An objective review of all the flagship headphones

The question may then arise: what measurable conditions best give rise to that experience.
You won't know until you measure. If listener after listener likes certain pairs of headphones while those same listeners consistently dislike other pairs of headphones, don't be surprised if measurements reveal that the preferred headphones have quite a bit in common.

Once you establish subjective preference, you can then do objective measurements to find out why people prefer those things. Once you know what those measurements are, your engineers can design for those objective goals.

But measurements didn't decide preference. Preference was already established via subjective testing. Measurements simply explained why people preferred certain things. Without objective measurements, you would be reduced to guessing why people liked certain things and disliked others.
 
I wish I had the experience to be able to answer that!

One reason that topics like this interest me is that I am a recent newcomer to the whole headphone experience, but now, due to such factors as night-time listening in a small house, and unshared musical tastes :(, find myself very serious about it, and moving towards a headphone/PC system which, finance allowing, may cost more than I have spent over the decades of speaker-based music listening!

Apart from earphones for flight/public-transport-commuting, I never liked the feeling of being cut off from the world by headphones. I realised that in my 20s, and not until my 60s have I found out that I can be extremely comfortable with open-back headphones! Well, I always was a "slow starter!" :lol:

So, my current headphones are actually my first ever regularly/frequently used headphones. They do not belong to the lofty heights of reference or "flagship" models. They were chosen partly on advice from fellow forum members, partly on other reviews, and by audition. They are the AT ADH900, I find them physically very comfortable, I like their sound --- and hey, they do get a mention in this roundup, and, guess what, they don't measure so well! Does this mean I am binning them? No way! :) In fact, I still feel that they are capable of giving better results with better amplification.

Whilst admitting limited experience, I have had the LCD2 in mind as my upgrade. I have auditioned it very briefly. In fact, it was more a quick test to see if I could stand the weight on my head than a real audition, and I did not even have my own "test-suite" music with me. Well, not in the test, but the LCD3 gets "great" results.

The thing about preference is preference is not necessarily hifi. This comes up in discussion of studio monitors sometimes, where the answer to enquirers is that they may not necessarily like them. They are designed to tell the truth, not to entertain. Flat frequency response, no doubt, matters, if one is looking for the truth (literal meaning of fidelity, faithfulness). It means that what is put in is going to come out, without anything missing or "enhanced." This, indeed, may not be comfortable. To take an extreme example, if one has much-loved music, but only as <192kb MP3, (and especially if much less), what is bearable on lesser speakers may sound horrible on accurate speakers. I'm sure most of us have experienced this.

(Have to stop here... going out to a concert :) )
 
I see you are Chennai based. I do come over there for races every so often - can bring a couple of cans for you to try out next time I am in town, if you want. We can take that offline, if you want.

And you are right - preference is not necessarily hi-fi, if measured as accurate reproduction of what is on the recorded medium. And that is fine. The goal should be to get a sound that matches one's preferences.

This reminds me of a session I had attended on analyzing the music of Bach. The notary leading the discussion was pointing out the nature of the music, and how complicated it was to play, etc. etc. and there was no discussion about the musical quality of the work - just the technicalities (I raised the topic, and he stated that the quality of the work was not relevant to the discussion).
 
That's a really nice offer, thanks! The couple of fellow members that I see here, between meets, are not really into 'phones.

Guess what: I'm rushing out again just now --- to another concert :)

hey, Chennai Music season :)

More later!
 
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