The 10 stages you’ll go through when learning to read headphone measurements

[@808lilmac]

Ive been into this hobby for 10+ years and I did go through all these stages, it was a very long process that took years, this is a great video thanks for your work

[@erichieger7386]

Brilliant!! I'm a reviewer for Headphonesty. It's interesting the weight that enthusiasts assign to FR graphs and measures. HRTF is a huge factor (physical hearing function, resonances, etc.). I absolutely agree with you, and just because something graphs sell does not necessarily mean it will sound good. Thanks for the great video!

[@josuad6890]

Great. next time around, I expect to see more FR graphs around.

[@DBSTH0R]

Happy to be on stage 10, and by large thanks to you and this channel. :) My ideal EQ doesn't exist. Rather, I seek how to fix the flaws of the headphone with as minimal input as possible. Will first pick headphone based on measurement and subjective take (not having funds to try them all like you reviewsers do), and then do the "fix". I've come far from a person being disgusted with even a notion of EQ, to now using it 24/7. Thanks again!

[@JB-ol3xo]

The Harman is a great reference. It's also something that we as the owners of this gear can interact with via EQ. Other metrics aren't something we can easily mess about with in APO and discover our preferences using them as a reference. Perhaps you don't enjoy the way the Harman sounds, but regardless if you do or don't its existence can very much help you figure out the sound you DO prefer...

[@zanychelly]

I have a Sony H9, for gaming, I always thought it was kind of muffled. Then I got Sonar installed on my PC, made some correction towards Harman, then added some personal collor to it in the lower bass and mids. I can say I enjoyed it more now.

[@GermanoHeitor]

I don't know why Andrew but I never sit and watched you content until recently and you are the most sensible guy by far in this hobby. Thank you for everything you do.

[@DHRME]

What about Stage 11? Go back to just discovering and enjoying music, instead of the gear? Great vid!

[@ResolveReviews]

That's maybe like... stage 50 haha

[@chungang7037]

That is when you can listen by measurements.

[@JohnClarkW]

This video is amazing, informative and entertaining. I absolutely identify with oscillation in my feelings on Harman targets, and the insanity of measurement rigs. I am approaching the HRTF point, and that definitely explains why everyone has their own target.

[@HeliBenj]

This is as always very well thought out and informative. Give more food for thoughts and is a lot more nuanced than the typical black or white "objectivists vs subjectivists" "debate". It's a blessing in today's world, thank you very much for that

[@taidee]

Thank you for taking yet another time out to explain the technical methods used on review because people get tribal on these things. It's nice to get that cool head of Resolve to clarify what it's all about

[@madsmeierjger9558]

As a scientist and music/headphone enthusiast (around level 6 on your scale), I really appreciate this video. Thanks!

[@peteranders6893]

This is a fantastic video. Great work. I liked what reviews I've seen on this channel, but this one earned you a sub.

[@msteele0]

Resolve, this was brilliant. Extremely nerdy, but brilliant. Thank you for putting this together. I find it funny that I've come to the conclusion that I have to take everything above 6-8000 hz with a grain of salt looking at measurements exactly for the reasons you pointed out.

[@jackjack3874]

Excellent video.. For us that do not have access to a great number of headphones or iems, FR is very important to make a purchase decision. That and buying at least a couple of items from each reviewer that we consider credible and see whether our hearing preferences match theirs. That is why it is important for us that you review non-expensive items as well. So we can make the "lighter" purchases and then know which reviewer our hearing is closer to when the time comes to make a grand purchase... again thanks a lot for the video.

[@taidee]

That is a brilliant suggestion, because the reviewers have their tastes as well as their slightly different understanding and view off the terms used in audio review.

[@ibassnote]

I’m going to let those who find all this fascinating, have the time to pursue these subject, and can articulate these findings in layman terms go at it and try the headphones and IEMS that rise to the top. For example the revered LCD-X, a headphone that everyone and their mother reviewed. It was clearly worth consideration. I went to Audio46 and tried it against some Anandas and Aryas and, for my tastes, it won out. I’ve never been disappointed by this purchase. Ultimately I liked the sound and performance and I felt that it was well-vetted by the numbers brigade. Thanks to all those who make this their life’s work!

