How Much Do tonal colorations matter?


Been playing with Roon DSP Convolution filters for various headphones I own. Think of convolution filters in this case as room correction for headphones. I find they take much of the things that make various headphones sound different and make them all sound more the same and more like what one hears listening with more "reference" level headphones. My headphone collection is nice but I do not consider any of these reference level. I own various Sennheiser, Grado, Sony, Audio Technica and Klipsh headphones/earbuds. The convolution filters makes them all sound quite a bit more similar when applied.

Over the holidays I plan to expand my application of Roon convolution filters and create my own to use in various rooms of my house.

 

So with the headphones the tonal colorations of each are essentially gone and all are more similarly enjoyable now.

 

So I am finding that proper use of DSP essentially eliminates the issue of tonal differences.

Then the question becomes: Is that a good thing for everyone? Probably not. I doubt everyone likes the same end result sound even if it can be demonstrated to be technically more accurate as a result of being calibrated using pink noise as a reference signal.

So what do you think?

 

For anyone interested applying convolution filters for most any model headphone via Roon DSP is a very easy thing to try.    All you need is Roon and a pair of headphones.  The convolution filters are provided by an external site for most headphone models.  You just enable a convolution filter in Roon DSP and set it to use the convolution filter file you download, then listen and compare with and without.

 

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Showing 1 response by erik_squires

I think at the end of the day most of us like some color in our music, whether we want to admit it or not.  Fads change, recording engineers use different equipment, gear and expect us to have different speakers in our homes, and we all listen at different volumes.  Flattening a U shaped headphone could make you want to listen louder.

I think convolution filters are perhaps best used with headphones than anywhere else.  There's no room acoustic issues to consider when tuning headphones so you will get more precise results.