Going to throw more pennies on the table and ramble a bit. Two things:
1)
I feel like much animosity and personal hurt, from both people who like it and people who dislike it, would be mitigated if people remembered whether someone likes/dislikes something is literally just one person's
subjective opinion, and not objective fact by any means. If someone dislikes what you like who cares-- no need for defensiveness! And if someone likes what you dislike, let them like it and have their fun and don't spoil it with excess negativity/judgment!
(I will say, though, that personal subjective judgment can be useful if more personal context is given. For example, someone saying they really like the HD800 and don't find it bright, but also adding the context that they primarily listen to classical music or "well-mastered material only" would be much much more useful than just saying that they liked the HD800 without that context)
2)
I also feel like discussions would be a lot more productive/less emotionally charged if impressions were written/described
compared to a point of reference to allow readers to contextualize/triangulate for themselves, rather than describing impressions as if objective fact. For example, describing the OAE1 as "dark or super bass heavy" on its own is meaningless-- dark or bass heavy compared to
what. Of course it'll sound bass heavy compared to a headphone like the HD600, which is more mid-centric and bass-light comparatively. And it'll definitely sound darker than a headphone like a HD800, which comparatively has way more upper treble. But on the other hand, one could actually describe the OAE1 as sounding more "neutral" than, say, the ZMF atticus, which IMO sounded wayy warmer with wayy more downsloped bass than the OAE1.
Impressions with context/comparison reference points are, IMO, the most helpful because they allow readers to triangulate the described sound qualities for themselves if they're familiar with the reference, and draw their own conclusions on subjective preference. Over time more of these comparison impressions will give readers a much more contextualized/richer understanding of how the OAE1 sounds and draw their own conclusions whether they prefer it or if it's worth trying out for themselves. One reason why I generally prefer reading the impressions on another "super friendly" forum instead of most other places is because leaving comparison impressions/point-of-reference/self-triangulation there is more highly encouraged/common/standard, and members are often called out to clarify/elaborate when such reference points are not stated.
For a while I really stopped caring for many youtube reviews, because many reviews just stated impressions as if objective fact without giving their point of reference. Not all reviewers do this (passion for sound and MKBHD, for example, provide great contextualized descriptions for sound and tech videos respectively), but too often impressions are given out without context/reference. It's not just video reviews either, many reviews/impressions on forums fail to indicate what reference they're comparing to. I have mixed feelings on evshrug's review, because while I really did like that he specifically provided a lot of impressions with context in his headphone comparisons sections where he compared the OAE1 with other headphones (hd800, hd650) on specific music tracks, I felt like his "sound" and other sections were a lot weaker because they failed to provide as many context/reference points.
... At any rate these are just my thoughts and opinions, and I would love more thoughts/discussion, especially about the relative importance of context/reference points when writing impressions. I really do feel that if more impressions were framed this way there would be way less confusion/animosity and much more productive discussion... but this may just be my opinion and I may be wrong
hhhmmm?,