[@njc9911]

Very interesting. Personally I can't see myself EQing everything to match the same target. Seems silly to me. When I EQ, I add some bass if necessary, generally restricted to subbass, and tame any peaks that annoy me. Maybe add some midrange if it's the right candidate for such a thing. But in general, I want each headphone or IEM to sound like itself. Kinda takes the fun out of the hobby if I try to make everything sound the same.

[@fuatdomanic]

This is by far the "Best Guide to The Deep Scorpions Well" I've ever encountered so far, thanks a lot ! 🖖 92 Berklee Alumni of MP&E, happily tampering an Arya Stealth attached to a Fiio K9 with a Fabfilter Pro Q3, also appreciates Airpod Max's sinfully 🙉

[@matthewweflen]

This was very enjoyable and gave a great perspective on where these graphs come from and how they should or shouldn't be used.

[@jb678901]

Amazed at the concise manner in which you adeptly conveyed such a complex topic. It does lead me to ponder, in part, the potential benefit of an IEM over a headphone by its mitigation of certain variabilities, inherent with HRTF, through the proximity of sound source to the eardrum itself. The benefit being limited to the simplification of tuning standards and not necessarily to sound quality, in general.

[@haberdasherrykr8886]

I don't imagine many other headphones other than weird fitting ones such as the abyss 1266 or the raal would be highly impacted in a detrimental way because of HRTF Most others fit kinda similar, however speakers would be most impacted from this

[@jb678901]

@@haberdasherrykr8886 I have seen demos where the user has in ear mics and the frequency response can be easily manipulated/shifted simply by minor changes to ear-cup positioning. That there is a very discreet sweet spot. Also, depth of pads, insulation, degree the pads conform to the head/isolation, size of ear cup relative to ear, etc.

[@haberdasherrykr8886]

@@jb678901 is that because of hrtf or distortions and cumulative waterfall plot stuff i.e. stages 4,5,6,7 here

[@haberdasherrykr8886]

@@jb678901 watch Andrew's video on the 1266, he mentions what you were talking about

[@mikafoxx2717]

Problem with this is the depth of ear canal, and the fit of the IEM. Because of the differenxe in dimension and lengh of the ear canal, you get a differing Q and resonant frequency of it that will impact the final responce. Etymotic iem's are known to be basically perfectly neutral with minor differences because they use deep insertion, which pushes the resonant frequency into the unhearable range instead of 5-8khz where it impacts the treble. Problem is that a lot of people find it uncomfortable.

[@teachonlywhatiseasy]

Thank you for the links. Unfortunately some of these papers are missing on sci hub. I'll ask around on ASR. FR is definitely a big predictor in loudspeaker preference and olive's research shows the same in room response being preferred in the headphone category. Toole's notes say " bass performance accounts for 30% of the factor weighting", "1/20-octave data yield better correlation results than 1/3. conclusion: fine details are audible". in-room subjective ratings had a correlation coefficient of 0.85. This is from a well controlled, randomized, blind testing. Two kinds of people: 1) preference curve is important but there is more to the eye. 2) any headphone can easily sound good irrespective of whether it follows the in room preference curve. " They differed in their ability to give consistent answers, numerically spread out answers but in the end they all agreed on the ratings of those products. Humans are amazing measuring instruments...you're listening to strange music, strange room, strange loudspeakers and forming opinions..do it blind, but if you know what you're listening to, i don't care" -Toole

[@masterxyr]

A very distinguished and elegant way to flex and pull rank against the haters, Andrew :D Excellent video; informative and thorough! You were so focused and enthused you even 'forgot' your hat, which, if I may say so, was splendidly replaced by the Elegias

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

That's not an elegia. But thanks for the kind words.

[@masterxyr]

@@TheHEADPHONEShow cheers and, damn, It's Elear with Utopia pads just to upset the viewers trying to be smart-ass guessers :D Would love to see something on crossfeed. maybe interspersed with something else!

[@TheHypeCom]

14:16 „unfortunately you still have to listen to the headphones“ lol I know you didn’t mean it like that, but it perfectly incapsulates how some people get so lost in frequency responses that they think they know how all headphones in the world sound without ever having actually tried even a few

[@gatobakuniano]

Man, I have seen people on forums saying that some IEM sounds bad... And after some posts you realize that they are speaking just watching the graph. It is amazing...

