What Type of Headphones Sound the Best?

Please join us with Dr. Sean Olive from Harman as he discusses Harman’s pioneering research on headphones along with loudspeakers that spans over decades to define the metrics responsible for great sound. This discussion includes Over-Ear, and In Ear Monitors (IEM's) and the response curve shape responsible for achieving the highest subjective listening preferences in blind test studies. Can you simply EQ your current headphones to get better sound based on this research? We discuss this possibility with Dr. Sean Olive.
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#headphones #audiophile #sound

[@Jimsathome]

Gene this session with Sean was fabulous. One of your best to date. As a trained Six Sigma Black Belt, and former long term member of IEEE and PCIC, it was great to see real data being used with the referenced publications to support the amazing work /results obtained. I've never bought a JBL headphone, nor a Samsung, so I'm not just singing their praises here reinforcing my purchasing decisions. I am in the market for some BT Buds, but never could get my arms around where to start. Maybe it's time to look at Harman's products here as I've always been a fan of their speaker lines. Thanks again for this video.

[@michelkh87]

This video/interview is priceless 😍. Gene you are not only an audio and electronics expert but an amazing interviewer as well, your questions were always right on the spot and covered all the aspects of the topic . Dr. Sean you are true legend and thank you soooo much for the great science and the effort you have put in those measurements. Damn those killer speakers in the back ground 😍 the salon 2 and the F328Be

[@Audioholics]

Thanks. Sean has the Revel Salon2s. I have the F328bes in my office. Very good speakers for sure.

[@michelkh87]

@@Audioholics I'm sure they are. both speakers are top notch . I hope one day i will have the chance to listen to them.

[@juanmillaruelo7647]

Outstanding video, Gene and Sean Olive.

[@johnsmolley1941]

Superb presentation--been to many scientific conferences with loads of very smart presenters, this Doc rocks. Hats off to a very coherent discussion.

[@Bloodhoun21]

Wow, what a great stream/interview. So much useful information for headphone buyers. Is audioholics going to test headphones if they fit the Harman curve? I would love that!

[@homeboi808]

Comfort is a huge part of the equation. If I don’t like how the ear pads feel, the clamping pressure, or how the headband feels, I won’t own it, no matter how good it sounds. Also, as someone who wears glasses, how similar the headphone keeps its performance with that slight seal break is also important.

[@Seconds84]

Agreed

[@JayJayYUP]

Same goes with IEMs. They suffer a serious comfort issue for long term use. Assuming you have the size right (I'll get to that in a moment), if you use silicon tips, they seal so well, none of the humidity naturally radiating out of your ear gets to leave, and you thus have wax that stats to goop. If you use foam, they breath better, but for some reason after you take them off after a long period of time wearing them, they leave your ear VERY itchy and slightly irritated if you engage the itch. Now the bigger problem becomes actually getting sizing right. It's almost impossible outside of very small stems (which is basically almost all IEM's outside of Shure, Etymotic, and Sennheiser to some degree). All these IEMs aimed at audiophiles are a disaster, the stems are too thick, and any tip you put on them, almost always is inadequate from a sizing perspective. Our ears aren't round (like the perfect circles stems are on IEMs), instead they're ovular. Apple seems to have figured this out, but for some idiotic reason, no IEM maker is copying this. Their Airpods Pro's have a silicon tip which a hollow and semi bendable "stem" portion. The comfort is wonderful in terms of the tip (though the rest of the Airpod is questionable somewhat but still overall a godsend compared to normal IEMs). Comfort is the primary thing I look for in headphones and IEM's now. Everything else is almost inconsequential.

[@homeboi808]

@@JayJayYUP I have an AirPods Pro (got with bundle discount), and sadly it doesn’t fit well in my left ear, the plastic enclosure pushes on my Helix Crus and becomes uncomfortable after just 10min. Many of the “IEM” style earphones do the same, only regular in-ears (like my 1More Triple) have never given me a comfort issue.

[@JayJayYUP]

@@homeboi808 100% agreed, if they can scoop out some of the material in that region, it would work. But you do get my gist how their design makes sense if they could just rearrange some of the hardware. The tips are flawless as silicon can be in my view otherwise.

[@NanoDex]

Spatial sound is coming in a big way, per the Dr. you had on yesterday! Killing it on technical content rn.

