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We've recently released our Test Bench 1.8 update for Headphones! Read the R&D Article to learn more about our new direction. As we ramp up and retest products, expect delays in testing new and updating preexisting reviews. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience!

  1. Home
  2. Headphones
  3. Test Bench 1.4
  1. Table of Contents
  2. Intro
  3. Design
  4. Sound
  5. Active Features
  6. Connectivity
  7. Usage Ratings
  8. Completed Updates
  9. Comments

Test Bench 1.4
Changelog

Updated

See the previous 1.3.1 changelog.

See the next 1.5 changelog.

Design

  • Reduced the weight of 'Microphone Control' & 'Noise Canceling Control' from 10% to 5%.
  • Increased the weight of 'Ease of Use' and 'Feedback' from 21% to 26%.

Sound

  • New target response for over/on-ears and in-ears. They now fully comply with the latest research by Harman.
  • New plot normalization algorithm to make the graphs more perceptual.
  • Limited frequency response calculations to 9kHz since the HMS doesn't match human perception above 9kHz.
  • Added 'Test Settings' box to clarify the configuration the headphones were tested under.
  • Renamed 'Soundstage' to 'Passive Soundstage'.
  • Reduced the weight of 'PRTF Distance' from 30% to 20%.
  • Increased the weight of 'Acoustic Space Excitation' from 20% to 30%.
  • Added 'Virtual Soundstage'.
  • Moved 'Surround Support' from 'App Support' to 'Virtual Soundstage'; renamed it to 'Virtual Surround'.

Active Features

  • Added 'Surround Support' to 'App Support'.

Connectivity

  • Upgraded test PCs to Bluetooth 5.0, supporting aptX, aptX HD, & aptX LL.
  • Improved the Latency tests.
  • Reduced the weight of 'Bluetooth Version' from 50% to 43%.
  • Reduced the weight of Default, aptX, and aptX(LL) latency from 6% to 5%.
  • Added iOS Latency to 'Bluetooth' with 5% weight.
  • Added Android Latency to 'Bluetooth' with 5% weight.

Usage Ratings

  • Minor updates.

216 Headphones Updated

We have retested popular models. The test results for the following models have been converted to the new testing methodology. However, the text might be inconsistent with the new results.