[@haberdasherrykr8886]

Every one here complains about people who judge and infer too much from FR graphs I on the other hand have only occasionally encountered such people It seems you complaining guys are really making a storm out of a puddle newcomer lurkers like me

[@RickinICT]

@@haberdasherrykr8886 You say you are a newcomer but dispute the experience of people who say they've seen a fair amount a particular type of discussion on the topic. Perhaps the problem is your naivete, and not some exaggeration on their part of what they've seen.

[@haberdasherrykr8886]

@@RickinICT i haven't seen people adhering to FR graphs religiously, only people complaining about existence of such people The complainers outnumber them by a lot, no dispute in that, just an observation that people are making the ill informed more vocal and significant than actually existing

[@kyron42]

Very good video. You sound like an engineer.

[@procrastinationpro8264]

Can somebody please show ths video to oluv?

[@musicxxa6678]

Higher res target curve and personal HRTF... I hope someone funds a new research to advance Harman's work. I wonder if companies keep some information as business secret. Maybe they know more stuff but don't share with the public.

[@goldenwing8184]

I've been into this hobby for 10 years and after messing around with all the graphs and charts, i decided to stop think about graphs and just try the iems i want to buy to see if it fit my taste or not rather than predicting how it sound.

[@michaelwhitaker1972]

I like the Harmon target. I don't necessarily like a headphone that follows it perfectly, but I understand what I like and don't like within the target.

[@devicharan286]

13:43. Exactly, even the most advanced measurement system b&k 5128 will only account for a canal length (28mm), PPL can have it anywhere from 22 to 33. Also, in ear geometry differences. I think no matter how advanced and sophisticated the system can be, there is no way one can develop a perfect system that speaks for all ears.

[@blainelacross5311]

This isn't necessarily the case. Systems can have different HRTFs without making their results non-predictive of the result on your head SO LONG AS the differences between headphones relative to your HRTF are constant. To take an example, consider the subjective perception two people have of the same speaker in an anechoic chamber: at the eardrum, the frequency response will differ, but it will differ to an extent which is exactly proportionate to the difference in the two individuals' frontal free field HRTF (because that's how we measure that), and so the subjective frequency response should be the same between the two, even though the SPL at the eardrum is different. It's not absolutely certain that headphones behave this way in any case - and there are some demonstrable cases where this doesn't happen - but it's not necessarily true that a device which doesn't match your HRTF can't predict what you hear accurately.

[@dominikalbers6983]

Good topic. Really informative!

[@aracari]

I'm at the point where I use harmon target (auto eq) as a baseline and eq for my preferences. However, my preferences change for each headphone I own. For example, akg n90q sounds terrible with auto eq enabled, but ultrasound edition 10 sounds wonderful tuned to harmon target. Driver tech, cup design, angled drivers are just a few of the list of things that all have an impact on how your ears will perceive the sounds coming to it. Harmon is not a one size fits all solution to magically make any headphone sound better, but it's a fair starting point.

[@HeliBenj]

I agree with you, but it's called the Harman target, not Harmon

[@aracari]

@@HeliBenj slight oversight on my part. Words are hard XD

[@swiftshinobi8337]

1: "what is the best headphone ever?" 2: "best headphone under $200?" 3: "best sounding dac?" 4: "best sounding amp?" 5: SUSVARA Good? 6: "next step up from hd6xx?" 7: "want audeze but scared cuz weight ahhh!" 8: "custom in ears worth it?" 9: "moondrop is best iem!" 10: "know what my hd6xx was helping me enjoy music" REALIZATION FUCKING HITS

[@erichieger7386]

Hahahahahaha!!!

[@JTB--]

Andrew's #1 would be - "Get that F'ing Topping A90 away from me"

[@ResolveReviews]

Was this your trajectory?

[@NalinKhurb]

Absolutely amazing! I reached to around stage 8 lol After that I think (at the end, at least for me) it depends on one's own experience of sound from a particular pair, and then comparing it with other headphones' FR. Over time, you gain more experience (data points) and can compare the FR of your favourite pair with others, irrespective of the compensation used. Because your reference point is clear to you. But this is just for people who simply want to enjoy their music. For people wanting to know the absolute best FR, it's a constant struggle and perhaps because of this there will be more advances in sound measurements In all I've stopped chasing the absolute best both for headphones and speakers. It's just too much fuss about nothing, a little bit is warranted however. Listen to the music, not your equipment ;)

[@BruceCross]

Even if the Harman target curve isn't a perfect reference, it's still helpful. You have to know the rules to break them.

