Online Headphones Audio Demos: Terrible but Not Useless

 

Introduction

 

This is an ear simulator, used in audio labs across the world. It simulates an average human ear and how it hears sound. Audio demos you find online use this or similar devices. With this blog, I am asking for your help. Do you use audio demos online when researching headphones? Are they useful? How can they be improved? Pitch in with your thoughts, concerns, and ideas in the comments below or in our subreddit.

 

The Problem with Online Audio Demos

 

The main issue with online audio demos of headphones is that they do not provide a reference point. The challenge lies in the acoustic impedance of any ear simulator and quirks from individual coupling characteristics of the headphones under testing.

 

The closest you can get to the truth is by finding an audio demo that has your exact model of headphones and the one you're interested in testing. If the signals used (or music) are the same, you'll get some level of translation.

 

A Quest for Improvement

 

This blog is a quest to improve audio demos with your help. Use the comments section below to share your insights, struggles, and ideas. There's also a subreddit open for discussion. Here's the link.

 

The most important question that only you can answer is, what headphones do you have? We need to compile a list of headphones that are widely used in audio mixing and producing. Without that, demos will only show a partial sonic picture. The difference between A and B sets will have very little translation value.

 

So please, write in the comments all the headphones you have in your studio. That alone is a great contribution to improving audio demos, for us or any other channel.

 

The Science Behind Ear Simulators

 

Ear simulators are designed to simulate our ears and how we hear sound. There are many variations available for different purposes. The one I have here is, in my opinion, the best choice for on-ear and over-the-ear headphones audio demos. It's called an ERP (ear reference point) simulator, which differs from the DRP (drum reference point) simulator by excluding the ear canal resonances. This difference is very important and commonly misunderstood, even by reviewers. I have a whole video on that as a response to a review by DMS that is misleading, to say the least. Here's the link to it.

 

In case a DRP device is used for the demos, the ear canal resonance will be included twice when you're listening, and any mistakes in recording and the simulator coupling will be amplified even more. That defies the whole point. Some reviewers use a compensation to essentially turn the DRP device into an ERP device or a specific target that they might like.

 

Regardless of the simulator used, its frequency response will end up being a part of the audio demo. So it's baked into the audio signal you're listening to. There's no way around it. That means you can only listen to the differences between headphones and cannot evaluate their true characteristics at all.

 

Enhancing the Experience

 

To enhance the experience, it's crucial to use consistent tracks or sounds across all demos. Equally important is calibrating them to the same sound pressure level (SPL) to eliminate any differences in volume. A key step in improving translation is to provide reference headphones demos with identical tracks or sounds as the headphones being demoed online.

 

Call for Suggestions

 

I am open to any suggestions on how to improve online demos, to make them more reliable and have better translation, so that when you purchase a pair, they sound as close to what you'd expect as possible.

 

Let me know in the comments, the headphones you use in music production and mixing, and of course, any ideas to make demoing online better.

 

A subreddit is also open if you're up for detailed exploration.

 

Until next time, stay safe and sound,

R