[BigCabDaddy]

my analogy would be this:

autotune is to music what steroids are to athletics.

all artists today who would be considered great singers instead have an asterisk next to their name in the long run.
because they have been using performance enhancers. 

give me the pre-steroid Bo Jackson.
or the pre-autotune Whitney Houston.

you can keep all the current crap on the radio...

I was so with you until the Bo Jackson comment. One of my favorite ball players but I'd bet you money he was a juicer.

 

[DavidMahler]

my analogy would be this:

autotune is to music what steroids are to athletics.

all artists today who would be considered great singers instead have an asterisk next to their name in the long run.
because they have been using performance enhancers. 

give me the pre-steroid Bo Jackson.
or the pre-autotune Whitney Houston.

you can keep all the current crap on the radio...

This is a good analogy! I would even go a few steps further. Even if an athlete takes steroids, they still have to be fundamentally excellent at the sport and they still have to put the hours in to build the muscle.

With the special "performing enhancements" that are available and used/abused today there is almost no need to have any fundamental talent in order to create a decent sounding mainstream song. You can literally be tone deaf, have no sense of time, have 0 knowledge of chords....with minimal effort you can arrive At final song that sounds at the very least professional.

 

[jonathanvaljean]

Just wanted to say that this is the headphone review to end all headphone reviews... WOW!!!  Kudos to you for this monumental effort!
 
I was proud to see that all of my cans received value ratings of A- or above.  (I have numbers 12, 13, and 27 in your ranking.)  
 
Something that strikes me is how, even though we are living in what arguably is the "golden age" of headphones, three of your top four have been with us for about 20 years or more.  And to think that Sony, a company for the masses that has such an extensive product line, was capable of making something as sublime as the R10, whereas many of the smaller, more dedicated greats (Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, AKG) have not created anything quite to their level.  Any insight as to why Sony was essentially a one-hit headphone wonder?  With such demonstrated prowess, why abandon high-end headphones?     
 
By the way... Can I be YOU when I grow up?  What a collection!  What an ear!  What articulatory ability!   

 

[DavidMahler]

Quote:

 
I love Beethoven, but do I think he is better than Justin Bieber? Your damn right I do. But then I am an ignorant *****  

This part of your post made remember something that I have thought about in passing:
I've always wondered if it was possible to take something like a Beethoven symphony and then a song like Gangnam Style and literally prove beyond all subjectivity that the Beethoven work was a better-constructed and high quality piece of music.  The concept that all art and music has a subjective value puts a real damper on what art and music really is.  I'd like to believe that there are certain fundamental values that are absolute and not a matter of opinion.  
Quote:

Ah I've heard a lot of good things about the Blue Hawaii amp. The person who owns the Stax gear I tried is kind of a vintage audio gear guy. I must say, the Stax amps that he has look pretty neat in the retro sense, hahaha.
 

---

I saw that you posted in the new Shure SE846 thread. Are you planning to purchase one? I'm really curious to see how it stacks up to their previous SE535 flagship earphone and to other earphones in the ~$1000 USD range.

Regarding the SE846, I probably won't include it because I anticipate being done with this review very shortly.  I have a feeling it is very overpriced: Westone's quad driver has been around for a while now at less than half the price.  Also, AKG's $1000 in-ear is something I never went for either.  But we'll see.  Maybe if the price drops, I would ultimately include the Shures.  Sadly, I have a lot less money coming in now than when I started over 2 years ago, and I have a lot more expenses, so I need to wrap this up
Quote:

Just wanted to say that this is the headphone review to end all headphone reviews... WOW!!!  Kudos to you for this monumental effort!
 
I was proud to see that all of my cans received value ratings of A- or above.  (I have numbers 12, 13, and 27 in your ranking.)  
 
Something that strikes me is how, even though we are living in what arguably is the "golden age" of headphones, three of your top four have been with us for about 20 years or more.  And to think that Sony, a company for the masses that has such an extensive product line, was capable of making something as sublime as the R10, whereas many of the smaller, more dedicated greats (Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, AKG) have not created anything quite to their level.  Any insight as to why Sony was essentially a one-hit headphone wonder?  With such demonstrated prowess, why abandon high-end headphones?     
 
By the way... Can I be YOU when I grow up?  What a collection!  What an ear!  What articulatory ability!   

Thanks, I appreciate it!!!

Regarding Sennheiser, I think they have produced a headphone which rivals/surpasses the R10, its #1 on my list

 

[bearFNF]

Quote:

Regarding Sennheiser, I think they have produced a headphone which rivals/surpasses the R10, its #1 on my list

Six Sennheiser Flagships (ranked 1,6,20,21,30,55)
Five Sony Flagships (ranked 3,4,42,43,54)
 
Pretty even there both have two in the top ten.  The Sony R10's (light and bass heavy) I would almost have to group together but from the review they appear to be different enough to warrant separate listings.
 
