This is my first post here. Up front I want to say to Resolve that I have watched many of your videos and they have been incredibly helpful to me, so thanks a lot. I really appreciate you. Please forgive the following newbie questions, I probably should alreay know this stuff.
I just watched your Bose QC Ultra update video. I now own both the QC Ultra and the Sennheiser HDB 630 which I bought with the hope of getting higher quality audio in an ANC headphone, and then a plan to sell the QC Ultra. I am still in the window to return the HDB630 for a refund. The thing is that I find the HDB 630 uncomfortable to wear for more than a short while–it’s just fatiguing. So i’m probably going to return them. One of the things I did like about it is the BT700 dongle which allows me to listen to the HDB 630 using apt-x instead of the usual included BT on my iPhone and Mac. I note that it is possible to buy the BT700 separately at a very reasonable price. So my question(s)–Does the QC Ultra have the ability to utilize the atp-x signal put out by the BT700? Do you think there is any perceivable advantage to doing that? Will the Bose app still work to allow me to use its EQ function if I’m using the BT700? Lastly, you mentioned that if you use a USBC cable to listen to the QCU ltra it uses it’s own improved internal DAC. To use this is it just as simple as running a USB C cable from my iphone or Mac to the headphones and then turning them on, or is there some other configuration change that is needed. Again thanks for all you do!!
I’m not sure about the Gen 1 QC Ultra but with the Gen 2 you can use it with the BTD700. However, it does not work well in low latency mode. Like even though you can get it to function in low latency mode, the sound gets all garbled. The regular mode seems to work just fine, but I also have to mention that if you’re looking for effectively a “bluetooth soundcard”, there are other types of devices that do similar things. So I’d check to see what’s most suitably compatible with your other devices, I’m very much not sure about apple compatibility. More importantly, I’m not sure what it’s limited to with default apple device BT transmission, so you’ll want to look into that and then see what codec you’re actually using.
Just putting this here as well. We’ve started a YouTube membership. The reviews we do on the channel require a lot of testing, measuring and comparing. We figured why not make that something people can check out to get a look behind the scenes at the process, and get some additional insight as well before the reviews go out. The first stream will be done today:
I want to stress, this is primarily just a look behind the scenes and early impressions of stuff. If you just want to get the review content, wait for the full review video.
I can’t say I’ve tried it with a Bose product, but the Questyle QCC Dongle Pro is terrific. It is a USB-C plug-in which will work with an app on your phone and transmit aptX Adaptive (including the Lossless spec) to a Bluetooth device.
Doing another member’s stream today for folks who are interested. I got a Focal Clear in with fresh pads, so I wanted to test that vs the D1 and see how they stack up to one another.
I don’t currently have a 109 pro at my place but could do something like that in the future. My sense of it right now (from memory) is going to be along the lines of this ranking:
D1 > Clear > HE600 > 109 Pro - but also for very different reasons. Like the Clear maybe has more colorations than the HE600, but overall I think I like its tilt more. So even if the HE600 is a good fit for more of my music, when the Clear hits, it’s a bigger ‘wow’ moment, enough to justify it over the HE600. Where as the 109 Pro is more V-shaped overall.
I was quite surprised a couple of years ago when I replaced the pads on my Focal Clear bought in 2020. They sounded more spacious to me. The pad cover material seemed different as well but that could have just been the wear on the older pads.
Anyone know if Focal made any changes to the Clear pads over the years?
The only change I’m aware of is that at one point they went to a different pad supplier, but then I believe reverted that shortly afterwards because it caused issues. The whole padgate debacle. So I imagine differences now are just down to typical unit variation.
Cool. That makes sense. It’s such a competitive class, around $800.
Do you still prefer Utopia pads on the Elear? Would they be better on the Clear as well? How about the Dekoni fenestrated sheepskin, which (I think) look a lot like the Utopia pads? I got a pair of those and put them on my Elex. Does it make a difference? My answer is probably not, or at least not much. Either that or I can’t switch quickly enough to bring out the contrast.
It’s been a while since I tested that so hard for me to say for sure. I do know that I liked the Utopia pads on the Elear quite a lot, but I kind of suspect that to behave similarly to the Elex. So I don’t think it’s really worth swapping pads around unless you’ve already got them on hand. I remember testing all those dekoni pads years ago and just felt that while they may be suitable replacements, the default pads for each headphone was just the best still. But maybe they released new ones since then.
Finishing up my testing of the Moondrop Edge firmware update that adds PEQ. The biggest problem with this headphone is how crazy variable the ear gain is depending on position/clamp/coupling and so on. For me, it’s an absolute shout fiesta, but it is mostly fixable.
I used the app to fix the largest problem areas, but you are also limited with headroom in terms of how much you can boost frequencies. I imagine the best way to tackle PEQ with the Moondrop Edge is to cut things rather than boost. Unfortunately that’s not so easy since you’re limited to just 5 bands (same as the HDB 630). I ended up going for a profile that uses a wideband cut to shift the ear gain balance more towards the treble generally, then cut around 2.5khz and fixed the rest of the primary ear gain up to 3.2khz.
Here are my filters at the moment:
300hz: -2.5dB, Q of 0.2
2500hz: -4dB, Q of 2.5
3300hz: +2.3, Q of 4
7000hz: +2dB, Q of 4.9
8200hz: +3dB, Q of 3
There’s still a peak for me around 5.1khz that I’d love to notch out, so maybe I can sacrifice one of the treble boost filters for that, like the 7khz one.
But overall this sounds SO much better than the default sound profiles available in the app. I don’t imagine this will track perfectly for everyone but certainly for those who found it dark and shouty, I recommend trying this kind of adjustment.
Always enjoy seeing and reading your takes here, Resolve.
I hope you’ll continue to post the raw frequency response measurements in addition to the compensated/corrected with your reviews. I still find the raw measurements most useful for doing comparisons.
The distortion and excess group delay are also helpful to see. EGD needs appropriate scaling though, on the order of 1 millisecond steps (or less) in the vertical axis. And I wish I understood better how to interpret the distortion measurements.
I’m planning on getting Floyd Toole’s (et al) new edition of Sound Reproduction as well. And hopefully that’ll give me a little brain boost on some of this stuff.
Yeah I’ve no issue continuing to post raw data, though the bulk of the utility the data provides should be taken from the compensated visualizations that show HpTF variation as well. Not only is that the more useful data, because it’s a wider picture of the performance, but also because the sine illusion is a problem we’re all typically dealing with when reading raw plots.
With regards to distortion and EGD, I agree, there should be better ways to visualize this. At the moment it’s a matter of “it’s not a problem until it is”, which obviously isn’t good enough. But there’s also a risk of people reading too much into any additional metrics like harmonic distortion without understanding what’s perceptually relevant.
The nice thing about EGD is that it can be a good indicator when there’s a problem. But it’s also extremely rare for that to actually occur. And for the tiny little bits where headphones may not be strictly min phase at ultra high frequencies, it’s not really clear how perceptually relevant that is regardless.
Appreciate your thoughts on this. Many thanks and happy (nearly) holidays to you and the whole Headphonesdotcom staff.
I also wondered if you’ve given any more thought to making a graphing tool for all your measurements, like Listener’s or Super* Review’s squiglinks. I think it’d be nice to be able to see and compare them all in one convenient place, if that’s possible at some point.
