oluvsgadgets

Elex&Utopia - blind listening test #1

Update: I uploaded a simple video with both files cut together, for those too lazy to download and manually compare both recordings, of course you will lose some information due to YouTube’s compression: https://youtu.be/qQrZavOMTMI

Attached are 2 uncompessed WAV-files extracted from my last video with 3 different songs played through each headphone, but both recordings were equalized to flat to have exactly the same...

Utopia - Playlist

https://music.apple.com/at/playlist/utopia/pl.u-76oNp3eTWB1Jab

https://open.spotify.com/user/oluvsgadgets/playlist/620Uy0so2F85WGQ7In3zLT?si=GfbvK9naRT6RA52u_ychgA

Focal Elex & Focal Utopia - after midnight listening session

I attached a measurement of both based on the pink noise I played during this video. 

Towards the end I also featured the HD800S playing against the Utopia. 

How bad can a headphone sound?

I attached some quick measurements based on pink noise I played over all headphones inside the store. Unfortunately it was quite noisy, thus measurements in the bass area are quite unprecise. I also attached the HD600 which I didn't feature in the video, but I played pink noise to have some reference.

...

Audio Pro A36 & Kii Three - different speakers/different rooms

It’s quite an interesting topic: can cheap speakers sound better in a more dampened room than expensive ones in an empty room?

The room acoustic is often overlooked by many audio enthusiasts investing mostly into the best cables and newest gadgets but ignoring the fact that the room will have the most influence on the final perceived sound.

As a future project I would like to visit some of my Patrons who are proud of their audio setups and record their entire setups to be able t...

Skating time

Oluv’s audiophile collection playlist #16

Some funky stuff this time among other great recorded jazz, fusion and smoothjazz&r‘n‘b stuff, I hope you enjoy these great sounding tracks:

https://music.apple.com/at/playlist/oluvs-audiophile-collection-16/pl.u-V9D7ZpkUBmbgoL

2021-10-06 21:22:25 +0000 UTC View Post

BOOMster - BOOM

Just a short walk through the forest with 2 BOOMsters.

Austrian Audio Hi-X15 - measurements & EQ

I tried making something usable out of this Austrian crap. Holy shit what were those morons responsible for the sound thinking? But it seems to be their "house sound" obviously when looking at the other junk from them, measured by Oratory1990: https://headphonedatabase.com/oratory/headphones?ids=216

On top a measurement with the original tuning (are they all deaf?), below with some EQ adjust...

EQ compensation error

I need to apologize as I screwed up my EQ compensation for the last video of the Kii Three speakers because I had some additional compensating filter inside my recording loop which I forgot about, therefore it was "baked" into the recording with an over compensated result. I didn't notice this problem with my reference headphones, as they were looped inside the circle, but when listening over some other headphones I finally noticed that the sound appeared somehow too muffled. In the video you...

Sony WF-1000XM3 - monthly give away

I would like to give away my WF-1000XM3 this month as I hardly used it and didn't use it at all since my work on the Earfun Free Pro and it's just collecting dust right now. I thought about keeping it for future tests, but I don't really need it and I hope someone else can have more use for it. I never used the original tips, they are included. I liked the sound more with the MH1 tips, as they manage to smoothened treble a bit more.

Please those interested just leave a comment and I wil...

Listening to the Kii Three BXT & Dan Clark Stealth

Update: I replaced this video with a new one with already the latest compensation applied. In case you still want to hear the wrong compensated one, it's still public: https://youtu.be/MucGoFO1dFA

I had some tough time and sleepless nights lately as I tried to improve my recording quality  after hearing the results of this video, because I was not statisfied with what I was hearing and started to question everythi...

Coming next teaser...

I just started editing my second trip to the headphone boutique from yesterday and I am pretty excited to share my first rough edit of what I shot. It's just the first song played as for now, there will be 3 other songs in the final video..

The Kii Three speakers in the shown setup cost around €40000, the Dan Clark Stealh headphone around €4000.  My idea was to compare the perceived responses of these two, as the Kii Three speakers are regarded as ultimate studio monitors there...

Headphone madness

This is going to be public but I wanted to share it with you already before.

I cannot await all the shitstorn…

PS: attached the EQ setting used in this video for the Q30:

Oluv’s audiophile collection playlists #14 and #15

Last time I forgot to post the link to my audiophile collection playlist, therefore I will post 2 at once this time. You can still also find all my previous lists here, as I will be continuing to update this post every 2 weeks.

