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Nubert NuPro XC3000 RC & SP-200 first impressions
🕑 Added 2023-03-07 10:48:11 +0000 UTCI am using my new compensation for this video which I worked on a bit more in the meantime. Sorry that it took me so long but I needed to optimise everything and I think I managed a great result, which should sound way more natural and smoother than my previous attempt regardless of used headphone for monitoring. At the same time I had to find the right balance to make the recording sound correct through the reference headphone by adjusting the headphone EQ to make it sound neutral when compared to the original source. Thus the recording needs to have the balance re-adjusted and now is brighter than in reality. Listened over neutral speakers there will be a slight tilt towards treble with less bass than in real life, because otherwise the monitoring headphone would sound too bright and not correct as shown in my previous post. It’s not possible to have a headphone which is tuned towards a neutral natural source, a binaural recording of this source which is equalised towards a flat response and finally make this recording sound the same as the source when listened over the adjusted headphone. It’s impossible to achieve this by 100% but getting as close as possible was my goal here. There will always be some difference I am not sure about this discrepancy and where this comes from, but this is the final conclusion I could take from my latest experiments. Either the headphone or the recording needs to be adjusted to retain the correct balance within the recording chain, which is what I finally tried to achieve here as good as possible. I managed to improve both the quality of my recordings and the resulting sound for the headphone. I am quite satisfied with my new derived headphone target but still need to fine tune and simplify my filter set to make a final EQ for the HD600 and all following headphones. I attached my corrected rough filter set for the HD600 if you want to listen to the video with the "correct" sound, but also try the HD600 with the "correct" tuning, which at least is the case for my own ear. I still cannot judge how well my EQ will work for others as it definitely has some of my own HRTFs influences included. The current delta between my old and new EQ for the HD600 is displayed here:
You can notice a boost starting with upper mids, some upper bass reduction and a more Harman like bass tuning, which I simply think sounds more real than a completely flat bass response. It may need some further fine tuning and I will dig deeper into these differences in future, but as for now I am quite satisfied. Notice how "little" the changes actually are, but the overall effect and improvement in sound is quite huge, which proves again that all headphones having completely different frequency responses from each other, are just bogus.
Back to the speakers, I think the differences should be quite hearable especially in regard of sound stage and imaging where I finally think that the X3000 sound most correct so far. The frequency response is a matter of taste, measured at listening position like set up in the video, you can notice that the X3000 in black appear with more upper mid boost compared to the SP-200, the SP-200 have a slight peak with upper treble before rolling off. Also bass is significantly stronger on the X3000 below 90hz, but with less upper bass compared to the SP-200, that's the reason why the X3000 sounded so much fatter than the SP-200 but less boomy in the video.
Thanks to the built-in EQ the X3000 can be tweaked quite a bit although the filters are limited to 60hz, 240hz, 1khz, 3.5khz and 16khz. A 7khz filter would be welcome but especially the 16khz filter is helpful to fine tune overall treble response. I will cover these features in an upcoming video after I tried to improve the sound for my listening position. I also noticed that elevated like the X3000 were placed here, the sound improves quite a bit compared to my usual placement, that's why I ordered some desktop stands for them, as I will definitely keep the X3000 and really like them.
Please let me know your thoughts about the speakers but also about the sound in the video and those with a HD600 I would like to hear your opinion on my latest EQ.
Comments
If you need more bass at high volume you could think about trying one of their subs. I got the xw900 together with the xs3000 RC and am quite fond of it
Thank you! I ordered the XS-3000 RC now and am quite hopeful that they will be a perfect fit for me.
Oluv'Sone
The X3000 bass is already pushed quite hard, the X4000 will probably struggle even more to keep that bass at higher levels. I am not sure how loud they really can play without falling apart, I could maybe do a test against a Partybox once. I honestly cannot judge the difference between the X3000 and X4000, they should sound similar though.
Nice comparison! Just some small mistake: The text, telling which speaker is playing, shows XC-3000 instead of XS-3000. Maybe you can fix that before uploading to Youtube or further videos with this speakers. I am unsure whether to choose the XS-3000 or the XS-4000. My main concern is that the smaller XS-3000 does not have enough power for playing really loud at partys in my 20m2 room without lacking bass an/or total power. What do you think? And do you feel like the 4000s sound quality is equally nice as the 3000s? Sadly it's been quite a while since you've tested them.
