[money4me247]

markm1, that is some really good advice!! I totally agree with what you said. less is often more & I find a one track audition to generally be enough to guage how the headphones will be for my tastes. the most important thing is to be intimately familiar the few tracks that you use to demo so you can quickly spot differences. try to demo with too many different tracks at once gets quite difficult as our brians focus on different aspects with every listen. I personally like to test using the same track multiple times focusing on one specific thing at a time (first time just overall balance/sig/what stands out/any glaring flaws). Then I focus in on portions of the track that stood out to me, relistening to ~30 second clips checking the bass, mids, and treble only with each relisten of that specific portion of the track. then overview again just too see what parts the sound sig naturally focuses on. you can often hear tiny things per frequency response region if you are focusing on it, but then relisten to that part and see that detail isnt really present when listening to the whole). I do believe you can get a lot of information from a critical one song comparision. Another recommendation I have is to bring another pair of headphones with you as an objective reference point that you can compare everything back to and build a frame of how everything is different specifically against that point. I do this when I think there is a glaring difference, I relisten to that short segment with my reference pair and the new pair. sometimes things you think are different turn out to basically the same if you do that comparision back as our brains can perceive a lot of differences just by subtly changing the audio focus (even when listening to the same track with the same headphones). i'm sure everyone has had that experience of hearing a brand new detail on a track you have heard hundreds of times.

anyways, great advice man. keep it up.

 

[bavinck]

It is good advice. I use a lot of the same tracks when I am testing gear too!

 

[NZtechfreak]

Likewise, I have a set of test tracks, usually with a different focus on the sound for each. Interesting to see others listening to some Tool as test tracks also, their stuff is really well recorded - the intro to Forty Six & 2 is a drums recording master class (just listen for how precisely the different splash cymbals are placed in physical space).

Also, congrats to the new HE-6 owner!

 

[markm1]

@markm1, that is some really good advice!! I totally agree with what you said. less is often more & I find a one track audition to generally be enough to guage how the headphones will be for my tastes. the most important thing is to be intimately familiar the few tracks that you use to demo so you can quickly spot differences. try to demo with too many different tracks at once gets quite difficult as our brians focus on different aspects with every listen. I personally like to test using the same track multiple times focusing on one specific thing at a time (first time just overall balance/sig/what stands out/any glaring flaws). Then I focus in on portions of the track that stood out to me, relistening to ~30 second clips checking the bass, mids, and treble only with each relisten of that specific portion of the track. then overview again just too see what parts the sound sig naturally focuses on. you can often hear tiny things per frequency response region if you are focusing on it, but then relisten to that part and see that detail isnt really present when listening to the whole). I do believe you can get a lot of information from a critical one song comparision. Another recommendation I have is to bring another pair of headphones with you as an objective reference point that you can compare everything back to and build a frame of how everything is different specifically against that point. I do this when I think there is a glaring difference, I relisten to that short segment with my reference pair and the new pair. sometimes things you think are different turn out to basically the same if you do that comparision back as our brains can perceive a lot of differences just by subtly changing the audio focus (even when listening to the same track with the same headphones). i'm sure everyone has had that experience of hearing a brand new detail on a track you have heard hundreds of times.

anyways, great advice man. keep it up.

Ditto that. Sounds like you've got a really systematic well thought out approach. Much more methodical and organized than I am.
 
Listening to gear and being objective is really hard. Even your mood can affect your experience. I have  no doubt your biases towards or against gear can color your impressions. The brain is powerful. I think your point about 30 second clips is key.
 
If you listen to a long song with changes in tempo, style, etc. can you really honestly remember what you heard five minutes ago? I'd say, probably not. Sometimes I think the last thing I heard sounds the best because it's the most recent memory.  Your mind  can play tricks on you. Placebo is a gigantic factor. We all have hear differently, too.
 
Then, at the end of the day, you sometimes just have to follow your gut and make an instinctive decision and hope you don't have buyers remorse.
 
Shoot, five years from now, as audiophiles, you'll probably get seduced by something else and be listening to something totally different! Endgame? yah, right! . No such thing-samsara-endless cycle

 

[Music Alchemist]

My methodology is simpler, though not recommended: Research online. Buy headphone or get it in a trade. Listen to headphone with all genres of music and decide if I like it enough to keep it. Keep headphone. Or sell/trade it. Rinse and repeat.

