Hi. I'm the one who wrote the review for soundandvisionmag.com and produced the graph in question. The methodology and equipment I used are spelled out in the review right here. It's all industry-standard equipment, purchased by me personally (at considerable expense, especially for a freelancer). I've spent countless hours reading the available materials on headphone measurement, consulting with manufacturers on the subject, and discussing my process with the U.S. distributor of the measurement system to make sure it's as accurate as possible.
It's worth noting that while headphone measurements tend to vary at the frequency extremes - due to different types of measurement equipment, use of different calibration curves, varying fit of the headphones on the test device, etc. - they tend to be consistent in the midrange. In fact, at the frequencies in question here (about 300 to 700 Hz), the correction in the calibration curve is less than 1 dB.
Some of the music that I and the two other panelists listened to is also listed. We try our best to explain our methods and make our process transparent. And I'm proud that we do have a serious process in place for testing headphones, which most websites and magazines do not.
Of course, none of that means any one listener's subjective impression of a product will agree with our review. We hope that the reviews we present will hold true for at least a majority of listeners, though.
My impression from your review was that they are overly bright. Would you say that is accurate in your opinion or did I misread?
