What is DETAIL in IEMs? Precog's take

IEM expert Precogvision gives his take on reports of detail retrieval in in-ear headphones. Oftentimes when someone listens to an headphone or IEM, they'll describe the sound as more or less "detailed", or having better "technicalities". But then anyone unfamiliar with how these words get used will give the understandable rebuttal of "but what is detail? show me detail", to which no answer can typically be given. In this video, Precogvision provides an explanation, and examines some of the reasons for these reports, what they often refer to and how to make sense of them.

How to read the new measurements:
The 10 stages of headphone measurements

0:00 Intro
1:04 Audible Spectrum
4:13 Example
5:04 Auditory Masking
7:53 Hot take: coloration is detail
10:00 Read resolution from a graph
10:43 HRTF
11:47 TL;DW

[SuperReview]

Good takes! I really like the breakdown of different possible meanings of "detail" and their explanations, I agree with a lot. I hadn't considered your final suggestion that tasteful coloration of tuning can be pivotal in creating a sense of detail, but your description does remind me of processing photographs and being intentional with contrast to draw attention to details. Though a big difference here is that processing photos like that typically requires manual response to the source material -- whereas a headphone tuning acts more like a film simulation that operates the same regardless of the photo it's applied to. The effects can be similar still.

[chungang]

I sometimes imagine Audiophiles losing sleep at night, thinking "Another day, another bit of lost detail [that I'll never hear again!]"

[PrinceZirconium]

This is possibly @precogvision's best video to date. The amount of science backed evidence along with clear and understandable explanations is an absolute flex of brain power from someone who has very clearly put a lot of time, effort, and dedication into the field. Gonna need some more of this from you, Theo.

[yin-fire]

As a psychologist, I appreciate how true to psychoacoustics and perceptionism your information is. Very objective in general.

[amanieux]

Great simple explanation about cutting off frequencies aboves 10khz causes loss in details, there is a sumilar effect on soundstage loss when you cut off bass frequencies below 60hz

[celstark]

Open a photo in an editor and dial up the “sharpness” slider. You’re shifting the frequency response of the photo and emphasizing the high spatial frequencies. Your perception is of “more detail” as it’s “sharper”. The detail was always there. You just emphasized a component of it.

[AnticipatedHedgehog]

For all audio gear, go listen to it for yourself. Excellent point! Learned a few new things today, thank you.

[ethantan]

tysm for the great content! well articulated and put across!

[athenovae]

In sports psych, I was taught that we don’t “lose focus” but simply our attention is shifted elsewhere. Appreciate the video talking about that as I don’t see many (as I recall) who do.

Regarding constantly changing HRTF, variable frequency hyperacusis is a bitch 😂😭

[pzmaven]

Excellent honest take. Thanks Precog!😎

[mathiasjohnson]

I agree with a lot here. One thing I see popping up in the comments here and around this topic often is the misconception that the upper end of the FR is where detail lives and dies. Also, I think left-to-right level matching plays a huge role in the perception of detail, sound stage and coherence generally--maybe as much as FR overall.

[redgopnik]

honestly, detail = coloration makes so much sense. if you're at the mixing board and you want additional focus on a specific track, you simply boost its volume. that's it. that's your detail - the coloration in the iem just happened to match that individual track.

i mean i still do think that not all drivers are created equal, of course. but this, just makes sense

[gauravtyagi]

6:20 You nailed it. Excessively bass is the culprit for diminishing the perception of details. That is why I prefer a neutral signature. However, in my decent time in this hobby, I have observed our ears get adjusted to the excessive bass after a while and then one tends to hear the details better in a long listening session.

[abrahamkimu]

I am starting to see a trend of some sorts when it comes to reviewing iems on this channel, it's like there is a much greater emphasis on the frequency response of iems rather than the subjective qualities, which I'm honestly all for

[jaykumar]

I could watch an hour long video on this topic. thanks for this

[catmeow]

YES! I've come to a similar conclusion! Detail, speed, soundstage, all that is just frequency response (I can hear 80% of the Head-Fi forums screaming in rage). Since this realisation, I've stopped lusting after kilobuck IEMs. Now, I just look for cheap, comfortable and well built IEMs that have a good FR response. Now I spend my money on ear tips to ensure max comfort!

[DarenLee]

Details also depending who we are talking to, like from someone that use mass market earphones and pass them some hobbyist IEM and they will say wow lots of details but matter of fact it’s just trebles and high boosted

[Tssukiii]

Finally you’re back! Love your content, man :)
And that Glowup shouldn’t be under appreciated too hehehe

[hartyewh]

Detail as a term is currently hopeless since almost any change to fr can cause a user to call it more detail. Mist of the time it's also "detailed compared to my old headphone" and mainly translates as "better" in general.

Detail could and should refer to the lack of or matching coloration in the sound so that you feel you hear more music than headphone. That said current practical accuracy of EQ's still leave major difference between headphones especially. A 7506 sounds grainy (to me at least) while LCD-5 sounds uniquely detailed.

[sephondranzer]

Is it possible people are also mistaking instrument separation, or staging, as detail retrieval? Are those values you can measure?