 

[HarleyZK]

I would say the HE-6 biggest strength is the sense of speed and immediacy it has, as well as how accurate it sounds. A lot of headphones just don't sound right, not resolving enough with metal percussion, these do - every part of a rapid drumming assault is heard in full. Guitars just sound right, the crunch is perfect - no muted attack here. These never fail to keep up with extreme metal and they sound absolutely exceptional with well the best recordings on offer. Not only that but they do sound good for just about anything I've played on them, Jazz, Rock, Psy-chill/ambient, Classical and so on. A good sign of an accurate set of cans.
 
Quote:

  You are making me jealous  

 
Have you got your nfb-28? Have you ordered high gain option?

 
Yep the NFB 28 the high gain option. Running them balanced.

 

[NZtechfreak]

My methodology is simpler, though not recommended: Research online. Buy headphone or get it in a trade. Listen to headphone with all genres of music and decide if I like it enough to keep it. Keep headphone. Or sell/trade it. Rinse and repeat.

Well that's basically what I've done too,but that gets pricey. HD 25 I-II, HE-400, LCD 2.2c, GS1000i, RS1i, T1,T5p,T5p balanced, Edition 8, Sig Pro, W3000ANV, HD800, NAD HP50, PM-3, Momentum M2 (wired), HE-6. I was at least able to borrow the LCD-X, so at least I didn't have to buy those to find out I like them a lot less than the HE-6.

 

[NZtechfreak]

Insert everything he said about the HE-6 here, for some reason that part of the quote got clipped

Agree entirely.

Apart from being extremely good from a technical point of view, the genre bandwidth really clinches it for me. I tend to have very electic listening sessions, often bouncing from the likes of Pantera to Ella Fitzgerald track to track.

 

[money4me247]

  My methodology is simpler, though not recommended: Research online. Buy headphone or get it in a trade. Listen to headphone with all genres of music and decide if I like it enough to keep it. Keep headphone. Or sell/trade it. Rinse and repeat.

I think that methodology is what is making your life so difficult.
 
That approach means you are constantly rotating through headphones, you never have a constant point of reference and it is much harder to build up a consistent framework for your own judgement. Our audio memory is short as others have noted, and subject to a wide variety of random influences such as mood. When recalling characteristics of previously owned headphones, our memory of them can actually turn out to be very difficult than how they actually perform. It is also difficult to do direct personal comparisons to see what aspects of the first headphone you prefer over the second headphone if you are constantly rotating. You end up just throwing darts at a wall with 'research' as other people have wide disparity in opinions that are subjective to subjective biases that you can never truly relate to. The key in this hobby I think to finding something you like is getting a systematic framework on how you evaluate headphones and then simply going to demo a ton of different headphones at once with a few songs you are extremely familiar with, noting key differences between headphones and what sort of sound you like. No research required (and actually not researching beforehand may prevent subconsciously influencing your own opinion). Then you can easily use all that information as objective reference points to guide your next headphone purchase and also use your own scale and relativity to bring other people's subjective opinion into perspective for you.
 
If you cannot afford an expensive headphone now or what you want now, just get a solid mid-fi option now to use as a comparison against everything else you are interested in upgrading to when you are rotating through a bunch of headphones. I personally have not found anything else more helpful than being able to direct compare a ton of different headphones yourself. The more headphones you can directly compare against each other, the more aware you become of how subtle some of these differences people are talking about are, and the less you worry about which headphone is the 'best' and the more you just pick based on what you personally enjoy, regardless of what other people say.
 
gluck with your search.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  I think that methodology is what is making your life so difficult.
 
That approach means you are constantly rotating through headphones, you never have a constant point of reference and it is much harder to build up a consistent framework for your own judgement. Our audio memory is short as others have noted, and subject to a wide variety of random influences such as mood. When recalling characteristics of previously owned headphones, our memory of them can actually turn out to be very difficult than how they actually perform. It is also difficult to do direct personal comparisons to see what aspects of the first headphone you prefer over the second headphone if you are constantly rotating. You end up just throwing darts at a wall with 'research' as other people have wide disparity in opinions that are subjective to subjective biases that you can never truly relate to. The key in this hobby I think to finding something you like is getting a systematic framework on how you evaluate headphones and then simply going to demo a ton of different headphones at once with a few songs you are extremely familiar with, noting key differences between headphones and what sort of sound you like. No research required (and actually not researching beforehand may prevent subconsciously influencing your own opinion). Then you can easily use all that information as objective reference points to guide your next headphone purchase and also use your own scale and relativity to bring other people's subjective opinion into perspective for you.
 
