I think one of the remarkable aspects of this thread is precisely the fact that several PF owners have acknowledged these phones do not measure well, or openly stated that the PFs are certainly
not for everyone (the latter statements being made before measurements were published / discussed).
How many more times do we need to state this, I wonder?
I've personally said that even though I've been questioning several aspects of FR graphs for IEMs specifically (not headphones) for quite some time, these graphs
still provide useful information and should
not be completely dismissed or ignored.
The problem I see is one particular member (there are others, too, but one in particular) who I see as having a downright fanatic attitude in favour of graphs/measurements, a member who, curiously enough, has changed his tune
several times in the last few years re: what good sound/SQ is and which IEMs are the best in the market— a member who has been claiming for quite a while now that it
isn't necessary to listen to and IEM if one only looks at how the IEM in question measures. This member still provides useful information at times, but, unfortunately,
far too often he derails threads, upsets many people, and
not just people who happen to be fanboys of a particular IEM or who are being defensive about graphs/measurements; a member who really does seem to get a kick out of bashing IEMs—because they seem to measure 'poorly'—upsetting people and causing havoc.
I don't agree with some of the comments about the HD800s made in in a few recent posts, and I'm not saying this because it's the best phone I've heard, but because the HD800 for some/many people can indeed bring tears to people's eyes, too, ie they can provoke a deep emotional response / connection with music. Same goes for something like the FI-BA-SS. By the same token, the PFs may cause some people to want to throw up.
If this has become an exclusive club of sorts, at least as far as the 160Xs goes, it's for several reasons:
These are very expensive IEMs
The sound sig is very different to almost anything out there (irrespective of price)
It's not exactly a $1,000 IEM 'bestseller'
These offer zero isolation — a deal breaker for many.
No detachable cables — a deal breaker for many
Awkward fit, not guaranteed to fit properly as, say, a Westone/Shure IEM
So, the relatively few people who appreciate these phones will naturally share a very special/different type of enthusiasm. Add to that a beautiful design and solid build...
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i keep seeing talk here as soon as someone brings up a measurement that they're interested in the gear not the music, they can't make an emotional connection with music, they have no soul - yada yada. it's a rubbish argument and it makes you sound like a bunch of flat-earthers.
measurements are nothing to get defensive about. they're just a tool and no one in their right mind is going to say that you should rely on them instead of your ears when you're judging a phone. I gave the PFs a fair hearing and wasn't impressed. when I saw the frequency response measurements they lined up with what I'd heard. and I'm not the only one who's reacted to them in that way.
facts are the measurements show a mid-centric phone with very rolled off highs and lows and that's how they sound. they color fhe sound of recorded music in an unusual way and its polarising. some love it some don't. but understand that they aren't reproducing music recordings faithfully and afaik the goal of high fidelity sound has always been to be faithful to the recording. the PFs are more like the audio version of mind altering drugs and if you dig the effect then enjoy the trip man.
I love music and I didn't take to how the PFs were reinterpreting mine. apart from the frequency imbalance i thought the tonality sounded off. the fi-ba-ss did a better job imho. it sounded more accurate, faithful, true to the recording - in other words closer to high fidelity music reproduction.
I came to head fi find some great sounding phones. I didn't know what a headphone graph was but I do now and think they're useful because they're an objective reference for what we hear. you can use them or ignore them. they're not going to change how a phone sounds and they shouldn't influence if you like it or not but they might help you understand why a phone sounds the way it does and that can't be a bad thing. dissing measurements and lumping people who refer to them in their overall assessment of a phone into a group of soulless headphone geeks is pretty childish imho.
for me it's all about the music and it bugs me how some of you here act like you've got a mortgage on that - like you somehow have a special insight into the beauty of music just because you happen to dig some exotic Japanese phones that look gorgeous, sound interesting and measure badly, while thinking that it's entirely lost on the rest of us. that kind of elitist attitude strikes me as delusional and a bit pathetic tbh.
I keep coming back to this thread even though I don't own a FAD phone because it's an appreciation and discussion thread. some of you should try to accept that this is a headphone forum not a music appreciation society or an exclusive FAD club. so chances are there's going to be some critical comment about how even your precious FAD phones sound and measure.
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geez man the emoticons are there for a reason. lighten up!
You might as well not have used a single emoticon / smiley in your post above, as some of the contents were, er… insulting.
You know very well, up late, I welcomed your not so great take on the PFs (just like I very much welcomed shotgunshane's), so that people were more aware that indeed the PFs are
not for everybody. I think you've also come to realise by now—after reading quite a few of my posts—that I'm not exactly the type of person who tends to hype things and that I'm quite vocal about many claims I see in these forum threads (plenty of exaggeration, BS, and misinformation). I have to say, though, that after seeing your latest posts, I'm
seriously questioning the motives behind your 'participation' in this thread.
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