Good point about the LCD4. I guess I was thinking of the original Audeze house sound, perhaps better represented by the LCD 2 classic. But the 4 are their top tier so I threw it in.
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Iād have to be using the Reveal or Roon presets (or equivalent manual EQ) to call them ānaturalā. Without it, theyāre too intimate, need more low-treble presences, and shift the character and/or deemphasize high-toned instruments too much for me.
I donāt actually use them without one of the above adjustments anymore (with them, theyāre excellent). Which is one reason why Iām interested in the Empyrean and the Rosson pieces.
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Andrew just got off a call with him and he let us know that there is no compensation.
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Wait so thatās a raw graph? I meant depending if itās to a diffuse field target, or a consumer target etc.
I think your thoughts on the LCD-4 treble is in line with @Resolve and Iās opinion. I admittedly havenāt played around with Audezeās reveal plugin enough and I probably should since so many of their headphones make their way onto my desk!
I personally enjoy listening to headphones without any EQ since itās a pain to get the same EQ across all the devices Iām using.
Really excited to see what you think of them. Especially since the RAAL experience seems to be a headphone-collection-changing experience! Would also be interested to see what route you would go for a custom pair if you decided to grab your own.
That is what it appears to be!
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Concur!
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Oh, I wonāt argue about the issues with getting consistent EQ. Itās bad enough getting the same EQ for ONE headphone across systems/sources. Itās another entirely if youāre trying to get a consistent response across headphones (though I donāt generally do that).
Just the LCD-4 really seems to benefit from the specific Reveal and Roon settings for it.
Given a choice, I wonāt run EQ at all.
But not every headphone gives me that choice. The LCD-4 loses too much realism without it. Where as with Utopia itās just a slight āto-tasteā thing for one or two genres.
Even the SR1a I have backed off almost all of my EQ. Nothing but a little sub-bass lift to compensate for the early roll-off for different wing positions. The first profile I built had lift all the way up to 100 Hz. Not any more! Though a progression of amps, plus a (my) prototype cable, have been responsible for some of that change (more about the cable on, probably, Saturday).
In general, I wonāt keep any headphone that I have to EQ to enjoy. Iāll do it to make it better. Iāll do it for specific genres on occasion. But if itās a systematic requirement to enjoy the can, then it tends not to last long. The LCD-4 is one exception there. Though I doubt thatās going to last in light of whatās on my head.
The SR1a would have been another exception, but since Iām no longer needing EQ to enjoy them broadly, and am still getting all their other benefits, theyāre pretty safe (safe enough Iām do a complete system rebuild ā¦).
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Raw graph having no compensation is not that strange, if it was measured by DIY flat coupler (note that ear resonance accounts for most part of head-related gain). Sometimes, a measurer is convinced by the raw result. For DIY coupler, developing compensation curves cost unnecessarily painful resources without meaningful benefits. I bet Rosson measured competitor headphones with the same rig, and might have a good sense of how results are associated with their perceptions. Indeed Raal was the same case ā based on what Alex commented (i.e.,strong disbelief on ear couplers) over Head-fi.
The problem (from our side) is for now we donāt have no way to comparatively interpret it.
Bass might be good. But also note that flat coupler often has much better sub bass response due to a perfect seal.
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Tuning headphones is hard, and EQ invariably involves trade offs. I just auditioned the Ananda which had perhaps the most perfect timbre of any headphone Iāve heard, but it needs more sub-bass and more mids around 2 KHz to give me the macrodynamics I crave. Sure I could EQ that in, but Iāll almost certainly lose the natural timbre.
Iām still a believer that most of a headphoneās sonic quality are a direct result of the frequency response, however Iāve come to believe that there are multiple frequency responses that can yield a natural timbre, so the challenge of tuning a headphone is to create a response that achieves the desired effects in terms of dynamics, staging and so forth and at the same time yields a natural (or believable) timbre. Iām not a headphone designer, but whenever I reach for EQ Iām just playing a poor imitation of one!
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This was my immediate thought as well. It has to be the case here (if that is indeed raw).
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Weāve currently got 5 pairs on the way to us, shipping out on Monday. Hoping to get some up for the meet on Saturday!
