I've been seeing them in the wild (Microsoft is local), but I still haven't had the opportunity to try one.

Yes, most ANC headphones can be. Sony and Bose, for example, both allow users to turn the ANC down or off. But their sound quality is still bad compared to non-ANC headphones at a similar price point. That's the sad reality of ANC. If it weren't, mid-fi, high-fi, and summit-fi...

Perhaps, but non-ANC would be a much better option in such scenarios. Compared to non-ANC head-/earphones, ANC headphones tend to have pretty awful sound quality, because ANC requires more of the transducers.

My reference for everything tends to be my Etymōtic Research ER4XR, because they're reference, except with bass ramped up, up to 6dB worth. Listening to Angel Eyes (artist listed as "Bass and Saxophone" on Mirantz Hi-End Audiophile Test Demo CD 7), I hear the Shozy hit all of the notes the...

I've been listening to the Shozy for several hour hours each day, for six days, both at home and at the office, both places being reasonably quiet. After the first evening with the Shozy, I haven't listened to any of my headphones, only my Shozy BK and my ER4XR. The Shozy is good for anything...

Agreed. But not understanding the underlying logic of the methods is not the same as those methods being flawed. Neither description is accurate. His description highlighted a worry of random effects unduly affecting the decision. We address that by decreasing alpha and/or increasing sample...

Any or all. It doesn't really matter. As I stated above, my intention was just to think about how and why we think about it in a certain way, in particular by form factor, when, in fact, very little relevant information is provided by form factor, compared to using other similarly simple...

Sometimes I think that the difference between Ety owners who don't own better sounding headphones and Ety owners who do own better sounding headphones mostly comes down to whether or not they've got the Ety seal figured out for their particular ear canal. There's a good seal, similar to a good...

Wrong. Counterexamples have been given upthread. If two displays, with the same dimensions and pixel count, take up the same steradians of your field of view, you will not be able to determine their size without knowing their distance, or the distance without knowing their size. At the correct...

These sorts of minor factors are already taken care of with the statistical methods used. In particular, we use an alpha value much closer to zero than one-half. That helps prevent erroneously rejecting the null hypothesis. There's no need to concern ourselves with an inability to hear...

Don't feel bad I can't either, and the science side of this is my wheelhouse. Best I can tell is he's trying to rationalize why perfectly valid methods shouldn't be used.

My Shozy BK (Stardust) arrived yesterday. Oh my! This sounds fantastic! I had pretty high expectations, and they've been met (and exceeded). The sound signature sits comfortably between my two favorite headphones, HD650 and SR325e, with favored sound characteristics from each of them. I'm not...

As explained, just one classification is needed: Isolating or passive. The level of isolation is the primary factor determining whether a 'phone is appropriate. You see exactly such earbuds these days. Like me, you must have missed the emergence of premium earbuds. The Shozy BK I just picked...

Unfortunately, none of those classifiers can determine for me whether or not a particular 'phone is well-suited for the task. Isolation level does just that. Sounds good vs like ass: In the wrong listening environment, phenomenal headphones sound like ass. Try using an HD800 on transit. You'd...

The Shozy BK (aka Stardust) arrived today. It's pretty much as I expected, in form and function. In terms of sound signature, it sits right between my HD650 and my SR325e. It sounds as "big" as any of my headphones. In terms of sound quality, The BK sounds fantastic, in the same class as my...