[@mrfrosty3]

I still see posts on Reddit from people asserting that because two headphones have a similar FR therefore the higher priced model is scandalously overpriced.

[@metal571]

WRT individual HRTFs, I hope Harman Intl continues to use and improve TruNote rather than removing it from their lineup. Oh and none of us grad school bois are fun at parties, that's just par for the course, amirite Resolve...

[@ResolveReviews]

Depends on the party :D

[@metal571]

A gathering of the HATS, complete with wine and scotch

[@wethermon]

@@metal571 Put Port wine in the list and I'll fly to the US.

[@KenDupont]

Are there any Trunote models other than n90Q and n700nc mk1?

[@metal571]

Everest Elite 700

[@ArturdeSousaRocha]

I love the Harman target (and profiles) simply because it gave me a start to rescuing myself from a poorly made choice of headphones. And of course the choice was made based on graphs (and misleading reviews, but that's another story).

[@ArturdeSousaRocha]

@Gerardo Sennheiser HD 599

[@VicharB]

Nicely presented and informative. Thanks.

[@jasonweaver3629]

Wow, learning so much, thank you again this is fantastic info.

[@Michael_mki233]

2:26 "And this leads you down the path towards..." _And if you gaze long into an abyss..._ I kid, of course, but since you left that pause in there I couldn't help myself. 😁

[@kyron42]

I'm curious. When you compare headphones how do you do volume matching?

[@ResolveReviews]

I use an SPL calibrated GRAS 43AG, and match in REW.

[@kyron42]

@@ResolveReviews using white noise?

[@ResolveReviews]

@@kyron42 pink noise generally

[@motorradmike]

Fascinating discussion!

[@lukeduke9304]

Amazing, so much knowledge! 👍

[@aartwallow]

Great explanation! Thanks!

[@youtube改名也太難了吧]

Such a great video! Pretty sums up my roadmap about this topic. Really appreciate Harman for their subjective listening experiments and willing to publish them in the past. Sadly they're not going to publish the measurement based on the B&K rig. But I supposed one can measure the HRTF in a "well behaved" stereo playback room to get the Harman target as they proposed at the beginning of how they get the target? Also is the smoothing really that serious about their published target? From Toole's experiment the high Q resonance isn't that easy to be heard compare to low Q ones also the HRTF varies on different people. Guess that part need individual tuning to get the right response.

[@Another_Audiophile]

I agree with your open statement about the complexity. For me EQ is a detraction from the music and that's why I can't be bothered. Also I like each of my headphones for what they are. With their limitations and strengths. I went through the EQ rabbit hole and I end up listening less music and more headphones.

[@howardskeivys4184]

Alternatively, acquire a set of headphones from a reputable dealer or website who will allow you a trial period, home demo. Listen to them extensively, attentively and critically using your EDU electronics chain. Repeat this procedure until you find a pair of headphones that reproduce music, the way you prefer to hear it. If you find that you have to resort to EQ to meet this criteria, then seriously question your choice of headphones, or electronics chain. Most of all, enjoy the music.

[@nmnate]

Yeah I think I'm in stage 6. I have enough appreciation for the Harman target (and my tastes) to get a rough idea if it's worthwhile for me to consider a headphone based on a competent measurement, since I'm aware of certain aspects that I really hate (shout, sibilance). I have enough awareness about measurement rigs to know how they're incredibly specific to head / ear anatomy - beyond that I'm not sure I care - there will NEVER be a perfect way to do a measurement for each individual person in the masses, it's just too specific. For where I'm at in my audiophile journey, I think having measurements be "good enough" is adequate for informing my decisions. I would describe "good enough" as anything that allows me to enjoy the music without any fatal flaws that would irritate or fatigue my listening experience. Perhaps as I get older (ok, I'm not that old...), I'm starting to realize that enjoyment is my goal. I don't have to chase the extremes to get to have a happy experience. :)

[@josuad6890]

Funnily enough I never went to stage 3, and just jumped to the next stages. Why? Because I have IEMs that do adhere to harman target very early on in my time doing this hobby (the galaxy buds), and I still love them to this day. While I'm not at the stage where I just delve myself into research paper, I've come to understand (very early on too), that FR is extremely useful, but doesn't tell the whole story. Due to the sheer amount of EQ playing and equipment I have, and learning each of their FR, I can basically just imagine how something is tonally balanced just from FR, but sound stage and whatnot is still unreadable from FR graphs for me, hence why I still read normal reviews.

