By your comparison of Px8 and XM5 it is clear we have very different ears…
Also Mr Resolve has been referred to multiple times for his way of declaring the Px8 outright unlistenable. Ok that is just not something most other people hear.
Happy new year etc
Happy new year to you too.
I think the most important thing in an audio review is getting a sense for how the reviewer hears more generally, what sound signatures they like and what they priorities in terms of a headphone. I think Resolve is one of the most popular headphone reviewers and his opinions on headphones are widely consistent with popular headphones in the community. On a personal level, his opinions on headphones usually align with my own, perhaps not to a level of detail where I have the same headphone tier list as Resolve, but definitely to an extent where if it sounds good to him it will sound good to me.
Also, from what I saw I don't think he classified the PX8 as unlistenable? He just doesn't think it's an audiophile grade headphone, and that's also perfectly fine honestly. Headphones like the XM5 are perfectly fine and they are listenable even if they don't lean towards my tuning preferences. To clarify though I don't think the PX8 sound the same as the XM5 (somewhat different tuning and significantly different in other technical details), but I think it has a very 'fun' or 'engaging' slant to its tuning that's typical of headphones like Sony's series. That type of tuning is generally not what I'm looking for as I don't find those to be fun or engaging, I find them to be bloated and unnatural. I think they have similar tonality especially in the bass and midrange.
The objective output is what is actually reaching the user's eardrum. If a headphone shows large variation in frequency response with placement, different ear sizes etc. then the objective sound output will vary lot with each user. Open back headphones generally have low variation, while a lot of closed back headphones have some variation and a few have very high variation. If a headphone varies with placement, slight changes in clamping pressure etc. then the objective conclusion would be that the sound will vary from user to user and that a single graph is only valid for a certain placement on a certain measurement rig, but is not necessarily representative for what the user will hear. The Bathys and the PX8 both vary in frequency response with different placements on my head and what I hear from the Bathys is not close to the graph presented by Resolve. Resolve also seems to be somewhat of an outlier compared to most other comparisons between Bathys and PX8.
Yeah. I was saying this though, or at least trying to. Either way on these details of how sound is subjectively experienced by the user, we definitely agree. I understand how things like headphone positioning can matter (though it also speaks a lot to the design of the headphone if it's difficult to get a consistent or accurate signature because they don't seal).
Anyway, just to quote what I wrote before.
"I'll caveat this with the obvious, that when we're talking about subjective sound everyone has their own subjective experience that's informed by several factors, most of which are not an measurable constant between users. Yes the objective sound output by the headphones should always be the same, but the users expectation, tonal preferences and the users head size and shape all affect that perception. When those factors are combined, it's easy to understand how a user might have a completely different experience with the PX8 (or any headphone) which is equally valid."
Also, this is just semantics and does not matter to our conversation but I think objective sound is what is output by the device, and not what reaches your eardrum. What reaches your inner ear is what is heard, but it's been altered from its objective sound. Sound is the vibration in the air which may or may not be perceived through hearing.
Just my understanding to lay things out for clarity
Source (headphones) > Sound > Distortion due to obstruction > Hearing > Cognitive Processing (mental models, expectation) > Subjective Experience > Cognition > Post about it on Head-fi
I don't allow my subjective experience of a headphone to be lead by a frequency graph, but I do use them to help me understand what I'm hearing. Resolves graph aligns with what I heard from the PX8.
As for resolve being an outlier. I don't think so, but I do get the impression that the assessments of the PX are all over the place. I hear some people really enjoying them, and others really disliking them. I think in general the sentiment towards the out of the box tuning is more polarising than on the Bathys. I have however heard that the PX8 can be saved for people that previously disliked them, with their EQ.
I'm generally quite anti-EQ but in anc headphones I think it's a suitable solution since they can never be parted from their built in DSP and therefore the EQ is always applied. Still, I'm just comparing my experience of the out of the box sound versus the Bathys and I didn't play around with the eq on the PX8.