Which Headphones To Buy? - Part II: Sound Signature

Ever get confused by the language that wine connoisseurs use when describing high-priced wines? Terminology for niche products such as expensive wines, computers, and even headphones are indeed necessary to describe subtle but important differences; many users unaware of such attributes may overlook these nuances.

Headphones are one of these products. Every headphone has a different sound signature, almost like a wine has a unique taste regardless if it falls into larger categories such as Red Wines or White Wines.

There is a lot of jargon within the audiophile community involving sound signatures in headphones, but today I wish to clarify some of these terms in order to make it easier for you to purchase the headphone that is right for you.

Many headphone sound signatures can be compared through a Frequency Response Curve. However, this does not ultimately reveal what the sound signature of the headphone is--it is more of a glimpse into how the headphone may sound.
Source: headphone.com

Headphones fall into three large categories, after which other attributes follow a hierarchical structure or a branch structure. All of these main categories have strengths and weaknesses.

These three main categories are the following:

1) A "Colored" sound; this sound signature means that the headphone is taking in the audio signal and is manipulating what the audio input is telling the headphone. The end result is either a bassier sound, a "brighter" sound which emphasizes vocals more or instruments more, or simply a "clearer" sound. Colored headphones tend to "Wow" at first but may reveal flaws such as a muddy bass response or a lack of a realistic vocal range. However, colored headphones are usually the most popular headphones due to their initial "Wow" factor.

Some examples of colored headphones are: Bose QuietComfort, Dr. Dre Beats, Skullcandy headphones. Personally, I do not enjoy colored headphones at all.

2) An "Analytical" sound; this sound signature is usually associated with a large amount of clarity in the headphone. Even the tiniest details and nuances can be heard, such as pages being turned in a classical music symphony, or the sound of air rushing through the vocal chords of a singer before words come out. However, this analytical sound tends to be weak on a "musical" presence. Cohesiveness of the audio is sometimes a flaw in analytical sound signatures.

Some examples of analytical headphones are: Etymotic ER-4P, Shure SRH840. I enjoy analytical headphones from time to time.

3) A "Neutral" sound; this sound signature is what audiophiles usually lean towards. A neutral sound signature takes the audio signal and barely touches it. What the headphone strives towards is an accurate reproduction of what was recorded, not bass boost or a treble boost. Neutral headphones are usually harder to tune properly by the manufacturer due to the ear's natural tendency to hear different frequencies at different volumes. A decent neutral headphone will have a very clear sound and a "musical" enjoyment to it. However, neutral headphones are usually said to be "uninvolving" or not enjoyable due to there being no "fun factor" in listening to the headphone.

Some examples of neutral headphones are: AKG K702 , Sennheiser HD600 & HD800, Beyerdynamic DT-880. I am a big fan of neutral headphones and use them often.

The Etymotic ER-4P is famous for its analytical sound signature and extremely detailed sound quality.
Source: headphoneworld.com

Again, all of these sound signatures have strengths and benefits. However, after listening to many headphones it is easier to tell which sound signature suits your tastes. For example, I prefer neutral headphones with a touch of an analytical sound signature and a slightly warm midrange.

If you have the opportunity to visit a Head-fi meet where users bring many headphones and amplifiers, you will have an easier time understanding which sound signature is right for you. Head-fi.org usually has several headphone meets every year, and some may be very close to your location! (For me, there was one in New York City so it was right where I was located). If you can't go to a head-fi meet, then it is good to try out many headphones at a department store or an electronics store. Usually a big name manufacturer like Sennheiser has its own "house sound" which tends to remain the same across their different models, changing slightly. So by trying out many different brands, you will expose yourself to different "house sounds" and it will then be easier to make your final decision.

Certain genres also tend to have good synergy with specific sound signatures. For example, Pop music tends to pair well with Colored Sound Signatures or Analytical Sound Signatures. Jazz and Classical tend to pair well with Neutral and Analytical Sound Signatures. Hip-Hop tends to pair well with Colored Sound Signatures. However, a very good headphone will usually sound OK with any genre, regardless of the headphones' sound signature. It may not make that genre sound as good as it can be, but it will produce a sound that is certainly satisfactory.

The Sennheiser house sound is enjoyed by many. It is described as a "laid back" sound signature with a warm mid-range and a deep bass response that is not overpowering. The Sennheiser HD 650, pictured above, requires a good headphone amplifier to bring out its true potential.
Source: WikiMedia Commons

It is important to note that so far we have only covered the three major categories for headphone sound signatures. Each of these categories can be further broken down more precisely in terms of how they actually produce sounds in certain frequency ranges, but I will save that for a future post.

