Evaluation of sound colour in headphones used for monitoring

Lund T, Stegenborg-Andersen T, Holm J, Herlufsen M, Mäkivirta A. Evaluation of sound colour in headphones used for monitoring. In: Express Paper. Audio Engineering Society; 2024. Paper 274. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22732

@inproceedings{Lund2024_22732,
  author = {Lund, Thomas and Stegenborg-Andersen, Tore and Holm, Juha and Herlufsen, Michelle and Mäkivirta, Aki},
  title = {{Evaluation of sound colour in headphones used for monitoring}},
  note = {Paper 274},
  year = {2024},
  month = sep,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22732}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Evaluation of sound colour in headphones used for monitoring
AU  - Lund, Thomas
AU  - Stegenborg-Andersen, Tore
AU  - Holm, Juha
AU  - Herlufsen, Michelle
AU  - Mäkivirta, Aki
M1  - Paper 274
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/09/27
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22732
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Extensive studies have been made into achieving generally enjoyable sound colour in headphone listening, but few publications have been written focusing on the demanding requirements of a single audio professional, and what they actually hear. The present paper describes a structured and practical method, based on in-room monitoring, for getting to know yourself as a headphone listener, and the particular model and pair you are using. Headphones provide fundamentally different listening results compared to in-room monitoring adhering to professional standards; considering imaging, auditory envelopment, localization, haptic cues etc. Moreover, in headphone listening there may be no direct connection between the frequency response measured with a generic manikin and what a given user hears. Finding out just how a pair of headphones deviates from neutral sound colour must therefore be achieved personally. An evaluation scheme based on an ultra-nearfield reference system is described, augmented by a defined test setup and procedure.
ER  -