So here is my engineers brain working again at rankings and data crunching:
 

Manufacturer	# on list	Positions
[size=small]Stax[/size]	[size=small]6[/size]	[size=small]2,5,10,14,15,17[/size]
[size=small]Sennheiser[/size]	[size=small]6[/size]	[size=small]1,6,20,21,30,55[/size]
[size=small]Sony[/size]	[size=small]5[/size]	[size=small]3,4,42,43,54[/size]
[size=small]Grado[/size]	[size=small]4[/size]	[size=small]11,29,39,41[/size]
[size=small]Beyerdynamic[/size]	[size=small]4[/size]	[size=small]13,26,40,45[/size]
[size=small]Westone[/size]	[size=small]4[/size]	[size=small]36,44,49,50[/size]
[size=small]Hifiman[/size]	[size=small]3[/size]	[size=small]9,16,24[/size]
[size=small]Ultrasone[/size]	[size=small]3[/size]	[size=small]18,33,53[/size]
[size=small]AKG[/size]	[size=small]3[/size]	[size=small]19,37,38[/size]
[size=small]Audio-Technnica[/size]	[size=small]3[/size]	[size=small]25,31,57[/size]
[size=small]Shure[/size]	[size=small]3[/size]	[size=small]27,51,52[/size]
[size=small]Audeze[/size]	[size=small]2[/size]	[size=small]8,12[/size]
[size=small]JH Audio[/size]	[size=small]2[/size]	[size=small]22,35[/size]
[size=small]Denon[/size]	[size=small]2[/size]	[size=small]32,46[/size]
[size=small]HE Audio[/size]	[size=small]1[/size]	[size=small]7[/size]
[size=small]Fostex[/size]	[size=small]1[/size]	[size=small]23[/size]
[size=small]Ultimate Ears[/size]	[size=small]1[/size]	[size=small]28[/size]
[size=small]Alessandro[/size]	[size=small]1[/size]	[size=small]34[/size]
[size=small]KAM[/size]	[size=small]1[/size]	[size=small]47[/size]
[size=small]AUDEO[/size]	[size=small]1[/size]	[size=small]48[/size]
[size=small]Sensaphonics[/size]	[size=small]1[/size]	[size=small]56[/size]

 

[Levaix]

This part of your post made remember something that I have thought about in passing:
I've always wondered if it was possible to take something like a Beethoven symphony and then a song like Gangnam Style and literally prove beyond all subjectivity that the Beethoven work was a better-constructed and high quality piece of music.  The concept that all art and music has a subjective value puts a real damper on what art and music really is.  I'd like to believe that there are certain fundamental values that are absolute and not a matter of opinion.

+1! Actually, screw that, +5. But with the disclaimer that some music truly IS a matter of opinion. Sometimes you feel more like grilled cheese than caviar, and both have their place. (Just so long as it remains edible and not dirt or fecal matter.)

(Not sure you could prove it logically, though; logic without soul does weird things to music, like serialism.)

 

[jonathanvaljean]

Quote:

 

Regarding Sennheiser, I think they have produced a headphone which rivals/surpasses the R10, its #1 on my list

 
Ahh... so true!!!  How could I have overlooked #1?  Please forgive my early morning oversight!  Do I get points for taking in the entire review?  

 

[jonathanvaljean]

Quote:

 

So here is my engineers brain working again at rankings and data crunching...

 
Thanks for crunching those numbers, mate!  My psychologist's brain thanks you!  

 

[Byronb]

One way to compare quality is that in 190 years no one on earth will even know who, what or where Gangnam Style was! It will be a trivia question and that is all.

 

[quantx]

Quote:

One way to compare quality is that in 190 years no one on earth will even know who, what or where Gangnam Style was! It will be a trivia question and that is all.

Let's make it 190 days. At most. Hopefully.

 

[Jehmimah]

This is quite the fantastic set of reviews. This helped me pick out my newest set of cans. Thanks!

 

[citadel]

Dave did you have to ever replace the Sony sa5000 cable? Has anyone still successfully used the stock cable?

I am interested in getting these headphones. Could be a collectors item in 10 years. Worried about how practical they are. Some people say their cables fail (bad soldering)

 

[stacker45]

Quote:

This is quite the fantastic set of reviews. This helped me pick out my newest set of cans. Thanks!

 
Wich are?
 
I'm the proud owner of numbers 11 (Grado HP1000) and 29 (Grado PS1000), and yes, i can live with those rankings
 
And David, aside from you're reviews being well written , thourough, objective and comprehensive, i find you're answers to people comments, equally objective and respectfull, wich shows a lot of maturity on you're part. So david, you can throw my JOB WELL ONE, on top of the pile of positive comments that you've gotten so far.

 

[LugBug1]

Quote:

This part of your post made remember something that I have thought about in passing:
I've always wondered if it was possible to take something like a Beethoven symphony and then a song like Gangnam Style and literally prove beyond all subjectivity that the Beethoven work was a better-constructed and high quality piece of music.  The concept that all art and music has a subjective value puts a real damper on what art and music really is.  I'd like to believe that there are certain fundamental values that are absolute and not a matter of opinion.  

 
Quote:

One way to compare quality is that in 190 years no one on earth will even know who, what or where Gangnam Style was! It will be a trivia question and that is all.

Yeah I think whatever stands the test of time is the only way we can acknowledge a piece of music/art (or artist) is universally accepted as 'great'. If people still want to listen to a piece of music hundreds of years after it was written must mean something. And it has to be more than just nostalgia otherwise composers such as Bach wouldn't be appreciated now. After all he wasn't really famous at all during his lifetime, now he is hailed as the God of music by some classical musicians.  
But classical music has a long history and is well documented on an academic level. Pop music as we know it is still very much in its infancy, 200 years from now it may well be completely washed from any social memory. Or, names such as Elvis, Beatles, Hendrix, Dylan, Beiber (only joking) Maybe still appreciated as the best of that popular art movement in history.
 
You never know.. Gangham Style maybe considered genius hundreds of years from now! And the Lang Lang of the day may perform it at the equivalent Proms..  Because the way I see it, for all of the progress we are making in science and IT. We are seriously devolving in both artisitc and intellectual terms compared to a couple of hundred years ago. IMO the most recent philosophers or artists of the last century can't hold a candle to even the century prior in terms of what I would consider true greatness. 
 
Although the last century did produce Jazz. I'm thankful for that! 

 

[Silent One]

Quote:

 
Although the last century did produce Jazz. I'm thankful for that!