To summarize, every headphone has a unique sound signature that tends to fall into one of three main categories. These categories are: colored, analytical, and neutral. Depending on your tastes, some of these sound signatures will sound OK to you will others may not be satisfactory. However, a large portion of this depends on what genre of music you are listening to on the headphone, as well as your personal expectations of the sound.

Nevertheless, if you do plan on purchasing headphones, it is well worth your time to research and try out different headphones to find out which sound signature suits you--it will save you money, time, and the frustration involved in purchasing the right headphone for you.

Which Headphones To Buy? - Part I: Narrowing Down

In continuation of my audio series, I think it's time to cover an important topic for all audiophiles, and in general people seeking good quality gear: Which headphones are right for me and which should I buy?

Headphones and in-ear monitors (IEMs) have come a long way within the past 10 years. We've went from cheap $10 solutions to fully blown out custom in-ear monitors and reference headphones costing in excess of $1K. Selection has increased at least three-fold, with a wide selection of colors, styles (running, casual, full-size for mostly at home, etc.), and purposes. And to top it all off, we're left with endless marketing campaigns and gimmicky advertisements which lure us to a specific headphone or brand (Monster anybody?). But are we actually purchasing the item for its actual purpose, or for the brand recognition?

Impedance and electrical power is an important factor in deciding which headphone/in-ear monitor you will purchase. Many headphones/in-ear montiors require a headphone amplifier to sound their best. Sometimes high impedance headphones require amplifiers more expensive than the headphone itself to sound its best, like the Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline II headphone amplifier pictured above.
Source: raysamuelsaudio.com

Pushing my personal vendetta against certain corporations aside, I would like to establish some basic facts about purchasing a good set of headphones or in-ear monitors. First, we need to know what you will be using these headphones/in-ear monitors for, along with your expectations of the sound quality as well as the primary genre of music you will be listening to with the headphones/in-ear monitors.

Ask yourself the following questions to narrow down your list of possible headphone/in-ear monitor purchases:

1) Are you buying for sound quality, brand appeal, or appearance? Or perhaps one or two from the three? If you are going for pure sound quality, then it is easier to narrow down your selection (contrary to popular belief, the mainstream "audio" companies to do not manufacture audiophile-quality headphones/in-ear monitors--Bose and Skullcandy are good examples).

2) What genre(s) of music will you primarily listen to with the headphones? If you have a mixed collection of music, what genre of music comprises the majority of your library? For example, 40% Classical, 30% Jazz, 20% Pop and 10% Other. This way, you will be able to purchase a headphone better suited to your tastes.

3) Are you going to use these headphones/in-ear monitors only at home or outside as well? Or both?

4) Do you want to purchase noise isolating or noise cancelling headphones? See my post on the difference.

5) Do you have a proper DAP (digital audio player such as an MP3 Player) to support the amount of electricity that the headphone/in-ear monitor needs to work at its best sonic quality? Certain headphones that are full-size (such as the AKG K720) require a headphone amplifier in order to achieve best sound quality due to their high electrical impedence.

6) What is your budget? Keep in mind that you get what you pay for in this hobby, and it is better off to start from something mid-priced before jumping on a really expensive piece of gear that you might not be able to amplify or pair properly with a DAC/DAP.

Sometimes many headphones can be eliminated from simply asking yourself whether you will use your headphones at home, outside, or both. Headphones like the AKG K702 pictured above are open headphones, meaning they leak music out to the environment and do not isolate from external noise, since they are designed to be used at a home/studio.
Source: sgheadphones.net

After asking yourself these questions, I can guarantee that it will be easier to narrow down your possible headphone/in-ear monitor for purchase. For example, if you answered the following:

1) For sound quality, nothing else. --> Eliminates a bunch of brands that are not focused on sound quality.
2) Primarily Pop, R&B, and Jazz. --> Eliminates some headphones not suited for these genres.
3) At home as well as outside. --> Eliminates many full-size open headphones due to their leakage outside.
4) Noise isolating or noise cancelling, it does not matter. --> Opens up more headphones for consideration within the narrowed list.
5) No, I only have an iPod. --> Eliminates high-amplifying-requirement headphones like the AKG K702.
6) Under $200. --> Eliminates headphones above $200.

Avoid jumping the gun and buying expensive headphones from the start. You will not be able to fully appreciate the differences and may have difficulty amplifying the headphone to make it sound its best. The Sennheiser HD800, pictured above, sells for $1499 MSRP but requires a very good amplifier (for its 300Ω impedance as well as sound signature), DAC combination, lossless/near-lossless audio, and to make it sound its best, which can run well over twice that amount. Don't try running these headphones straight out of your iPod.
Source: sennheiser.com

By simply answering six questions, you have virtually narrowed your headphone/in-ear monitor possible purchase(s) to probably around 10-12 at this point.

