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Elex&Utopia - blind listening test #2 (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-16 17:14:47
Edited:
2021-10-16 23:28:08
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

Thanks for all the responses, I counted 5 who preferred A and 4 who preferred B, the others just guessed which file was which headphone but didn't give any preference.

Before resolving which headphone was which, I thought it may be interesting to hear the preferred audio file from the 1st test, compared against the original recording. Thus here you have 2 WAV files again, one is A from the 1st test and the other one is the unaltered original audio file just matched in volume and synced.

For those who have no possibility to download and compare both WAV files, I cut together a simple video again which of course will be more compressed compared to the WAV-file: https://youtu.be/FBhHqoy9cHg

Keep in mind that one file is a recording played back over a headphone (either Elex or Utopia) recorded through tiny microphone capsules placed inside my ears and equalized for a flat response, the other one is the original unaltered audio. Therefore it should be quite obvious which is the headphone recording and which is the original audio. But I would also like to know what you have to say about the differences you perceived between these two. Apart from frequency response which should be quite similar between both, there are other differences like different left/right channel presentation which is a result of some imbalance of the headphone, but also differenes between my both ears, who knows... but can you also hear some differences regarding "speed", "slam"... etc?

I also added a new tag called "listening tests", as I am planning to do more tests like this with other topics too. Please let me know if you like the idea or shall I do these tests for mid level tiers only as I am not sure most are interested in that kind of content. 

Comments

Adriano Moreira

Actually the frequency response between them is very similar. File B (which I think is the original) felt more open to me, with a little better treble and bass extension. It appears that the lower midrange is also slightly more prominent. Because of that, the mid-range near the highs (voice) seems a bit indented (only in relation to file A, the original mix of the song is very good). But again, it's nuances. I find this system impressive. Amazing how in a WAV file it can give a good sense of the headphone sound. Oh, by the way, I needed to lower the volume of file B by 0.6 db to match file A.

oluvsgadgets

Thanks, I matched volume just by ear, sometimes A appeared a bit louder to me sometimes B. So I didn’t. bother with it

Dandrey

That bass and punch on B is just..i am speechless . Yeah , it sounds better than A for sure .

Alexander

It's actually really hard to tell, but I guess A2 is the original and B2 is headphones. I think B2 has a tiny bit slower and less clear but stressed bass. A2 sounds a little bit clearer and more balanced in frequencies. Since I bet that in the first test A was Elex, then B2 has to be Elex :) I must also say that I only could tell the difference on the last track, first two tracks are too busy to definitely tell anything. I think it would be nice to add more tracks with acoustic instruments like guitar and of course voice in your future tests. I like this idea a lot. Thank you for your hard work!

Dandrey

I didn't

Dandrey

No , A2 is Elex . B2 is original . Read the original description of Oluv .

MMMM

Hmmm, which is which... My guess is this: A2 is the headphone (probably Elex), and B2 is the original file... For example there's more higher frequency extension in B2 as I look at the graph, and it's definitely more dynamic. A2 isn't as balanced as the B2. The differences though are really minimal... Good job Olaf with the idea, I really like it. I'm all for doing these tests more often. I would reserve it for the best headphones overall. Also, I would be very happy if I could hear the original files just with the compensation of the microphones, but without the headphone EQ. I would like to hear their frequency response of these Focal headphones. All the best from me.

Alexander

check out Oluv's update 😉

Mika Eel

I think B2 is the original. but I still prefer A2 😂

Howard Lainton

Hi Oluv. I've listened a number of times each through a pair of Sennheiser and Grado headphones. For my ears my conclusion is that file A is slightly lighter on bass and although file B is heavier on Bass or is overall ( for my ears ) a tiny bit more expressive overall. Though the bass can sometimes smother the overall sound. On the whole I prefer the sound of file B. Thank you for your superb work once again.