Twenty points to Griffindor.
 
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elysian said:

I use a thesaurus and dartboard.

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mercuttio said:

Twenty points to Griffindor.

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from multiple things. listening and on hands experience is best way to do it. lots of reading as well. i still don't get the meanings some head-fi members use here since it's very confusing to figure out cause they have multiple meanings for each person. i always explained things using simple terms like sub-bass,treble,air,ect. if someone asks but to be honest i suck at explaining things. also when learning try to think for yourself but always keep an open mind about it. lot of people never think for themselves and end agreeing with something cause it's hyped to hell or popular. just try to learn things on your own is best way but don't be afraid to ask questions.

start with a needle dropping, or some other small sound that can be replicated.
you need to know your ears are able to zoom in.
 
once your ears are able to zoom in, you're off to listen and describe what you hear.
no need to wait for something that sounds close to perfect and out of your dollar range that you can afford.
its about being impressed.
 
when you listen to something without being impressed, it is dull boredom.
asking us what impresses you and what doesnt is really the wrong thing to ask, because there is only three choices.
1. studio reference (this is when you cant tell the difference between speaker or actually being there)
2. whatever impresses you and keeps you entertained
3. settling for what you get because you've heard worse
 
 
simply ask yourself..
do you like to listen in real deep to hear what is maybe missing?
or
do you simply want it to function and dont care about listening closely?
 
**edit**
 
i just want to add..
sometimes you will listen in real deep and the detailed difference is hard to realize.
and this is when you cant judge the headphone in the first 60 seconds .. you will probably need more than one album and more than one genre to hunt down a judgement.
 
the newer 'high-resolution audio' (the format and the speaker's voice coil design) will be there inevitably in the future.
there will be new 'flagship' headphones at the top price category.. but there will also be new designs in the lower $100 categories.
and that means filling in everything between.
you could wait for new headphones to be released and try them out, knocking them down one by one until you find something you are satisfied with.
 
the comparable difference of headphones from the past in the $100 and lower range is really going to change.
their ability to pour out sound is simply non-existant.
to keep those products on the shelf with the high resolution audio trend.. it looks very trash.
when the headphones cant make a CD sound normal and clear.. DVD audio and Blu-ray is totally out of the question.
 
a store would be burning their customers leaving those headphones on the shelf.
as if they are poison for anybody that touches them.
or
the product sits there and says to the customer 'dont even bother looking for decent headphones at this price'
 
the scenario is comparable to this..
the new video game consoles are coming out soon, there is no reason to go out there and buy a playstation 2 or playstation 1 because everybody needs to realize how obsolete the playstation 3 is about to become.
the stores are going to try and keep the price of the playstation 3 high because you dont know any better.
and they will make the price of the playstation 4 higher to allow the playstation 3 price to remain high.
when more people realize how bad the playstation 3 is.. the store will need to bring the price down, or simply stop putting the console on the shelf for sale.
 
when you want realistic graphics.. going back in time is the wrong thing to do.
expecting realistic audio from old generations of headphones is the wrong thing to do too.
if those expensive headphones sound decent.. then those prices will be driven down by new releases.
OR
the new releases wont be much of an improvement, and it will upset the inertia of audio resolution already installed on blu-ray and home theater receivers.
 
if they hold back on the quality, the old model number's price wont change much at all.. and there will be a huge traffic accident in the lowest priced headphones.
thankfully.. they've been releasing headphones in the low price categories that are forcing everything more expensive to make a change or collect dust with embarassment.

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catsndogs said:

I am not sure why it is considered a desireable skill for anyone other than a professional reviewer. After all, it seems likely that the main consequence will be dissatisfaction, since even the very best headphones are not perfect.

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Well it can also greatly help you in finding the headphone that suit your tastes, so it's not all that bad and might actually save you cash in the long run as not all highend headphones will sound great to everyone either. If you find out what kind of sound signature fits with your taste you can start reading around on professional reviews, analyze graphs etc to find the headphone which should suit your needs. This is certainly the case for me, I happen to be a "basshead" I don't see me as preferring to hear a lot more bass quantity than everything else, it's just to my ears the bass level I like sounds "normal" to me as I've been using speakers in the past but I can always try to adapt to a new sound signature, yes but then going back to the old one after being used with the new signature then realize me again what I've been missing so that doesn't work out for me. Now that I know what I prefer I just simply search for it!
 

Heya,
 
Listen to a lot of headphones, then look at all the specifications behind them, do the same with some DACs and AMPs. Try and scale it from entry level to at least entry-high-end. Form a really well rounded idea of what you think things sound like.
 
Then be ready to be told you're wrong by elitists on Head-Fi who have golden ears.
 
Very best,

In addition, it's a good idea to get used to the laws of diminishing returns, and what they actually mean in practice.
 
In case you're not familiar, this is the general idea that a headphone worth $100 is not going to be twice as good as a headphone that costs $50. The instant you analyze said $100 headphone and dismiss it because you don't hear sound that is 2x as good as every $50 phone, you're probably on the wrong track. 
 
It's also tremendously difficult to compare two headphones side by side. Some snap you in very quickly and you'll immediately notice great degrees of micro-detail, while others (the HP2 notably) will take a while longer to focus; those micro-details ARE present, but it's almost as if you'll need to spend a reasonable chunk of time getting your auditory bearings. 
 
Make sure your recordings are good. If you haven't found a headphone you consider your "reference" headphone, this can be tricky. Talk to others with similar tastes for this. After you have a good recording of something you like, really try to examine it on a headphone. Listen to it multiple times. If it projects an auditory scene around your head, look for individual parts you like, and check carefully into how each one is rendered from headphone to headphone... with a fair amount of a break between different headphones and a 'warm up' period with the second headphone. 
 