[@Christiancsilva13]

Crinacle sent me

[@ResolveReviews]

I

[@Rorensuwl8]

@@ResolveReviews how about sharur?

[@fabinho.kisuco]

It's a very interesting video! But this whole conversation needs a better parameter than just EQ curves. For example, which songs, their quality, volume db were used to evaluate such curve and headphone or EMI. Without that, in my view, a lot of things don't make the slightest sense. I like blues, fusion and various styles of rock. The quality of the recordings vary greatly. Say, if I hear Robert Johnson, Hendrix, Marcus Miller or Trivium speak in just one corner it makes no sense to me. At the same time, it would be insane to have EQ for every disc. So I have my favorite songs to EQ my headphones and I EQ for the ones with better recordings, since in my opinion, it doesn't make sense to waste a lot of time to equalize headphones for songs with bad recordings.

[@mikafoxx2717]

The idea is that it sounds fine and as intended.. if your start to remaster your music by eq'ing your headphones for every album, you're doing it wrong. You should probably just remaster the album at that point.

[@jackjack3874]

With use case factored in the Harman Over Ear target is actually great for iems... for headphones, imo less bass is better.. crin's target is actually very much to my taste...

[@_benjimouse_]

Clicked on this video wanting a bit of ego validation only to find I'm not that far into headphones. I'm cool with that.

[@ResolveReviews]

Being cool with that is a good attitude for all of us, myself included hahah.

[@goodboid]

Please make a video on how to EQ properly. Where does one start? Is there a step by step process to arriving at an EQ that works for you? I love my Qudelix 5K and EQ everything to taste. I'm often shocked as to just how much of an impact EQing can have of bad/average headphones and iems. Most headphones, in my experience, benefit quite a bit from lowering the FR at lower mids and elevating the lows (makes the overall bass less muddy while creating separation). I'm left wondering if I'm missing some EQ trick or best practice, and a video on the topic would be fantastic.

[@zfjames]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpfFkGpmibWGm5o

[@jasonweaver3629]

Great content, thank you!

[@Farpun]

I loved this video and found it helpful, but I would love to see a video guide, by Andrew, on how to EQ by ear.

[@zfjames]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpfFkGpmibWGm5o

[@alejandroandrade3473]

Finally I understand why I never understood the fr in the treble😅… I thought it was obvious to everyone else bc they discuss about the nasty 8k-10k peak and how it ruins the sound… without even hearing the hp… my only question would be how in earth Rtings give a grade to the treble measuring it against a target? 🤔

[@HeliBenj]

Rtings grades are a joke in certain areas, ì'm an objectivist but ì recognise not everything can be graded objectively. They don't

[@atyne_mar]

Rtings don't measure against the Harman target.

[@alejandroandrade3473]

@@atyne_mar Rtings use a hybrid Harman target and Diffuse field: "Our headphone target response is a hybrid; it follows the Harman target response in the bass and mid ranges, but its treble range is based on the Diffuse Field response of the HMS."

[@atyne_mar]

@@alejandroandrade3473 That's right. That's why I don't understand what were you trying to say in your first comment.

[@alejandroandrade3473]

@@atyne_mar Ok so at 9:02 Resolve mentions that "target is heavily smoothed, but the hp fr is not. he also mentions that there are meaningful deviations above 5K. It doesn't matter if it is the DF, Harman, Crinacle's, Oratory's or any other target, no hp can follow the smoothing of the treble in these frequencies.

[@GadZookz]

Very interesting! Thanks! Would there be anything learned by retesting the original Harman subjects to see how their preferences change over time?

