots of hard surfaces and not such much carpets, bookshelf, cardigans etc.
A little less bright sounding speaker can be a blessing in such listening environment.

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Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth!!

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Fwiw, Erin had a bit more to say about the Concerto Meta in his best of 2024 wrap-up video. This is already pre-cued to that section of the video.

Erin: It is the complete opposite of a bright speaker.

And that’s pretty much what the graphs seem to show from my perspective.

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I am not sure what you want to say. I am not opposing any of this.
Just wanted to give a possible explanation why the Concerto is tuned this way

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My only point is really that I can sort of see where cheapaudioman might’ve been coming from on some of this, based on the measurements.

I don’t dispute that the Concerto Meta might have its uses. And the directivity and in-room both look pretty linear, as Erin points out.

For ~$1300 though, I’d hope for better on-axis performance. And maybe also a little better extension in the bass and treble. The range of this speaker seems a bit limited for a bass-ported, three-way design.

I’m not an expert on speakers though. And I’m sure KEF had their reasons for building it this way.