Aero Dynamik
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2011
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First some background. Suffering from a hearing impairment on my left ear and tinnitus I don’t always feel completely confident about my own hearing. To hear as well with my left ear as I do with my right ear, the left ear needs about 28% more sound pressure level, and my left ear tinnitus sometimes interfere with frequencies in the mid-range, sounding like a car horn (kazoo) when listening to a sine wave, especially at low volumes. So, what am I doing on Head-Fi among audiophiles that can hear a difference between ALAC and FLAC?
Well, I certainly can’t hear any difference between ALAC and FLAC, but I’m not deaf, and at least I’m able to pass Philips’ Golden Ears challenge, and I do enjoy and can clearly hear the different signatures of my various headphones.
So, for a few weeks now I’ve been listening to and enjoying my latest acquisition; the JVC HA-FX850, an absolutely fantastic phone for so many reasons; one of them being its resolution which IMO is absolutely top notch. I’d say it is at least on par with or perhaps even better than the resolving capabilities of the legendary Etymotic Research ER-4S! The problem is that I’ve started to notice more and more distortion while using the FX850, and I can’t quite figure out or be absolutely sure if it’s because I’ve improved my hearing abilities (with the "help" of the FX850), or if the distortion I hear comes from “old age” (I’m 52 years old) and worsen tinnitus. I should mention I hear the same distortion with my ER-4S but not quite as much.
This is where I’d really like to ask for your help! What I want you to do is take your FX850 (or most resolving IEM) and listen to the following two tracks (just click the links) and see if you hear what I hear:
Peace on Earth by Mike Oldfield: At 00:01:06 and 00:01:15 the choir sound like it’s blowing into a kazoo for a fraction of a second. Well, that is, to my ears.
Giorgio by Moroder by Daft Punk: At 00:04:21 and 00:04:33 I hear a lot of distortion. I ‘don’t know how to describe it, but if it is not in my ears you’ll definitely hear it. It could actually be an intentional effect, but it doesn’t sound good to my ears anyway.
So, what do you think? Are these "distortions" coming from the recordings and are being revealed/aggravated by the FX850, or are they in my hearing/brain, or perhaps a bit of both?
I'd really appreciate your input and thoughts! Thanks!
So, for a few weeks now I’ve been listening to and enjoying my latest acquisition; the JVC HA-FX850, an absolutely fantastic phone for so many reasons; one of them being its resolution which IMO is absolutely top notch. I’d say it is at least on par with or perhaps even better than the resolving capabilities of the legendary Etymotic Research ER-4S! The problem is that I’ve started to notice more and more distortion while using the FX850, and I can’t quite figure out or be absolutely sure if it’s because I’ve improved my hearing abilities (with the "help" of the FX850), or if the distortion I hear comes from “old age” (I’m 52 years old) and worsen tinnitus. I should mention I hear the same distortion with my ER-4S but not quite as much.
This is where I’d really like to ask for your help! What I want you to do is take your FX850 (or most resolving IEM) and listen to the following two tracks (just click the links) and see if you hear what I hear:
Peace on Earth by Mike Oldfield: At 00:01:06 and 00:01:15 the choir sound like it’s blowing into a kazoo for a fraction of a second. Well, that is, to my ears.
Giorgio by Moroder by Daft Punk: At 00:04:21 and 00:04:33 I hear a lot of distortion. I ‘don’t know how to describe it, but if it is not in my ears you’ll definitely hear it. It could actually be an intentional effect, but it doesn’t sound good to my ears anyway.
So, what do you think? Are these "distortions" coming from the recordings and are being revealed/aggravated by the FX850, or are they in my hearing/brain, or perhaps a bit of both?
I'd really appreciate your input and thoughts! Thanks!