To further narrow down to that single headphone/in-ear monitor, we must now focus on something much more crucial than all of these factors: sound signature.

Look forward to my post about sound signatures in headphones to finally determine how to narrow down to that single headphone! (Sorry for the cliffhanger ending!)

Balanced Armature vs. Dynamic Driver

How often have you stopped to wonder how those earphones that came with your MP3 Player actually produce the music that you hear?

If you've ever been to an Electronics store, you've probably stumbled across the Home Audio section. There you'll see a wide array of speakers, all with different sound signatures and purposes. However, the technology behind these speakers are mostly the same--it's how the speaker transducer is designed and tuned that makes the drastic difference.

There are two dominating speaker transducer designs on the market. The most popular speaker transducer is the Dynamic Driver (also less popularly known as the moving-coil driver). Pictured below, a Dynamic Driver uses a permanent magnet which is attached behind the diaphragm, along with a voice coil (usually made out of copper), to push air rapidly at different frequencies.

A Dynamic Driver Transducer, pictured above, is the most common transducer design used in speakers today.
Source: WikiMedia Commons

Not to get into the nitty gritty, the Dynamic Driver has been a very popular design because of its ability to produce the entire musical frequency range (~20 Hz - 18,000 KHz+) with relatively good success.

Have you ever seen a speaker design different from a Dynamic Driver? Well, I would like to introduce you to the Balanced Armature transducer (often abbreviated as a "BA driver") , pictured below.

A Balanced Armature Transducer, pictured above, does not require external air to produce sound. This makes a BA Transducer much easier to tune to specifications.
Source: WikiMedia Commons

A Balanced Armature is very small--and I mean tiny. These transducers are often used in hearing aids for people with difficulty hearing. More recently however, they have gained popularity in premium in-ear monitors for consumers and musicians alike. The Balanced Armature transducer uses the same concept of a permanent magnet and a voice coil as a dynamic driver, but the one major difference with the Balanced Armature transducer is that it does not require external air to operate. A Dynamic Driver, on the other hand, requires an air vent in order to sound marginally good.

The benefit of this design on the Balanced Armature is that it can be tuned very precisely since external air does not factor into the equation. This means that midrange and treble can be much more accurate and detailed than that of Dynamic Drivers. However, the Balanced Armature design also has a large drawback: since it does not require external air to work its best, it lacks a convincing low-end response (bass response). This is often alleviated by combining several Balanced Armatures together, and putting them on a single crossover.

The JH16 custom in-ear monitor (a 16 Balanced Armature transducer) pictured above next to the Sennheiser HD800 (a dynamic driver headphone). The JH16 in-ear monitor uses a passive triple crossover to redirect portions of the audio input to their respective Balanced Armatures.
Source: Headfonia.com

What the crossover does is it splits the audio input into two or three (rarely more) frequency bands. This alleviates the problem significantly, as each Balanced Armature is now only responsible for handling a certain portion of the audio. A triple Balanced Armature in-ear monitor such as the EarSonics SM3 uses a single Bass Balanced Armature, single Midrange Balanced Armature, and single Treble Balanced Armature. This changes the response of the in-ear monitor significantly, and the bass response becomes much more realistic and natural.

After having heard Dynamic Drivers for many years, I tried a Balanced Armature in-ear monitor (the Shure SCL4), four years ago. The midrange was impressive, but the in-ear monitor lacked bass and a realistic treble. I then upgraded back to a Dynamic Driver (the Sennheiser IE8), which made me miss the detail retrieval of the Shure SCL4.

It was then that I knew that something about the Balanced Armature transducer made music sound all the more better. So I upgraded again to a Triple Balanced Armature in-ear monitor, the EarSonics SM3. This in-ear monitor made me a true Balanced Armature fan, as it eliminated nearly all of the problems that I had heard with the Shure SCL4 (due to three Balanced Armatures instead of one).

After a year with the in-ear monitor, I wanted even more quality. So I decided to purchase a custom in-ear monitor (required an ear impression from an audiologist): the JH Audio JH16. With 8 Balanced Armatures in each earpiece (4 for lows, 2 for mids, and 2 for highs--for a total of 16 speakers with two earpieces), I have never heard such quality produced from an audio device in my life.

Don't ask me how much it cost me though! (You don't need to spend much to enjoy the sound of a Balanced Armature!)