If you cannot afford an expensive headphone now or what you want now, just get a solid mid-fi option now to use as a comparison against everything else you are interested in upgrading to when you are rotating through a bunch of headphones. I personally have not found anything else more helpful than being able to direct compare a ton of different headphones yourself. The more headphones you can directly compare against each other, the more aware you become of how subtle some of these differences people are talking about are, and the less you worry about which headphone is the 'best' and the more you just pick based on what you personally enjoy, regardless of what other people say.
 
gluck with your search.

 
Nah, I have great auditory memory. My method is just fine for me. I get rid of audio gear in order to help fund the purchase of potentially better stuff. If I end up not even liking the new gear, I get rid of it, and continue the process. But soon, mainly out of necessity to cover living expenses, I will have to get some real work done, and from that, I might have plenty of money to get whatever high-end audio gear I want. The stuff I've gotten so far has just been from selling/trading resources I already have, hehe.

 

[NZtechfreak]

Nah, I have great auditory memory. My method is just fine for me. I get rid of audio gear in order to help fund the purchase of potentially better stuff. If I end up not even liking the new gear, I get rid of it, and continue the process. But soon, mainly out of necessity to cover living expenses, I will have to get some real work done, and from that, I might have plenty of money to get whatever high-end audio gear I want. The stuff I've gotten so far has just been from selling/trading resources I already have, hehe.

I have no problem with your process, but I suspect you're kidding yourself about your auditory memory. Our detailed auditory memory, when it comes to picking small differences between systems, is very fleeting indeed. But hey, for I know you might be some kind of auditory savant...

 

[Music Alchemist]

I have no problem with your process, but I suspect you're kidding yourself about your auditory memory. Our detailed auditory memory, when it comes to picking small differences between systems, is very fleeting indeed. But hey, for I know you might be some kind of auditory savant...

 
The only reason I know this is because I've actually tested it. I don't mean my memory is perfect or anything, but the major differences between headphones are easy to remember. Trying to remember more subtle differences is kinda pointless, since you can listen to even the same headphone on the same system with the same music at different times and have very different experiences, mostly due to biology and perhaps differences in volume.

 

[bavinck]

Auditory memory (or memory in general) is kind of like driving skills. Everyone thinks they have good ones....

 

[NZtechfreak]

Auditory memory (or memory in general) is kind of like driving skills. Everyone thinks they have good ones....

Man, when it comes to auditory memory I sure don't. Broad brushstrokes stuff sure, but the minutiae is tough, especially between high quality DACs. I recall comparing my PWDII and my Vega - even the few seconds to switch between them made the going tough.

My general memory is good, but not great like it was in later adolescence through to early/mid twenties. Back then I had what I would term a semi-photographic recall. Stuff I studied for exams I could actually read from an image of the page in my mind. I wish I still had that mind.

 

[markm1]

Regardless, I think the point about hearing several HPs during the same setting is really helpful. That's where meets and audio events are so helpful. Or if you're lucky maybe high end retail. I've found a place where I was able to listen to the LCD-2 and X and also the Grado PS 1,000. That's a lot better than dropping $1700 or whatever for each HP individually. Actually going in with your source, and listening to both as long as you want with the same amplification.
 
If you are going from memory, you have to factor in amplification and source components. So, maybe I loved the LCD2 two years ago. Now I sit down and hear it again and compare it with an LCD-X and a HE 560. It doesn't sound as good as I remember even though I swear my auditory memory is fantastic. That happened to me recently at the store I mentioned.
 
Why? Well, the earlier Audeze didn't have the fazor technology. Even if I listen to something else, HP manufacturers can make changes as they try to refine their lines as  time goes on. Was the amplification idifferent? Can I really remember what the source from two years ago. Maybe it was hi res. Now I may be streaming from a music service or listening to mp3 files on a laptop. What was the digital stage/conversion? Has my ability to hear, my discrimination improved? Just too many variables.