[@cole6011]

Stage 11 is enlightenment where you just listen to the headphone itself and stop reading graphs altogether😂

[@charlesheinrich6817]

Interesting and informative as always, thank you. Curious as to which pads you are using on the Elegia, you had mentioned the solid sheepskin Dekoni added bass, those look fenestrated.

[@ResolveReviews]

It's not an Elegia. It's an Elear with Utopia pads.

[@charlesheinrich6817]

@@ResolveReviews thank you

[@MannyScoot]

If you have good ears, what really matters is that you are listening to music the way you like it .......I specifically look on a video and see where the drum set is set up (location) and then use my EQ to find the cymbals in the song and the kick bass...... then use every EQ band to put the guitars and singers where they belong......Once you find a pretty decent eq setting the rest of the instruments will fall in place. I also know what a cymbal and strike point should sound like ..... A good EQ can make any piece of crap earphone sound good once you know what each EQ band does to the music wave ! Look at music as a wave of water, music travels in waves !!!!!!

[@dudexyt]

Was the HRTF segment (when displaying the HRTF paper) recorded with binaural mics? it had a bit of 3dness according to my ears before returning to the video clip.

[@ResolveReviews]

No, same mic, just added in after the fact so it's a different environment. I forgot to explain HRTF in the initial filming.

[@simon-nl4mq]

Got addicted to the guilty pleasure elear w/ utopia pads combo lately? These have been featured in almost all your recent vids lol.

[@ResolveReviews]

Mostly just the live streams, but yeah absolutely.

[@OldkidLivegen]

When I see this guy who probably have listened to the best headphones on the planet rocking the same Focal Elegia with Dekoni's fenestrated pads as me, I feel super validated as an audiophile

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

That's not an elegia. That's an Elear with Utopia pads

[@OldkidLivegen]

@@TheHEADPHONEShow Close enough, I feel validated anyway 😅

[@poturbg8698]

I think a lot of people don't actually know what a 1 kHz tone, for example, sounds like. So they have no idea how to translate these graphs into any sort of expectation about how the cans will sound.

[@nitinpandey2]

Hi Andrew, I have been trying to seek a way to contact you one on one, but failed. I am seeking your help to help me decide on the purchase of any 1 of the three IEMs I recently listened to and liked a lot. Since I have made a few purchases basis your reviews and know that your preferences are very similar to mine, I can fully rely on your suggestion. The IEM I putting as options here, are the 64 Audio U12T and U18T and Noble Audio Kublai Khan. My favourite genres of music include accoustic, jazz, country and pop. I do occassionally listen to classical and rock. I am looking fir an endgame IEM for all these music genres. While I do seek the widest possible soundstage and best resolution, other attributes are secondary. I look forward to your help. Thanks!

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

Out of those I'd pick the u12t. It's my favorite iem still

[@nitinpandey2]

@@TheHEADPHONEShow wow, thanks Andrew! Gee that was a quick response. And I much appreciate your knowledge, demeanour and the way you structure your reviews. Big fan!

[@MTheoOA]

Hey Resolve, what do you mean by Dynamic impact? Like focals, biodyn drivers... It's the variation of volume, that can cause a suddenly impact, more evident on bass? How this can be measured? If this exists, it has to be some graph in spl or something, or even ''attack'' graph, something naturally which can be measured? A guy said to me that this can be seen on SPL variations between headphones in FR, but idk, i did not get convinced. This seems like a theme on the modern audiophile community, and we're pretty interested in how real is this.

[@ResolveReviews]

At the moment it's not something that's been reliably correlated with measurements, but theoretically it should be possible to measure it, there are just way too many counterexamples - like the Focals for example. I think another issue might be the conditions in which something is measured, like the fact that an ear and cheek simulator isn't an actual human head.

[@jeremywilliam79]

This is fascinating. How does this relate to what Oluv has been saying? Individual in ear resonance seems to be a big deal no one is talking about other than him. If everyone hears iems/headphones differently due to having different ear canal lengths shouldn’t the first priority be understanding our individual ear characteristics and adjusting for that? How can someone say something sounds “good” or “bad” if everyone hears them differently?

