Had an interesting listening experience this afternoon, which I wanted to share and see if anybody else has noticed similar?
I just turned 54. I've been wearing glasses since age 6. I'd say I've been listening critically to audio since age 15 when I set up my first separates hifi. And yet, TODAY, for the first time in my life, I think I just noticed that my specs interfere with sound quality...
You can see from my avatar my current specs. They are quite big on my head - I like to hide behind them
Anyway, was sat listening to the new MoFi Thriller. One of the few positives, IMO, of the MoFi One-Steps is that they seem to throw a really wide soundstage, which I was really enjoying. But I became aware that my newly updated specs were putting some pressure on the sides of my head, so I thought I'd take them off to relieve the pressure - I was listening with eyes closed, so there was no need for vision anyway. The moment I took them off I noticed the soundstage improved - it became "unbroken", or whole, from left to right. I was actually quite struck by this. I put the specs back on, and yes - it seemed to break the soundstage into discrete chunks - left, centre, right with perceivable transitions between the chunks. Took them off again and got the smooth transition from left to right back. I really think this is a thing!
Thinking it through, when wearing the specs I have a lump of plastic on my head, with arms that reach back to the ears which could well cause reflections near the ear - but could I really be able to hear them?
Seems so! But, I recognise this could just be my imagination.
I will try some more listening sessions without them, but wanted to share, just in case other spectacle wearers want to experiment and comment? And who knows, this might be a very simple sound upgrade - remove those specs when listening to music!!
I just turned 54. I've been wearing glasses since age 6. I'd say I've been listening critically to audio since age 15 when I set up my first separates hifi. And yet, TODAY, for the first time in my life, I think I just noticed that my specs interfere with sound quality...
You can see from my avatar my current specs. They are quite big on my head - I like to hide behind them
Anyway, was sat listening to the new MoFi Thriller. One of the few positives, IMO, of the MoFi One-Steps is that they seem to throw a really wide soundstage, which I was really enjoying. But I became aware that my newly updated specs were putting some pressure on the sides of my head, so I thought I'd take them off to relieve the pressure - I was listening with eyes closed, so there was no need for vision anyway. The moment I took them off I noticed the soundstage improved - it became "unbroken", or whole, from left to right. I was actually quite struck by this. I put the specs back on, and yes - it seemed to break the soundstage into discrete chunks - left, centre, right with perceivable transitions between the chunks. Took them off again and got the smooth transition from left to right back. I really think this is a thing!
Thinking it through, when wearing the specs I have a lump of plastic on my head, with arms that reach back to the ears which could well cause reflections near the ear - but could I really be able to hear them?
Seems so! But, I recognise this could just be my imagination.
I will try some more listening sessions without them, but wanted to share, just in case other spectacle wearers want to experiment and comment? And who knows, this might be a very simple sound upgrade - remove those specs when listening to music!!