[@SS-cl5ph]

the spatial sound has been developed many years in Dolby and DTS and I knew you knew this hhhh what I wanna say a true spatial sound will have huge computation that a current mobile chip is hardly to bear. It was a man used 2080ti as the hardware trying to simulate the real spatial sound for the earphones, and the bass is borrowed from the speaker 4367 by low pass filter hhhh

[@SS-cl5ph]

I would love to give you the link, but KZbin just removed it……

[@johanakerblad339]

Really good learning for me! You get the facts and made a great presentation together with Dr Sean!

[@juanmillaruelo7647]

Binaural is truly impressive! Nothing approaches the "being there" feel. My preferred medium by far.

[@MacNifty]

Full earcup sealed. Without digital filtering or noise cancelling. No EQ or coloring circuit. Give me large drivers with very low transducing. Give me deep deep 10hz and up bass and reference.

[@danryan4272]

Thanks so much for sharing your insights!

[@anthonymartino9917]

Closed design is the best to me. Love my Audio Technica W 5000 for imaging and other high end Audio Technica wood sealed design headphones.

[@johnp9898]

Is there a master list of in ear headphones and their preference rating vs price like the one shown at 1:01:00? As I am looking for the best "bang for your buck" in ear headphones and can't seem to find a list anywhere.

[@HeavyProfessor]

Great thank you both

[@Farpun]

1:05:22 There are dsp boxes and Bluetooth adaptors like the minidsp 2x4 and the qudelix 5k pro that allows you to EQ to the harman target

[@NanoDex]

I want to see ANC in every closed back, without alteration, degradation or muddying of the sound quality. Turning down the volume of the outside is an audiophile action in my mind. Its crazy to me that the only good ANC comes from Bose. Probably this new QC45 will top them all, again. I got it preordered. People talk big on Sony and Apple but the Bose is the only one that doesnt blow out on 40hz footfall noises from upstairs. The pads are not enough on sony, the cups not deep enough on SO SOOOO many other headphones. The seal is step 1 to effective ANC especially for that impactful low freq. Headphones should touch you at the pads, and top of the head and that's IT. Having spend whole days using the Bose 700, days in a row even. Not taking them off at ALL the whole day. The imaging and soundstage is exceptional. There are many parts of the Bose 700 that if you ignore the dryness and slight cuppy resonance, are spectacularly accurate and good headphones. With a touch of eq to alter the stock tuning they really shine. Sadly though you cant improve technical ability. No matter what, I still hear cheap plasticky cuppy resonance and tones on a macro level. Detail seems poor but you hear every tiny sound, again partly thanks to the ANC turning the rooms volume down, per say. The only ANC headphone I have heard that almost doesn't sound ANC is the AKG N90Q. It has a analog ANC circuit so it hisses, but hissing aside they sound terrific. Maybe a touch dry but really dam good. I wish someone like AKG would revisit their N90Q or improve the N700MKII to actually broadband handle low freq with 20+db attenuation like the bose and sony can. I feel the N90Q has strong ANC but the pad and seal is not enough to work on any (most) head(s). I hope whatever secret formula Bose has, other companies apply fully. Imagine a headphone like the Focal Stellia or DCA Stealth but with ANC and wireless BUT with the ability to still run it fully independent of the internal circuitry (for when you wanna bust out the serious gear). That is my end game. One can to do it all!!

[@stevenswall]

I'd fork over $4000 if the DCA Stealth was wireless and had noise cancelling as good as Bose.

[@wild291]

Great Job. If you can't hear a huge difference between 400 bucks headphones and 1k go get your ears checked. When I went from a Grado 325 to a Sennheiser HD800 it was night and day and i my ear is not great anymore. I found the Senn was so good i couldn't hear multichannel music for years with my average 5.1 in my not treated listening room.

[@rolandssavdons7993]

There's no correlation between price and sound quality in headphones. Don't see why anyone should check their ears checked due to your comparison.

[@jirehla-ab1671]

My sony mdr zx110 has 24 ohms with a sensitivity of 100dbs is performing quieter than my cheaper earphones that i have used and i also found out that my cheaper earphones sounds more louder and even more better than that $20 headphones that I have bought, do u have any suggestions?

[@stevenswall]

Where can we see new Harman group headphones? Curious what is coming down the pipeline.

[@dansantoso48]

Please do harman 4 subs method breakdown and how to do it!! Thanks

[@gavinj7850]

We are adapting to bad sound. What a truth. Great line. Great topic. Thanks!

[@Chrisspru]

i am pretty sure the so called regional listening preferences of people and resulting component sound colorimg disppears when adjusting for the effects of room size, building material, furniture and neighborhood population density. a large room with cardboardy sound needs far more volume and increased trebble/bass, while a small brick room needs low volume and transients because of reflections.

