ruthieandjohn
Stumbling towards enlightenment
(Formerly known as kayandjohn.)
The Ultrasone Edition 8, Fostex TH-900, and the Sony Z7 are the best closed headphones that I have, so I thought that it would be useful to compare them, using the method I have developed that uses snippets from four test songs, ranking three headphones' performance on each of 10 acoustic criteria.
Here are the headphones.
From top, the Ultrasone Edition 8, Fostex TH900, and Sony Z7.
Here is a bit about each headphone:
Ultrasone Edition 8: This headphone, several years ago, has been called the best portable headphone and also the best closed headphone. It is also beautiful. It is the brightest of the three headphones, is very comfortable, and has permanently-attached cables.
Fostex TH900: This headphone is also beautiful, as well as bassy but with sparkle on top. I had @PETEREK change the headphone to have removable cables, though this comparison was done with its stock cable.
Sony Z7: This headphone is the darkest and most bassy of the three. I used the Sony/Kimber cable with it instead of the stock cable.
Each was driven with the Schiit Bifrost Multibit DAC and Schiit Mjolnir amp, with an iPhone 5S providing digital transport via the CCK cable to USB into the DAC.
Here are the results of the comparisons. Each line is an acoustic feature (e.g., transparency), and each IEM is rated against the other two to produce a best (first prize, blue, 3 points), next best (second prize, red, 2 points), or third (last) best (third, prize, yellow, 1 point). Ties for first place are purple (2.5 points); ties for second place are orange (1.5 points). A total, reflecting the number of times of the 10 acoustic features a particular IEM has won over the others, is shown on the bottom line as a total.
The Ultrasone Edition 8 won more of the three-way contests than any other, with the Fostex TH900 coming in second. The Sony Z7 had the strongest subbass, followed by the Fostex TH900.
Here are the headphones.
From top, the Ultrasone Edition 8, Fostex TH900, and Sony Z7.
Here is a bit about each headphone:
Ultrasone Edition 8: This headphone, several years ago, has been called the best portable headphone and also the best closed headphone. It is also beautiful. It is the brightest of the three headphones, is very comfortable, and has permanently-attached cables.
Fostex TH900: This headphone is also beautiful, as well as bassy but with sparkle on top. I had @PETEREK change the headphone to have removable cables, though this comparison was done with its stock cable.
Sony Z7: This headphone is the darkest and most bassy of the three. I used the Sony/Kimber cable with it instead of the stock cable.
Each was driven with the Schiit Bifrost Multibit DAC and Schiit Mjolnir amp, with an iPhone 5S providing digital transport via the CCK cable to USB into the DAC.
Here are the results of the comparisons. Each line is an acoustic feature (e.g., transparency), and each IEM is rated against the other two to produce a best (first prize, blue, 3 points), next best (second prize, red, 2 points), or third (last) best (third, prize, yellow, 1 point). Ties for first place are purple (2.5 points); ties for second place are orange (1.5 points). A total, reflecting the number of times of the 10 acoustic features a particular IEM has won over the others, is shown on the bottom line as a total.
The Ultrasone Edition 8 won more of the three-way contests than any other, with the Fostex TH900 coming in second. The Sony Z7 had the strongest subbass, followed by the Fostex TH900.
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