#14 is again a collection of various styles, mostly Jazz/Funk, Electronica etc. Track 4 from Azymuth is quite treble heavy I wonder how that would sound over a heavily treble boosted h...

How loud do you usually listen to music over headphones?

I was wondering how loud all of you usually listen to music when using headphones? From my experience I usually tend to listen at much higher levels over headphones than what I would over a speaker but I still have the impression as I was rather listening at lower levels than many others.

As we have lots of Earfun Free Pro OE users here we can at least create comparable results (although I think that even 2 Earfun Free Pros can differ slightly in loudness even when set to the same volum...

HK Onyx Studio 7 - the final episode

This is my last video with the Onyx Studio 7 and 6, as I returned the 7 in the meantime. I am still not sure if I should keep the 6 but I will probably also return this one although I liked it more than the 7 in the end.

Also surprised about the performance of the Motion Boom here, which I rarely used because of the processing issues which were never fixed. Otherwise Anker would have had some real killer speakers with the upgraded Boost and Motion Boom, but they failed…

HK Onyx Studio 6 & 7 - outdoors

I shot this very spontaneously as it was such a calm evening with no wind. 

I will shoot a final concluding indoor video of both Onyx Studio 6 & 7 the next days-

HK Onyx Studio 7 - episode #4

Comparing the Onyx Studio 7 against the Vifa Helsinki, Sony SRS-XB33 and Focal Elex. Also introducing the Tribit Home speaker.

HK Onyx Studio 7 - episode #3

Some further impressions of the Onyx Studio 7.

HK Onyx Studio 7 - episode #2

Let's go outside...

HK Onyx Studio 7 - episode #1

Better late than never, here my first take on the Onyx Studio 7.

I had some problems with copyright, therefore this part is at double the speed. I also had some static hiss issues with my recorder which I tried to minimise with some noise reduction, you may still notice some artefacts in the background.

Onyx Studio 7 delay

Sorry for the long delay of my first Onyx Studio 7 video, which should have been already posted yesterday, but I have to fight with copyright issues again as the video got blocked worldwide because of one single song. I need to upload a new version which is encoding right now, but it will still take some time, because the video is close to 1 hour long.  I hope it will finally be online by tomorrow. The affected part is simply sped up by 200% to fool Youtube's contentID algorithm, just li...

Earfun Free Pro OE goes "highend"

Dimitar found that Ebay offer for the Earfun Free Pro OE. It would seem as if it became a serious "highend" unit little by little... at least regarding the price hahaha

Headphoneboutique

I drove to Vienna to check out the Dan Clark Stealth headphone which unfortunately hasn't arrived yet. But I had the chance to try out some high-end headphones and amps/dacs and immediately shot a video as I had my equipment with me.

I couldn't try them all but rather concentrated on the most expensive ones and to my surprise they all sucked. Some costing €5000 and more sounded so horrible that I wouldn't even want to listen with them for free. The one I liked most was the Stax SR-007...

HK Onyx Studio 7 - frequency response measurements

Before finishing my first video I managed to prepare some measurements of the Onyx Studio 7. In AC-power it gets 3.5dB more loudness compared  to battery mode. The sound itself does not change regardless if played from battery or AC-power. I also did some off-axis measurements (measuring just the left channel to avoid intereference of both tweeters), and I think it's visible that dispersion has improved a lot compared to the mono Studio 6 and Studio 5.

Although when putting the Stu...

Tribit XSound Mega - new firmware

Tribit obviously saw my first video with all complaints I had about the Xsound Mega and they sent me a new firmware with allegedly improved sound. Let’s find out if it really sounds any better. I wanted to listen together with you.

Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker (16W) - frequency response measurements

Some quick measurement of the Mi speaker, funny thing is that the "deep bass" EQ is just a tad louder than normal, but in reality with even less bass....

It retains the same sound over the entire volume range, just at higher levels the limiter reduces treble and bass a bit.

Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker (16W) - first impressions

I am actually quite surprised about the performance offered by this speaker here.

I will also try doing some measurements tonight to check what’s wrong.

Not sure if it makes sense to shoot another video with it.

PS: I am still in the process of working on the compensation of my microphones as the frequency response had changed lately therefore please apologise if the recording quality may still not be perfect.

Sony SRS-XG500 vs JBL Boombox 2 - indoors

Just a quick soundcheck how they perform indoors at normal listening levels before returning them to Mediamarkt.

I am somehow not impressed with either of them.