[@iknownothing495]

For 2 decades I was happy with my cheap (80 - 100 USD) headphones I used for playing games and listening to music. When it was time to replace them, I just bought another one, no problem. But then.....about a year ago, I started to listen to HiRes music.. And then I began to look for really good headphones.. And I still don't know what to buy.. Life was easier when I was still listenings to 128kbps MP3's.....s

[@thomasmleahy6218]

What floorstanders are those behind you? Any subs?

[@kytddjj]

I like AKG

[@MichaelBruceTaos]

this is great!

[@kapooranuj]

Gene can you please share the link to the trained listener software that doc was talking about

[@stevenswall]

Good Harman How to Listen and it will come up.

[@dsfox]

Break-in is not real - I knew it!

[@psyglr2012]

How about making hearing aids? Mines are about $1700 n not even top of the line with our personal chart tests of course.

[@tonmeister86]

I've went with my mother to an audiologist recently who is shopping for hearing aids. She was quoted $5k for a pair and that was considered middle tier... Hard to believe there is more than $50 worth of parts in a pair.. It's a racket and I think is ripe for serious disruption.

[@psyglr2012]

@@tonmeister86 Aye!

[@psyglr2012]

@@BradSteeg Basically the good better best pitch which started from $1500>1700>2k, i took the the middle ground with the option to upgrade. There were no actual demo presented. I demanded a loaner with a motion to file(lawsuit) since my actual unit on order has not shipped yet, it been 2 months.

[@tonmeister86]

@@BradSteeg My sales pitch was the more hearing loss the more money you have to pay. More money gets you hearing aids more features including with directional microphone arrays that automatically adjust the beam towards the person to whom you are having a conversation. There is more signal processing to remove background noise for more intelligibility in the presence of background noise. Common features now are Bluetooth to connect directly to TV and phone and apps that allow you to adjust the hearing aid

[@MacNifty]

For me I am very picky. I have used $20 headphones and I have used $1000 headphones. They are right about the price and frequency response having no correlation. I have had really good luck with Sony. Classic 7506. Sound itself is like flavor and for everyone it is personal reference and taste but you do need equipment that is giving a metered result that is recordable scientifically. It really is honestly hard to find a headphone that will hurt my ears. And I mean where I turn it up. And hurts my ears like it would if I put my head in the corner of the room. I need overpowering, I want more power than I need. And then turn it down. Rather than headphones why can't we wear a type of encapsulating helmet? I get an audiogram once a year. Even though I blow my ears out and I've been told all my life that I will damage my ears my ears are still very keen and at greater listening range of the higher frequency than told about losing qualities of listening at a higher age. I think like smoking everyone is different. I smoke also almost 2 packs A-day and when I get a physical once a year my lungs are at Swimmer and runner grade capacity. And the doctors don't understand. So I think listening and speakers and reference is different for everybody.

[@tonmeister86]

The Sony MDR 7506 is actually a decent headphone for $80.. It happens to come close to the Harman Target Curve. Very encouraging since it's been around for 20 years and used by professionals to record/produce audio.

[@toby9999]

Maybe your lungs would be even better without the smokes? Just a thought :)

[@jnagarya519]

Perhaps there's a correlation between headphones and smoking.

[@tonmeister86]

@@toby9999 Smokes? I don't smoke.

[@Christopher._M]

Why don't more headphones use sensory bass like skull candy crushers?

[@joelopez7459]

When is Gene gonna clean up that room? I hated planar for the same reason lol

[@Jordonater]

Shame the stellia on genes head cant really match the harman cure as well as the cheap AKGs on seans head.

[@neandrewthal]

Lol Focal sucks

[@Jordonater]

@@neandrewthal I think the closed backs do however i really like the elex on my head right now. Got a pair without issues

[@bryanp4827]

My Audio Technica ATH MSR7's will do me just fine...as good as you can get for less than $400...👍👍

[@thomasmleahy6218]

Should serious 'philes be pursuing plastic surgery to attain better hearing through differently shaped ears? Now science has to investigate the best shapes for the best reception. Some singers have differently shaped throats, sinuses, mouths, teeth, gums, larynx, that help shape their voice in different ways, perhaps a similar effect for ears? Do our ears perform differently for headphones vs speakers?

[@dayfornight88]

still very mad at harman kardon when they bought out AKG they ruined the brand entirely Harman kardman never made a good headphone ever in the whole history fully disagree with the measurements even measurements are so inaccurate to start this you had a whole video on how blind tests were not reliable.