Having just gone through the headphone selection process myself I can attest to the fact that it can be a lengthy process
; Consequentially I have spent a considerable amount of time learning about headphones, headphone amps and the like in the past weeks. I think a FAQ of this nature could no doubt help introduce many new people to headphones and aid in their selection process. I must say it is quite the undertaking and good luck to you. I have a few suggestions:
I would say an idea might be to keep the list as short as possible so as not to overwhelm your target audience... Obviously almost every company makes a whole range of cans at varying price ranges and qualities, but by only including the absolute
best valued cans from each of those companies might help to keep things simple and easy to understand (like you say the most commonly recommended). Listing the BEST headphones for their money I think is better than just a list of good headphones. I'm sure allot of people here know which cans those are and are not, but I assure you the lay person does not.
I think organizing the list by
type is a great idea. Sorting by price within each of those categories would be straightforward and manageable for people with a limited knowledge of headphones... Usually people have a pretty good idea what TYPE of headphone (eg: Earbuds, IEM, Clip-On, Open/Closed etc...) they are looking for (as mentioned above) and how much they are willing to spend on that headphone but they just don't have any clue which headphones are better and why. I also like the idea of including a very brief description after each headphone which refers to some of its qualities and/or possible uses.
Lastly, including the impedance of the headphone in the list and having some kind of short explanation about impedance/amps in the intro might be somewhat appropriate... Having the DT770 (250s or even 80s) in the list under a heading of “gaming headphones” (or even with the descriptor “gaming headphone’) would, of course, make sense
but those headphones most certainly cannot be plugged into the back of your computer etc., as you all know... A few weeks ago I had no idea about such things and had I been looking for a good set of gaming headphones I might have been tempted to pick up the best “gaming headphones” I could afford. That would have been a problem if I didn’t want to spend money on an amp etc… Hopefully that kind of situation can be avoided with a little information.
I hope none of the above comments are simply reiteration of past replies. Again, good luck!