Testing Headphone Isolation: A Repeatable Method for Commuters
Isolation is the number that decides whether a commuter headphone works, and it is one of the few specifications you can measure…
Cynthia Kuder
Every test note, newest first
Full archive of measurement write-ups, buying guides and follow-up re-tests.
Cynthia Kuder
How to Read a Headphone Spec Sheet Line by Line
Read impedance and sensitivity as a pair, treat frequency response ranges as marketing, and most specification sheets become useful. The sheet is…
Cynthia Kuder
Bluetooth Codecs for In-Ears: Latency, Bitrate and Battery Trade-offs
Pick the codec by what you are doing, not by the bitrate number, because every codec is a trade between bandwidth, latency,…
Cynthia Kuder
Matching a Speaker to a Room Before Matching It to a Budget
Match the speaker to the room volume and the listening distance first, and the budget decides which model within that class. A…
Cynthia Kuder
Desktop Speaker Setups for Nearfield Listening Without Room Treatment
Sit close, keep the speakers off the desk, and a desktop system can outperform a much larger one in an untreated room.…
Cynthia Kuder
Replacement Pads and How They Change a Headphone’s Tuning
Replacement pads change the sound as much as many amplifiers do, and they do it for a fraction of the cost. The…
Cynthia Kuder
Reading a Headphone Frequency Response Plot Without Overreacting
Read the shape, not the individual peaks, and a frequency response plot becomes useful rather than alarming. Almost every headphone deviates from…
Cynthia Kuder
Volume Control Methods in Desktop Amplifiers and Where Noise Appears
Match the volume control method to your headphone’s sensitivity, because the type of attenuator decides where the noise and the channel imbalance…
Cynthia Kuder
Building a First Headphone Setup Under a Fixed Budget
Spend on the headphone first and the electronics second, because the transducer sets the ceiling of what the system can do. A…
Cynthia Kuder
USB DACs on Desktop Systems: Power, Ground Loops and Hum
Buy the DAC for its power arrangement rather than its converter chip, and most desktop noise problems disappear before they start. The…
Cynthia Kuder
Headroom, Gain Staging and Noise Floor in a Headphone Chain
Set the digital level first, then the analogue gain, then the volume control, and the noise floor drops before you change a…
Cynthia Kuder
Setting Up a Small Home Studio: Signal Chain From Microphone to Monitor
Build the chain in one direction and test at each stage, and a small home studio becomes predictable rather than mysterious. Microphone,…
Cynthia Kuder