To those with some experience, a good graph made on a known test setup can reveal a fair amount of information. Since graphs are open to interpretation, not all details are represented and a lot can be lost as well.
One of the trickiest things when dealing with power requirements for headphone amplifiers has to do with the relationship between three major factors: thesensitivityof the headphones, theoutputof the amp, and how much the amp’s output will be resisted by theimpedanceof those headphones.
Think of sound waves like a series of ripples in a pond. If you drop a single pebble into a flat surface of water, it produces a series of waves, radiating outward in a circle. Drop two pebbles in two different locations, and the ripples will both try to radiate in a circle, but when one wave crashes against another, it distorts that wave, causing it to change shape, speed, and direction. This same phenomenon occurs in audio, and is appropriately known as “wave interference”. Wave interference, although a larger issue for speakers than for headphones, is still a major obstacle in high-performance headphone audio.
A piece of standard printer paper is about 100 microns thick. An average human hair is about 75 microns thick at the base. A red blood cell is only 5 microns across. What’s a micron, you ask? It’s a measurement of length. A very, very small measurement. One one-millionth of a meter to be exact, or about 0.00004 inches
Great headphones, truly beyond-the-pale, audio-nirvana-producing headphones, make it feel like you’re really there. The qualities of sound reproduction that mimic really being there are called resolution, transparency, and transient response. Explore the ephemeral with us as we give you a crash course.
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