[@ResolveReviews]

I've said this a few times in live streams but, I'm sympathetic to some of the ideas he's got but it's also not quite that simple. Basically what he's discovered is that if something more closely matches their HRTF, it'll sound better to people, and that's definitely true. But it also doesn't demonstrate anything beyond that. So like, we still can't say that HRTF-matching predicts a positive experience for all the 'technicalities' audiophiles talk about - even if ultimately does sound better. And we can't go about proving it by doing sound demos either. The only way to do this is to compare with the actual headphones in question.

[@jeremywilliam79]

@@ResolveReviews awesome I was hoping you’d respond thanks for taking the time.

[@imwhatsnew]

Nail on the head.

[@PerfectionHunter]

05:09 "...the HIFIMAN Savara has much higher measured harmonic distortion than the ODYSSEY LCD2. So why isn't it less detailed? If you actually get to listen to those headphones you'll know what i mean." Wtf? Dude, don't ever let your viewers hang like this. Answer your question. Why isn't it less detailed? Or do you genuinely not know?

[@kyron42]

In the next video why not explain the importance of driver matching.

[@ph11p3540]

Honestly, I never bother with most of these measurement interpretations. I just audition with my favorite music and if it moves me to another dimension then those are keeper cans.

[@olimphus26]

Should’ve named it “The Headphone Measurement Iceberg Explained” LoL.

[@rafiexperimental]

im just laughing because im relating real hard on this . except i'll probably stick with diffuse field for ease of use while switching gears and sounds really good to me tho

[@armanke13]

chronicle sent me here

[@gaborb6577]

Should be compulsory to listen and understand before buyin any headphone

[@theofficialczex1708]

Crinacle the copycat sent me. 😈

[@kyron42]

I started out at stage 10.

[@fclp67]

5 stages of grief but for audiophiles

[@officialMainspring]

this had to be the nerdist thing I've ever seen. I didn't understand any of it... but it was awesome. 😁

[@chrinaldi]

Uh... I think it is safe to say that ignorance is bliss in my case? Nice to know that I can somewhat predict how will the audio gear sound with these graphs though. I am not an audioengineer. Though I can sorta understand why is there HRTF; skull aids in conductive hearing and there are a lot of organs for hearing (nerves, and all that) in our ears. Even from the perspective of medicine, that stuff is hella complicated.

[@RJohnODonnell]

Nothing on hearing loss? We basically all have SOME in higher frequencies, right? Especially with age?

[@blainelacross5311]

Hearing loss isn't really pertinent to headphone target response, if you want headphones to sound like either A, real sound (the Theile paradigm, assuming binaural recordings) or B, good stereo speakers (the Olive/Toole paradigm, assuming a stereo recording). In all cases, the reference conditions still include your hearing loss. You might separately want to apply some results from an audiogram to your headphones as an alternative to wearing hearing aids while using them, but that's quite individual, and may well take you further away from "sounding like being there".

[@RJohnODonnell]

@@blainelacross5311 Ah, yeah. I guess I was just getting lost in all these ideas of EQing and compensation instead of the evaluation of the headphones.

[@RJohnODonnell]

@@blainelacross5311 How about "being there back when you were 15 years old"? 😆 Sort of a hyper-real sound then. I think I'd prefer it!

[@AleksiJoensuu]

So in the parties there's going to be some janky bluetooth speaker playing a song and thirty people talking over it, and a perfectly reasonable person will tell you "I love this song!" - "What?"- "I love this song, right?" - "I can't hear you!" - "I LOVE THIS SONG!" - "Oh yea maybe, I mean I'd have to listen to it at home after calibrating my EQ settings to the song according to my spreadsheets and graphs but I mean it sounds cool sure." - "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" - "Uhhhh YEA IT'S PRETTY COOL I GUESS!"

[@jeofthevirtuoussand]

I would like to ask, Could you do à sound demo with the hd600 and elegia ? I m coming from the hd600 and I don't know If I will like the elegia

[@ResolveReviews]

Sound demos aren't representative and are more likely to mislead than to actually demonstrate how something sounds - at least... to the public. But what I can say is that the HD 600 is definitely more balanced for the tuning than the Elegia without EQ.

[@jeofthevirtuoussand]

@@ResolveReviews I know sounds demo aren't truthful to real life . Simply to hear how different or how close they sound . No need to be super accurate. They are truly useful to assess how different or how close they are.

[@FabioKasper]

NOOOO... I consciously choose to only believe in graph reviewers.

