[Solan]

Just a simple question I've been wondering about: when an amp is said to have a "flat" frequency response, does that mean it is flat when played out into nothing but an oscilloscpe, or is it also (still) flat when played into a pair of headphones?

That is, does the presence of the headphones in the circuit change the signal from flat to coloured? To clarify further: I am not talking about the way the headphones themsekves respond to the signal being sent, but about whether the impendance and other factors of the headphones influences the whether signal out of the amp turns from flat to coloured.

To be even more specific: If you measure the actual electrical signal going to the headphones, will that electrical signal measure as non-flat for some headphones, even out of an amplifier that measured as "flat" when the signal is sent to an oscilloscope or similar measuring apparatus?

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Yes, the load can change the response of an amp. Probably no speaker or headphone has equal impedance across the entire frequency range. That's one of many reasons that could account for why different combos sound different.

Let the flames begin!