Wander around in the second headphone. How have things changed? Are those changes good or bad? Don't get suckered into the whole "well, this is clearly a neutral headphone and therefore this is what I should listen to" hole. Judge on what your ears say is better. Remember that the artist or the sound engineer listened to this or recorded it through equipment that may or may not have been "neutral." Nobody really has any idea what was intended, and it's better to just work with what sounds good to you.
 
Be careful doing this too much though. It's very easy to end up as the sort of person who only ever listens to one album, and then is really only listening to their gear. Headphone addiction can be dangerous to your musical taste, you know.
 
EDIT: And don't let anyone EVER tell you that Moore's law somehow relates to sound. It doesn't. Think of modern audio equipment instead as a large and massive pool that is getting larger with every new product released. Sony hasn't matched the R10, despite it being a nearly 30 year old product at this point, and many prefer it to modern equipment. It's all subjective, it's all based on taste. 

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mercuttio said:

It's also tremendously difficult to compare two headphones side by side. Some snap you in very quickly and you'll immediately notice great degrees of micro-detail, while others (the HP2 notably) will take a while longer to focus; those micro-details ARE present, but it's almost as if you'll need to spend a reasonable chunk of time getting your auditory bearings. 
 

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Very good point, and one related to human psychology, particularly our susceptibility to be fooled.
(Is this called a recency effect?)
 
OP: So building on that point, it may be worthwhile to learn a bit about what affects your decision-making process. This isn't just about your preference wrt sound; it includes your ability (or inability) to make objective observations.

You know, I've got no idea what to call it. It's something I've only recently been able to really put my finger on. 
 
I think biological factors play a massive part in the science of audio though; we've all had those days when everything sounds like garbage and we just can't figure out why. I tend to like darker headphones in the summer, and brighter ones in the winter. Why is that? I'm sure it's something related to air pressure and the effects of temperature on both my inner ears and the drivers, but I don't know for sure. 
 
Honestly, and I've said this many times, I don't think I enjoyed music any more or less when I was only using cheap headphones. How do you explain the intricacies of sound when our language in regard to it is so painfully limited, and filled with total nonsense words borrowed from sight, taste, and touch? I certainly couldn't grasp what things would sound good to me when I read them in text my first few weeks here. I thought I wanted a neutral headphone that didn't have too much bass, and ended up with what seemed like a cold and distant DT 880. Didn't even realize that it wasn't what I was looking for until the first time I tried a Grado SR60. 
 
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eric_c said:

Very good point, and one related to human psychology, particularly our susceptibility to be fooled.
(Is this called a recency effect?)
 
OP: So building on that point, it may be worthwhile to learn a bit about what affects your decision-making process. This isn't just about your preference wrt sound; it includes your ability (or inability) to make objective observations.

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^ Heh, that sounds like a limitation of surveys, when respondents are asked to state what they prefer. Sometimes words get in the way; preference doesn't always need to be described, it can be shown--just like we've shown our preferences by the headphones we keep, and by the ones we sell.

Plenty to judge me on in that area. I've owned nearly every major headphone (generally sub $1k) in the past five years, and I always come back to the RS1 in whatever form I can get my hands on.
 
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eric_c said:

^ Heh, that sounds like a limitation of surveys, when respondents are asked to state what they prefer. Sometimes words get in the way; preference doesn't always need to be described, it can be shown--just like we've shown our preferences by the headphones we keep, and by the ones we sell.

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intermodulation distortion of the brain can be fully matched to compression artifacts in headphones voice coil.
when things line up, the missing parts are unheard.. and the person goes on without ever realizing something was wrong.
such testing is over, and if you cant hear all of the details that are there.. too bad, because the rest of us want to find something decent more easily..!!
 
your body is made up of chemicals.
some people have more fiber, poo, and saliva than they do electricity, cache tissue, and molecular metal.
maybe they have both, but it isnt pointing where it needs to be pointed.
 
back on to the body detoxifying trend.
it can help clean things up when you feel sluggish.
usually feeling sluggish is a bad time to be listening to audio.
but this proves to be different for different DNA structures.. and the normal can change when you're sick.
 
some of those vitamins and 'natural herbs' are actually making your body sick in a good way.
people dont realize other people walk around with a 'cold' for as much as three months.
adding chemicals that help the body is known as a 'diet'
doing it safe is known as a 'responsible stomach'
exercise is not the 'end all' for being healthy.
if you can avoid unhealthy foods, you can find healthy things to ingest too..!
 
**edit**
i like audio with a low distortion floor and high slew rate.
and most people realize the increase of the slew rate, but listening to the distortion floor is when the DNA takes over and some simply dont listen deeply enough because such an activity is 'locked' by their blood.
this means there are thousands of people willing to settle for less when compared to a genius or mastermind.
 
for example..
lots of people listen to speakers with lots of microspikes in the frequency response.
they dont care because they dont focus on it like other people do.
and when those spikes are hammered in, there are still a bunch of gaps and voids in the total response.
but when you dont listen in deeply enough, it doesnt matter to you.
 
what your DNA wont let you hear.. and stopping becuase you dont know there is anything better
those two are totally different.
 
sometimes some distortion at the cone can actually be 'joined together' by the curves on your ears.. and this proves to be another reason why people say everything is subjective.
there are studio references and standards out there, but people cannot 'get over themselves' and look at the situation as a whole.
 
i see those headphones as a bunch of gasoline hungry v8's from the 1960's and 1970's
i'm ready for the new gas-saving v6 and four-cylinders.
 
the only thing v8 about those old headphones is the price tag.. lol