Topping D90 up for pre-order... (Better measured than SMSL D1)

If it were the Utopias, your cat would freak the f**k out with that Beryllium! :rofl:

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Doesnā€™t need to be higher than 20khz frequencies. My cat is interested by some sounds above 10khz too.

Also, pitch shifting, when it sounds a bit like meowing. Like guitars and tremolos/floyd roses lol.

I donā€™t know about Beryllium or magnesium, but somewhere, thereā€™s a picture of Zeosā€™s cat interested by the Buchardts speakers. :stuck_out_tongue:

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yeah, ive tested myself and my hearing cuts off at maybe 14k absolute max.

Really?! How old are you?

34 years old.

Youā€™re a youngster. You must have exposed yourself to really loud music often.

well i try to be a lot more careful these days, but yeah younger, I didnā€™t careā€¦

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Hearing and backā€™s, how I wish Iā€™d listened to my Mother warning me about the consequencesā€¦

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My cats generally just ignore everything now, they really donā€™t seem to mind

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Source: http://noaudiophile.com/JBL_LSR305/JBL_LSR_305_Kitty.jpg

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I had a conversation recently with someone in the industry and we were discussing sonic preferences/ calibration curves, and the gist of it was that it does seem that younger listeners lean towards the Harmon target (curve) while older listeners prefer the Diffuse Field target.

My take was that older ā€œaudiophilesā€, basically the ones with disposable income, prefer the brighter Diffuse target because they canā€™t hear as well as younger ears. I speculated that itā€™s the reason manufacturers TOTL models are always ā€œbrightā€, or in less offensive terms, resolving in the upper registers.

They didnā€™t disagree. :laughing:

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That does make a fair amount of sense. lol

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Iā€™m treble-sensitive and can hear 18khz. So they save me money. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I think itā€™s probably simpler than that, the vast majority of TOTL headphones arenā€™t sold to audiophiles, theyā€™re fashion statements, or jewelry. And people who donā€™t listen critically conflate bright and resolving.
Iā€™m in my 50ā€™s, and I canā€™t tolerate bright sounding gear, but I do have ā€œexceptional hearingā€ for my age according to to my hearing specialist and I have some moderate tinnitus that tends to make higher frequencies irritating.

Maybe Iā€™m searching for ā€œbit-perfect audioā€ and accuracy everywhere because Iā€™ve done a lot of electronic music with studio, ā€œneutralā€ headphones and doing stupid, perfectionist things like ā€œyeah, this snare would sound better with 1dB more volumeā€ā€¦ and not caring about mastering or testing with anything else, like everyone else does, lol.

Also, ā€œtrue to the exact specifications of the file and itā€™s frequency outputsā€ is impressive to meā€¦ thatā€™s also just the simplest way to be damn sure a DAC is doing its job well.

Iā€™ll get ā€œcolorfulā€ headphones if my DAC is too ā€œsterileā€. :man_shrugging:

Typically when you are mixing or tracking you donā€™t really think about mastering, you are trying to achieve a specific sound. Mastering is just the final touches and that can either be a very important step or a somewhat insignificant step that is commonly just combined into the mixing process.

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if youā€™re talking about pure frequency response, then i think most DACs, even R2Rs are going to straight up give you a ā€œflatā€ response. I think the ARES 2 in itā€™s NOS mode will have some drop off in the highs, but itā€™s typically meant to run in itā€™s OS modeā€¦ where it would measure well enough to pass all the ASR Tests, Iā€™m sure. I think as far as DACs go, then you are probably fine with just the D50, but you could probably get something a lot more transparent and delineating if you really wanted to spend the money.

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Itā€™s really the harmonics and time stuff that r2r messes with tbh, although some r2r are purposely colored (although I donā€™t really know for sure lol)

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Also, @giova05, you heard the Verum Ones? Apparently theyā€™re really ā€œcoloredā€ too.

no, have not heard them. I saw Joshā€™s review of them and he wasnā€™t too fond of them.