The 5 pairs we got are:
RAD-0 Graffiti
RAD-0 Emerald (Sold)
RAD-0 Opal (Sold)
RAD-0 Ruby Sky (This is the one we listened to in the listening studio with the balanced XLR and it sounded incredibly good. I would expect all the units to sound the same though) (Sold)
RAD-0 Orange Sapphire (sold)
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Love the opal and orange sapphire look! So gorgeous
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The Opal is my favorite
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the graffiti was the one at CanJam I think? or a similar oneā¦ honestly @taronlissimore, @andrew you guys can vouch for this statementā¦but in person they are even better looking!
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Yes. Can confirm. Way better looking in person.
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They sure are beautiful hpās any pricing and where to get my hands on a pair.?
You can grab a pair direct from us Rosson Audio Design | Headphones.com
If there is a specific one you are looking at from his website you can let us know as well and we can get it for you.
The retail pricing on them is $2600.
This has been sold so it wonāt be at the Vancouver meet.
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So Iāve been listening for a half hour to Northern Lights āRevivalā Album and my impressions havenāt changed a whole lot from last week. These are some of the most well balanced headphones Iāve ever heard.
Comfort wise, Iāve had them on my head for almost an hour with zero issues. I have the LCD-4 beside them on my desk as well so I could do some A/B testing between comfort and I do get some neck pain after an extended period with the LCD-4. None so far with the Rosson. The weight definitely feels evenly distributed across the board and Iām going to give them a proper weigh in later on this this afternoon.
Current setup is:
Macbook Pro ā> iFi Audio Micro iDSD Black Label ā> Cayin HA-1A MK2
Our Phonitor XE is currently in customs and is scheduled to arrive tomorrow along with some balanced cables to use. Excited to try them out with both the Matrix Element X2 as well as the Phonitor XE!
One thing that I noticed that is a little different and it could just be song choice / gear but these do seem to slam harder than I originally thought. Iāll have to listen some more to be sure. It doesnāt reach LCD-4 levels but itās also not as loose as the LCD-4. Itās a little tighter and punchier.
Back to listening!
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You may have seen it in the Reddit thread but he used the KU 100 for measurements without any additional filters applied.
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Just doing my initial evaluation, and so far Iām impressed with the technical ability. Admittedly Iām a few drinks in from the headphone meet (huge thank you to the guys for putting that together, and to those who came). The tonality sounds very balanced just as @taronlissimore mentioned.
Hereās my initial measurement with the HEQ Compensation:
Thereās a bit of an odd peak around 4.5khz - or perhaps better stated as dips on either side of 4.5khz. It could just be a miniDSP EARS oddity, and Iāve never had much confidence in its concha/pinna shape, especially not the canal they use. In this case that 4.5khz bump would be affected more by both concha and pinna flange gain and that seems to be a bit all over the place in my experience. At best this is just to gauge tonal balance across the board, not specific dips and peaks as much since they often donāt track with reality. Still, that 4.5khz bump is in every one of my measurements. My initial reaction is that if this isnāt just a concha/pinna imperfection for the measurement rig, it may have an effect on where certain instruments and vocals sit in the mix.
Thereās a slightly larger than average soundstage thatās maybe a bit smaller than that of the Ether 2, and the RAD-0 has a surprising amount of variance to how far or how close different pieces of the mix can sit. This may just be due to physical characteristics of the headphone, but Iāve also experienced a similar quality to headphones that also exhibit this kind of bump/dips. The nice thing is that I find this to be a really interesting quality. If youāve heard the Auteur, you know that it puts you quite far back from the stage. With the RAD-0, youāre much closer to the stage, but the stage itself is deeper and wider (or similarly wide) - so you have vocals coming through quite forward, almost right in front of you, but the nuance and layering of the rest of the instrumentation is very precisely placed across the stage.
Also, the best thing about this headphone is that itās detail retrieval is excellent, and it has a truly excellent treble response without any sibilance whatsoever. I think I may still prefer the treble of the Hifiman planars, but the RAD-0 is able to be extremely well balanced without sounding overly bright or losing the midrange and bass presence thatās often the case. Iād take this tonality over that of the LCD-4.
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