|
I was curious to see how my earphones would compares when tested against a signal generator. Since I don’t have access to a professional audio signal generator, I was seriously limited with my computer sound card and some shareware. For this reason, I wasn’t able to properly test the audible limit at high frequencies (I was most likely hitting the limit of my sound card). My purpose was just to compare the Audio-technica CK7, Sony EX90 and Etymotic ER6. I also did the same tests with a cheap pair of earphone you can buy from Sony for about 20$. I first tested 3 single tones (bass, mid and high frequency range) before testing the three tones at once to see how easy it was to separate the three tones. For the bass test, I used a 33 Hz tone, which is very very deep bass. The best result by a large margin was offered by the Sony EX90. These earphones do produce amazingly clear and deep bass. The CK7 was also pretty good and the worse was the poor little ER6. The cheap earphone was able to make me ear the 33Hz tone but certainly not as clearly as the other more expensive ones. Actually with the EX90, I was still able to clearly ear the tone down to about 28 Hz. The high frequency test at 16.4 KHz was also and surprisingly won by the Sony EX90 with the two others being close behind. Even the CK7, which was not able to offer crystalline cymbal harmonics while listening to Maiden’s opening of Heaven can wait was still able to produce a strong high frequency tone. The cheap earphone was now clearly showing its inferior quality. The most interesting test was made with the three tones played at once. Once again, the most impressive result came from the Sony EX90. I was clearly able to ear the three tones. It was able to reproduce the high frequency even while oscillating at a crazy 33 Hz. The mid 1 KHz was loud but this didn’t distract from the extreme limits tones. The other two where close behind with the ER6 still able not to look too bad because the 1 KHz was not too over loud. The CK7 mid frequency was too loud and was distracting from the other extreme tones. Conclusion: The frequency range spec given by earphone manufacturer is useless (except the chart provided by Etymotic). Who cares if your earphone is able to reproduce a 20 KHz tone you can’t even ear when it is not able to offer a realistic frequency response across the audible band? The Etymotic ER6 looks bad in this artificial tone test but is still the best sound producing device I ever heard. The frequency response is so well matched with the average human ear response you can swear the signer is right there in front of you (with a high quality recording of course). Hey! It brings back Nina Simone from the dead I tell you and it’s not even a very good recording! Audio-Technica CK7 spec is a ridiculous and meaningless 12 – 24,000 Hz! Of course they don’t provide a curve because it would show how bad it is… The mid frequencies are so loud around 1-3 KHz it will drown every subtleties in the extreme ranges anyway. Hopefully I have a good equalizer in my Iaudio7 and I can save many settings. One setting will be used exclusively for these CK7. Once equalized with a reduction of about 3-4dB in the mid range, these are pretty good. Even the Heaven can wait cymbal test gets a decent score now. I also think the CK7 highs are still improving; maybe they need a longer burn-in. Maybe the extreme high frequency tests I did yesterday kind of waked them up. The Sony EX90 are really good, too bad they don’t’ provide better isolation. Some people with smaller ears may also find the large “bud” housing the speaker a bit too large and uncomfortable. I don’t have this problem but my girlfriend prefer the CK7 for this reason. When you wear the CK7 pointing up with the wire going around your ear and down your back (instead of in front of you), the isolation is good and the comfort is A1. The best thing one could do with a good fully adjustable equalizer would be to use various test tones to tune the CK7 to give a response similar to the un-equalized ER6. That’s pretty much what I did. Did it make the CK7 able to bring Nina Simone from the dead? No. You still need the ER6 to do that. Does it provide enjoyable listening ? Yes, I'm enjoying it right now. The extra boom in the bass is also usefull while listening to jazz. These now equalized Audio-Technica will still be very good at reproducing electronic music, not as good as the Sony EX90 but since they offer better isolation, these will be better when used in noisy environment. Actually once equalised they gain half a point, which would raise it to 7.5/10. | 
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
wolfgangfener's journal
