ryanjsoo
Reviewer for The Headphone List
ryanjsoo's Reviews
Don't usually address these kinds of statements and though I'm hardly the leading authority, this is definitely a topic where I see A LOT of misinformation out there.I understand where you are coming from on this Andy however I'm also of the belief of those always looking for technicality and specs often miss out because so many audio products in general deliver so well on the musicality (what the hobby is really about IMO) they get overlooked because reviewers who lean to the technical side regardless of said piece of gears ability to deliver the goods (very satisfyingly to boot) and many readers just believe its technicality only that can give you the best. I know you like many others have heard things that sound incredible however on specs they just don't add up to what you hear, but then again (and my "Almost" famous saying "We all hear them just a little differently") even those who like the same stuff unless your using their ears it's a 99% chance they still hear it just a little differently. This is an entertainment industry just like any other and marketing plays a massive roll. In reality reviewers are marketers for goods and gear for every item sold, we have the technicality vs. Musicality challenge at every level and for me after 55 years of this stuff it's best bang for the buck and ROI. My logic after this many years is when it sounds good regardless of specs listen to it! I guess what I'm really trying to say is specs to me are more of a tool for those who believe specs are as Beck would say "Where its at"Guess I've rambled enough and I sure don't want to get started on public opinion especially in this day and age. Seems these days co-existence is getting more rare in every aspect of life
@emorrison33 , I feel your pain on that ear situation
But in essence, greater technical performance is never a bad thing but that depends on what you consider technical performance. To me and from what I've gathered in discussion with companies and other reviewers, technical performance will come down to extension, resolution and note presentation (attack, decay, driver control/definition, etc). Whereas tonality refers more to the frequency response. The role of the reviewer here lies in deciphering which is which and what quality is delivering which audible outcome - as only when you understand this can you judge whether a quality is a positive or negative. Otherwise, who is to stop me from dubbing bright earphones as "detailed" and dark earphones as "spacious". This is because technical qualities can influence your perception of tonal colouration which is why a BA earphone that measures identically to a dynamic driver earphone will sound quite different.
The unfortunate mistake I see many making and something I am very guilty of myself in past years, is mistaking tonality changes for an increase in technicality. Though I do not always agree with sheer objectivity, frequency response measurements have really helped here in regards to awareness of this and have definitely given us more objective goalposts for more consistency as reviewers. It is amazing how many people will consider a 6kHz peak as a fast transient response or higher resolution. You will then hear some users or reviewers saying that their gear is "too resolving" which I would argue contradicts the whole goal of the audio hobby - fatigue due to brightness is another matter entirely. You can also sweat the semantics. In the past, I've personally confused "revealing" with "resolving" where now I would argue that the former refers more to tonal brightness and the latter is a technical quality.
My point overall is that musicality and technicality can surely co-exist hand in hand. If you listen to older audio gear, you may be surprised by how different the tonality is from modern gear as they weren't held to the same stringent references that even regular enthusiasts are now intimately accustomed to. However, equally surprising is how poorly they perform from a technical POV. At the same time, buyers should see this progress as nothing but encouraging and, though we have seen prices jump at the top-end, budget gear is so, so, so much better than it once was. You simply have far more guaranteed quality in the modern-day but it is incorrect to simply attribute this to either technical or tonal changes, rather it is a combination of both.
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Reminds me of Nagra gear 
