[scottzg]

This is really 2 questions based on observations from a head-fi noob.
 
1- I was at a magnolia recently and they had some really nice headphones (in the 300-600$ range) hooked up to A-B test.  Everything was blown away by the little bose stand next to them, where bose had selected the music and surrounded it with an ad.  So... i'm pretty those quietcomfort 15s aren't as incredible as that combination of displays made them appear (i've heard them in the real world); i suspect bose chose some binaural recording that was mixed and EQ'ed to show off their own headphones, and the competitors were all hooked up to the same unequalized source.  Is there anything to be gained by an A-B test in a store?  Seems like outside factors mattered more than the performance of the cans.
 
Which brings me to my second question
 
2- How important is the 'signature' of the headphone when you have a good EQ?  I have some AKG Q701s and ety HF5s; both are reputedly 'bass light,' but they produce bass no problem.  I tweaked the EQ to pull up the bass and push down the 7.5k range a bit and they sound wonderful; i don't feel like they miss sounds my good home theatre system produces.   If the headphone can be made to be clear and produce a good balanced sound across the range does it really matter what it sounds like before you set it up?

 

[esldude]

Well you need to be sure in store demos are directly connected to the same driving amp.  And you need to use your own music.  You may be right about the in store demo stand you witnessed with the Bose.
 
EQ bumping up the bass may overdrive the phone and cause distortion or overburden the amp and cause distortion or both.  Or they may be up to it at sensible levels with no harm.  EQ is safest when you can knock down excess parts of the response. 
 
30 band EQ or better  near continuous digital EQ might to some large extent make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.  But just a few bands aren't enough to flatten and fix lower quality phones to equal or near equal expensive high quality phones.  But done well EQ can help plenty.  And sometimes you get lucky and a couple of adjustments make things much better.

 

[xnor]

Adding to esldude's post:
 
1) Assuming they are honest and do not do any processing to make a particular headphone sound better/worse there's still the problem with volume matching. Even if frequency response is identical, the slightly louder or more sensitive headphone - even if just fractions of a dB - will usually sound better.
 
2) Problems are the extremes and narrow peaks/dips and also distortion. If a headphone has well extended bass (and treble) response, not too erratic frequency response and low distortion you can transform the sound pretty much to anything within reasonable limits.

 

[esldude]

Yes, xnor is right on.
 
It is very surprising if you haven't done it some, how even a .2 or .3 db louder playback will get reliably picked as better sounding.  Yet that is close enough you are unlikely to realize they aren't the same volume.  Headphone response curves vary enough when switching between them it isn't even clear what the correct comparison volume would be sometimes. 
 

 

[Hipper]

I agree with the answers given, including the important one of listening to music you are familiar with when trying out gear. Ultimately you have to try them on your equipment and for some time. What sounds good for a couple of minutes may be fatiguing after an hour.
 
On EQ, as suggested, buy the best headphones and gear you can afford, then EQ to your tastes. The argument for EQ is that our ears are different so no headphone can suit everyone.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial

 

[ev13wt]

You may be right about the in store demo stand you witnessed with the Bose.

Most certainly he is right.

Have you ever seen a "dedicated" listening BOSE room for their 5.1 systems at Fry's Electronics (Probably others)? They have a rack, hidden behind a wall, full of pro gear. Amps, DSPs and active crossovers. The room itself is treated and only a selected (By BOSE) selection of movie samples is played / shown.

It IS a 5.4 system in fact. 4 subs is what I saw. It will NEVER sound like that when you buy one and bring it home.


It is not far to assume they do a similar thing with their headphones. That said - the NC feature on their headphones is really, really good.

 

[oeyhamre]

Trying to accurately evaluate the merits of different equipment in a shop demo is difficult. The best option is to find a dealer with a good return policy, or even better willing to lend you a selection of headsets (possibly against a reasonable deposit), which you then can compare in the comfort of your own home. If this is not possible, bring your own music, match volume as best you can (a few dBSPL difference can give a surprising change in perceived SQ) and take your time comparing.
As to eq, this can with careful use give a huge improvement. Adjusting/correcting the tonal balance of your headset can be very rewarding making a good set great! But eq is even more useful in processing your records. Sadly, many a good record has crappy balance (shrill highs you could cut yourself on, no bass), but luckily a great many of these can be made much more listenable with a little judicious eq. Try cutting/dipping before starting boosting, but if you start making large adjustments, espescially boosting more than 3 - 6 dBs another headset/amp/DAC might suit your tastes better. That said, minor adjustments can really bring out the best in your records and equipment. This manual to the SLP Passeq VST plugin (happens to be the one I`m using in Foobar

) gives a very good and detailed description of how to set up an eq:
http://spl.info/fileadmin/user_upload/software/passeq/1140_Passeq_BA_E.pdf
 
Happy listening!