How to understand HeadRoom's ratings (of headphones, ...)?

[AdamCalifornia]

HeadRoom's ratings are: 0.5, 1.0, ....., 4.0, 4.5, 5.0
Is 0 (zero) included?

Does an empty rectangular mean 0 (zero) or "not rated"? See for instance here.

What does 5.0 mean: Excellent?

 

[JMBNaples]

I thought they were rating value.

 

[Cal3257]

yea they're value ratings, so cheaper stuff don't necessarily have a lower rating because for the low price they have good sound

 

[facelvega]

x3 on the value notion, so that the ratings are only comparable to one another for headphones at the same price point. Also realize that it amounts to the opinion of a couple of headphone enthusiasts, which though evidently honest departs from Head-fi consensus in a few places, like the longstanding undervaluing of the KSC-75, or Tyll's odd love for the HD201. I'd say there's also a preference against ultrasone and in favor of shure, but no more than any opinionated head-fi authority would have-- just with a lot more influence on the market.

 

[jinx20001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by facelvega /img/forum/go_quote.gif x3 on the value notion, so that the ratings are only comparable to one another for headphones at the same price point. Also realize that it amounts to the opinion of a couple of headphone enthusiasts, which though evidently honest departs from Head-fi consensus in a few places, like the longstanding undervaluing of the KSC-75, or Tyll's odd love for the HD201. I'd say there's also a preference against ultrasone and in favor of shure, but no more than any opinionated head-fi authority would have-- just with a lot more influence on the market.

i wouldnt go with the value notion, because they rate the shure e500 a 5.0 and the triple fi 10 4.5, they claim both are brilliant but the triple fi at time of review was $100 cheaper. that screams better value to me, so for me i think its thier overall quality score.

 

[MD1032]

Their little value scores are completely subjective. I would just ignore them. Obviously, they place all of their own products at a 5.0 value rating when we all know that is clearly not the case.

 

[facelvega]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jinx20001 /img/forum/go_quote.gif i wouldnt go with the value notion, because they rate the shure e500 a 5.0 and the triple fi 10 4.5, they claim both are brilliant but the triple fi at time of review was $100 cheaper. that screams better value to me, so for me i think its thier overall quality score.

They're definitely not very strict about cost versus quality with the ratings, but it explicitly a value rating, as it says wherever it's mentioned on their site.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MD1032 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Their little value scores are completely subjective. I would just ignore them. Obviously, they place all of their own products at a 5.0 value rating when we all know that is clearly not the case.

Definitely they don't really try rating their own products against the rest of the field, but I do think they've made an effort to be brutally honest with what they think of various headphones. You should give them credit for that, at least. After all, it's far more reliable than what Stereophile or cnet say about various headphones.

 

[dclancy]

Keep in mind that the page you pointed to have items with no ratings because they are just extra headphones for wireless systems, therefore the ratings don't apply.
I like headroom. They're fairly honest, but they are trying to sell these phones so they may be slightly skewed, of course you can say that about anything you read on these forums. Take every opinion with a grain of salt.

 

[AdamCalifornia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jinx20001 /img/forum/go_quote.gif i wouldnt go with the value notion, because they rate the shure e500 a 5.0 and the triple fi 10 4.5, they claim both are brilliant but the triple fi at time of review was $100 cheaper. that screams better value to me, so for me i think its thier overall quality score.

Usually when people rate sometining they define what they mean by, say,
"5.0", "4.0", etc.

Obviously their ratings: "0.5", .... , "5.0" are "class dependent".
By this I mean the following.
Assume that we define the following classes of headphones:
1. Entry-level (without any mention of "audiophile" quality)
2. Entry-level audiophile
3. Mid-level audiophile
4. Extreme-level audiophile

So, if one pair of headphones from class (1) gets "5.0" rating
and another pair of headphones from class (4) gets "5.0" rating
obviously those ratings mean different things.
If "Excellent" corresponds to "5.0" we would say that those two mentioned
pairs of headphones are "Excellent" in their own classes.

Also it looks as though their rating does not iclude 0 (zero).
The lowest rating could be only 0.5

Perhaps they should explain their rating system on their site?
Otherwise we're trying to interpret or misinterpret what their ratings really mean!?