Itis always wise to read the specs of a headphone amp. many of them deliver only some 50 milliwatts; for somewhat more headroom one needs output levels in the order of 200 milliwatts ( into 32 ohms).

I use the AKG K550 together with the Fiio E11k, which is very reasonably priced.

Can't be the distortions compensated, equalized???

What about flat response speakers ? Can two models be diffente, in a relevant way, for bass, for example?

'real' signal (X) microphone response (X) AD converter response (X) DA converter response (X) speaker response.

This is always true and will never change; it's basic physics. Ideally the response functions are unity functions, but they are not. Even the AD/DA converter response functions are not unity functions, though they introduce the least distortion. Every physicist will tell you that if you measure something, you will always get a result that is heavily influenced by your measurement and playback equipment... and microphones and speakers are just that.

About the hearing tests: sound is not absolute. The (deci-)bel is a relative unit. Thus, the position of 0dB is arbitrary from a physics standpoint. It is usually chosen to identify the threshold of human hearing, and it is absolutely to be expected that measurements from 70 years ago maybe did not get that point exactly right.

Once a doctor told me that hearing measure tests were changed in the specifications for the measuring chart, cause they found the phones used in 40's (or near that when the chart was created) wasn't able to render correctly the sound.  That's why the hearing tests chart today instead of begin in zero decibels, starts in -3 decibels.

Is there no real responde mics or real response phones?
I can't believe...

How to know what is the rightest headphone??? The one with more bass, or the one with more trebble?

What about get a real piano, record it, and compare the sound of the recordind listening with a headphone and listening to the real piano?

The problem with that is that the microphones will change the sound too, so you don't know whether it's the mics or the headphones making the difference.

How to know what is the rightest headphone???

If one is seeking accuracy, one way would be to compare the sound of the headphones to very good quality studio monitors, in an average listening environment, I guess.

Greg.

What about get a real piano, record it, and compare the sound of the recordind listening with a headphone and listening to the real piano?

njaremko wrote:

dalrmi wrote:

This one could be ok ?

D1-24-Bit-DAC

Really can't go wrong with anything made by Audioengine, the D1 is a fantastic DAC/amp and would certainly meet your needs.

You'll need to follow this to get your setup working correctly (outputing audio to multiple audio devices): http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/08/ho...-mac-os-x/

Have you used the D1 with Pianoteq? I tried one a few years ago and thought it had too much latency. But it's possible the latency was coming from somewhere else. I did however get better results (for whatever reason) using an Apogee One, even though it's sampling rate is around 45 kHz.

Now that I think about it, I was connecting the D1 to a Mac using an optical cable. That might be where the latency was coming from. Anybody with more expertise in these matters have a guess?

dalrmi wrote:

This one could be ok ?

D1-24-Bit-DAC

Really can't go wrong with anything made by Audioengine, the D1 is a fantastic DAC/amp and would certainly meet your needs.

You'll need to follow this to get your setup working correctly (outputing audio to multiple audio devices): http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/08/ho...-mac-os-x/

Have you used the D1 with Pianoteq? I tried one a few years ago and thought it had too much latency. But it's possible the latency was coming from somewhere else. I did however get better results (for whatever reason) using an Apogee One, even though it's sampling rate is around 45 kHz.

This one could be ok ?

D1-24-Bit-DAC

Really can't go wrong with anything made by Audioengine, the D1 is a fantastic DAC/amp and would certainly meet your needs.

You'll need to follow this to get your setup working correctly (outputing audio to multiple audio devices): http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/08/ho...-mac-os-x/

D1-24-Bit-DAC

So I could select that output in Pianoteq leaving the deafult output for other sounds of apps on the iMac through my Bose speakers connected via the jack.

Thanks.