differences of opinion?

[stewtheking]

Hi

I confess to being a newbie in the world of headphones and what-not, but something that has struck me whilst reading posts, and from my own listening, is the MASSIVE disparity between views of the same headphone.

As a case in point, I have been reading reviews of the sennheiser mx500 vs the b&o a8. People on this forum slate the a8's and compare them unfavourably to the sennheiser, even ignoring the price difference. I own both headphones, and bought the a8's whilst looking for an upgrade for my sennheisers, but was under no illusions that I was paying a good deal of money for the style of the beasts, as well as for the sound of the phones. I really like the sound I get from my a8's, and prefer it to that from my sennheisers, whereas others HATE them, and are at great pains to state this again and again.

My question, after all of that, is whether there may be any variation from individual pairs of phones that may give rise to this disparity. Is a pair of headphones of a particular make/model an absolute, or are their differences which are going to make people who hear one pair go "wow, that's rather nice" where other people will lift up their pair and throw them in the toilet!

Hmmm... something to muse over...

Stew

 

[kramer5150]

No 2 human ears are identical, no 2 human brains are identical. IMHO theres not THAT much manufacturig variation from unit to unit, its mostly differing oppinions, and people hearing the same thing differently.

IMHO of course
Garrett

 

[KenB]

Isn't our experience that people have wildly different experiences where all the senses are concerned: smell, taste, sight, touch, and hearing?

Take some particular wine, for example. If you were to offer a taste test to 10 people (from one bottle), including even "experts," the reports will be all over the map in terms of acidity, bouquet, body, and any other dimension you care to choose, esp. if no one is provided any opinions ahead of time. Once we are "told" that a wine is highly rated, that influences markedly how we experience it. Pick any other sense, pair it with an object, and you'll likely find the same phenomenon to be true.

My first set of high-end cans were Sony CD-3000's, which I still love even though there is a ton of controversy about them. I experience them as warm/mellow; whereas, certain others hear them as overly bright/harsh. I don't think these diametrically opposite representations are going to be explained by variations among the headphones, rather individual listener tastes and preferences.

In my humble view, what we strive/hope for, in a forum like this, is to find some commonly shared experiences and helpful guidance, even when those prospects are dim. Our language is not especially helpful in this pursuit. We employ ambiguous terms like "involving" and "detailed" as though everyone understands the precise meaning when nothing could be further from the truth. Our dilemma is that, in the absence of other people's knowledge and experiences, however subjective and personal, we are left on our own to sample/test everything -- a daunting and costly endeavor (as I'm finding out!).

After all the reading, research, discussion, and arguments; in the final analysis, we are left on our own to choose (or not) and, then, we have only our intensely subjective tastes and preferences as the final aribiter. I doubt that there will ever be a headphone, at any price, that is universally regarded to be #1 on all sonic dimensions or, arguably, even a single one.

Ken

 

[arspy87]

I'll also provide some thoughts and say that there is probably also some form of adaptivity when it comes to sound - a lot of our opinions on a new pair of headphones come from comparisons to headphones we've used previously. Because it's likely that none of us have some completely flat sound output to compare other cans to, our perceptions will be colored based on what our ears are used to from previous cans. And then, over time, we become more accustomed to quirks in our headphones - the term "psychological burn-in" comes to mind here. Of course, as one goes further into this headphone journey, experience with different types of sound becomes more widespread, and he is able to percieve new sound in a wider context than he did with that last pair of cans.

 

[DevilDog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KenB Take some particular wine, for example. If you were to offer a taste test to 10 people (from one bottle), including even "experts," the reports will be all over the map in terms of acidity, bouquet, body, and any other dimension you care to choose, esp. if no one is provided any opinions ahead of time. Once we are "told" that a wine is highly rated, that influences markedly how we experience it. Pick any other sense, pair it with an object, and you'll likely find the same phenomenon to be true.

Well, I think it's a matter of taste. Much the same as some like classical, some like rock, some jazz, some techno, etc. I can listen to great music by anyone and appreciate it as being great, but maybe not my cup of tea. For example, I don't care for country music, but I agree that Hank Williams was great.

Sometimes, when we're new to something, we don't know how to recognize the nuances of what separates mediocre from outstanding, hence my quote about the wine analogy. I think a basshead could put on CD3000s and hate them preferring some cheap headphone to them. But once they begin listening to the soundstaging, detail and extension realize that the cheap headphones are crap, after all.

I don't care for the CD3000s or RS1s, but I would never say they were horrible. They aren't for me, they do have their audience, though. And they have their good points. But I will prefer my Senns to them and state that it is MY opinion.

This site should be used to get a general feel for headphones you may be looking at. You have to listen to them to decide which ones you want. And, yes, you opinion may change over time. But in the end I believe that quality generally equals cost. If you pay $$$ for a headphone it is going to give you a close return in quality. There are some good values, but no $ headphone is going to give the quality of a $$$ headphone. The more expensive headphone may not be the one you like better, but there will be differences there worth noting.

As far as throwing cans in the toilet, I think some on here get a bit passionate and maybe exaggerate a bit.

 

[gerG]

Stew, you have touched on a somewhat scarey issue here. I have owned two models times two samples of headphones from a well regarded manufacturer. In both cases they were very different sounding cans. In one case there was a manufacturing variation. In the other, well, I am not really sure what changed. I suspect a model improvement somewhere along the line, yet there was no designation change in the model number. I believe that most of the differences discussed on this site are due to individual preference and specific head related interactions with the cans. Still, I am pretty certain that some minor percentage of disagreement comes from phones that we assume to be identical, but aren't.


gerG

 

[_SLY_]

I think a lot of it has to do with what you were "bred on" when you first entered the headphone world. When I first came here, I was using street styles and the sh**ty apple iPod earbuds. Within a week I had the e2's and in another 2, I was "weened" (spelling?) onto sennheiser hd497's that first pair of senns hit me into a senn loving frenzy, and I didn't care for anything else really ('cept for stax....but who doesn't love those?) I didn't get into the whole grado or sony or AKG scene until about three months ago. I guess part of what I'm trying to say is that what you're bred on REALLY affects your taste in the future.

The same applies to the music you listen to. If you are bred on hardcore death metal

then you're going to like the bass a little more than the blues lover, who likes to be able to hear the highs of the guitar go off without a hitch.

Someone told me something really soon after I joined the forum. It was something along the lines of: "There are people split on the major brands...there are people who love grados, and really don't like senns; then there are people who are vise versa." And to this day, as dumb as it may sound, I believe this forum is torn that way (for the majority). I may be completely wrong, but I'm willing to risk it.

In answer to your main question, though, YES! There will always be differences that make people love and hate headphones. Where for one phones are to dark or muddy, they are just the opposite for another. My 497's that I take to school have a much better soundstage than my buddy's, and everyone who's listened notices it. So I'd say there is a bit of factory variation, but it also depends on how you treat them (his are treated like a dog turd in a paper bag............no seriously....he lit them on fire once =P).

Good Post! Very interesting.....



Steve

 

[_SLY_]

bump...I want to hear other people's opinions