[@alexlandgren6596]

Ehm sharur ehm...

[@nagodio]

No clue , but i follow HBB because we share the same exact music library and trust his reviews .

[@jonathanraecrisanto5912]

Targets are not rules. They're just guidelines

[@RyougiVector]

physiology triumphs

[@Anomalyn1]

Somebody please show this video to the DT 990 PRO guy

[@deepfriedavocado]

5

[@barbasour]

yeah... but not for IEMs.

[@rigel8755]

In summary, you can be 100% sure with scientific proof that some target response is the best for a human ear, therefore, responses different from what you praise to be the right one are automatically evaded. BUT, somebody out there is more likely to find, for example, the KZ average graph profile sound better than Etymotic, i think this outwrites any research possible, because at the end of the day: Sound is solely subjective for each person, no matter what. What really differs from each pair of headphones and is not subjective for each person is sound *quality.* So, even if you're a KZ fan and hate the Etymotic Research, you will find differences on sound quality between the two whether you like it or not.

[@lth_lch]

Should've just called stage 9 the Oluv stage lol

[@user-hb1ve6mc6f]

🥃

[@freedomspeech9523]

I am at the stage that I don't trust Harman target. I trust more THD and IMD. And the HRTF considerations.

[@TheHEADPHONEShow]

THD is far less important than FR. Please do not over value THD, as there are numerous studies demonstrating... You can't hear it unless it's really bad.

[@paulosilva8200]

Let's talk about sound quality . Oluv gadgets channel. Type this on your tube and you see this guy talking about many factors you spoke . It's good

[@ResolveReviews]

He and I disagree about this topic in a number of ways though haha. Like, I don't think it predicts these other qualities we're after the way he thinks. In fact, we've chatted about it and I've tried it, and it still doesn't turn a categorically C-tier for technicalities product into an S-tier. It fixes a number of things, and so it's interesting, but that's just the same kind of 'unveiling' effect you get in something like a K371, which also kind of demonstrates this. Also, he hasn't been able to actually demonstrate that without making significant assumptions about FR that have yet to be proven by testing actual headphones.

[@JBT97]

Having watched both videos, Resolve tackles this topic much better. You may be able to tell that Oluv is biased in his arguments (if you read my long comment there lol); not to mention that half of his video is an ad for the earfun pro 2 and his Patreon.

[@YektaAEmre]

I'm stage 9 already??? İ need therapy

[@K.So.7545]

So is stage 11 than, when you realize that all headphone reviews are meaningless for yourself because a reviewer only judges how close a headphone is to HIS (or HERS) HRTF and that usually is not your HRTF. Or am I drawing the wrong conlcusion here?

[@ResolveReviews]

It's not so black and white as that - at the very least I think you can get a general sense of how things sound from reviewers. It's mainly that assessments of treble performance are difficult to fully grasp without hearing the headphones for yourself. This could also have an impact on subjective reports of the fine-grained stuff, so just take all of that with a grain of salt. I DO think there are common trends, but for the question of HRTF matching (which hasn't been demonstrated to be preferred yet), there are absolutely limitations to reviews.

[@royrosvold5305]

Is there any rewuers that don't destroys the rewues by having that fucking JAZZ in their testing..? I can listen to almost everything, but NEVER JAZZ because I HATE IT!!!

[@masterxyr]

So, girlfriends are not devout to being our pinna exploration lab rats?

[@peteranders6893]

Lol. Well you have to make do what you have access to and not everyone has access to lab rats.

[@jeofthevirtuoussand]

Harman target is horrible for orchestra ost ,I much prefer the hd600 and sundara for orchestra

[@ResolveReviews]

Both of those are extremely close to Harman... The Sundara 2020 is possibly the best-measuring headphone out there, relative to Harman. It's only the bass shelf that's missing, but the in-room result with the preference tilt is generally adhered to there.

[@jeofthevirtuoussand]

@@ResolveReviews I didn't have that feeling when I was listening to the sundara . At it was much less compared to the moondrop aria for example. 🤔 Audio is weird

[@ResolveReviews]

@@jeofthevirtuoussand moondrop Aria is an in-ear. In-ear targets are different from over-ear targets. Sundara 2020 is possibly the best scoring open-back headphone for Harman's predictive preference rating.