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Topic: Wooden headphones (Read 2627 times) previous topic - next topic
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Wooden headphones

Are wooden headphones all better at suppressing sibilance? Has anybody listen to cans that might prove otherwise?

Wooden headphones

Reply #1 –
Quote from: t-jay one on
Are wooden headphones all better at suppressing sibilance? Has anybody listen to cans that might prove otherwise?


Knowing a little about how headphones are made and the physics behind the choices that are made, the answer is no.

Sibilance is about high frequency response. One of the challenges of designing headphones is managing a natural resonance inside the headset, ear canal and pinnae that is is in the right frequency range for sibilance - 3-8 Khz.  Material choices for the case of the headphones relate to far lower frequencies.

Tap on your headphones. Do the damped clicks you hear sound like sibilance? Not in any headphones I've ever had!
 

Wooden headphones

Reply #2 –
A speaker or headphone is not supposed to have any sound of it's own.    It's supposed to accurately reproduce the sound of the music (or other signal) that you feed-in.    Therefore a good headphone (or speaker) should not suppress sibilance....  If there excessive sibilance in the recording you should hear excessive sibilance in the headphones (or speakers).    Of course, if there is not excessive sibilance in the recording, you shouldn't hear excessive sibilance in the headphones.

It should not suppress or enhance anything.      It should not "sound like" plastic, wood, or metal....  No matter what it's made of, it should simply sound like whatever you are feeding-in.  In a perfect world, all headphones & speakers would sound alike, just like all halfway-decent CD players sound alike. 

It's not an easy thing to do, so good headphones & speakers are not cheap.  In the real world, the technology is not that good and every speaker/headphone sounds different.  Different manufactures take different approaches & use different materials to achieve the same goal.*  Usually manufacturer's are trying to keep the cost (and the price) down.  But some manufacturer's like to use exotic materials and/or keep the price as a high as possible to satisfy audiophile-demand for high-price gear.

As Arnold says, you do have to consider the way the headphone interacts/resonates with the ear but the goal should be a headphone that sounds neutral/natural to the human ear when worn on the human head.

Speakers & headphones are different from musical instruments.    A musical instrument is supposed to have a sound of it's own.  The wood selection and construction do affect the sound of a guitar or violin.  A guitar, violin, or horn are not supposed simply "play the note", they all sound different when playing the same note.



* Some manufacturer's might not have the same goal...  Some may want to design-in "enhanced" bass or highs, etc.