[AdamCalifornia]

I think that it would be useful to have
ratings of headphone amplifiers on this site.

Adam

 

[Azure]

Considering that this is a sponsored website, and that some of the sponsors are makers of some of the headphone amps in question, it probably wouldn't be the most effective/best idea.

 

[romistrub]

Excellent idea, yes... hard to implement on a sponsored website unless you have some sort of ungodly neutral character in charge of the whole rating system. GL with that one.

 

[elrod-tom]

I'd say it's highly doubtful that this would happen. We have members who review lots and lots of amps, and there is IMHO a general "rating" that occurs over time. That said, it's also very fluid (think FOTM), and would be subject to constant change. This makes it pretty impractical...so I don't see it happening.

 

[ameyer17]

There aren't even headphone ratings yet, so no.

 

[B-side J]

It's too subjective and there is no way to rate something fairly unless you have heard everything and have a compritive rating system....At least that's MHO.

 

[rsaavedra]

As far as Headphone amp brand popularity goes, check out this poll.

 

[Hello]

I'd also say that head-fi shouldn't have a ratings system.

1. Putting a numerical value on amps isn't that informative. People have different personal tastes of what sounds good, different values of various features, different tolerances of different types of flaws, and so on. The ratings for books, movies, albums, games, etc. all encounter this type of problem.

2. A numerical rating system implies transitivity, which may not always be the case. If people prefer X to Y and Y to Z, it may not happen that people prefer X to Z. But, this is exactly what a numerical ratings system would enforce.

3. And, of course, there's the impracticality of assigning the actual rating. One possible method is for people to vote. But, is it right, that a rating from someone who has listened and owned the amp for months to be given equal weight to someone who has only heard the amp for a few minutes? And, if not, how does one assign the weight?

4. It would needlessly create tension in the forums. Some people will likely get upset if their preferred amps do not rate well (especially if they have a financial interest!)

Awhile back, I thought it would be really useful to have a sort of relational database where people could input their opinions if they preferred one specific headphone to another specific headphone. Now, I think such a database would not be so useful because it would not take into account people's criteria for judgment.

 

[nikongod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure Considering that this is a sponsored website, and that some of the sponsors are makers of some of the headphone amps in question, it probably wouldn't be the most effective/best idea.

we have headphone reviews, and some of the headphone manufacturers are sponsors too.

i vote yes in the poll. why no automated counting device with the little check-dots?

after i read this and like a fool typed, i looked at the top of the page, and there is an amp review page... durr, its already there. im glad i voted for it.

 

[shplorgh]

Great idea, let's have amp ratings that are totally inflated by fanboys and shills...

 

[Bosk]

There are places like audioreview.com that do that kind of thing, but I don't find the ratings to be very useful. Audio is a very subjective thing. Much more useful IMO are reviews which point out the strengths and weaknesses a product honestly.

As mentioned above a rating system would also encourage shills, and before you knew it any amp that didn't get a 10/10 rating might be percieved as inferior simply because nobody was being paid to inflate it's ranking.

I do reckon a stickied thread with a list of headphone amplifiers for sale from all manufacturers, along with their specifications, tubes they accept, where to buy them and such would be rather handy.

 

[Konig]

having a poll of the best looking amp is more feasible i thought

 

[Teerawit]

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this a -3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 10

 

[Zoide]

Or someone could make the amp equivalent of www.headphonereviews.org, which is stickied in the Headphone section here at Head-Fi.

 

[biged]

I think Head-fi should have polls from all its members.
By price/synergy/etc.

This wouldn't solve anything, but could be a usefull guide for people (like me) that are new, trying to learn and just don't have the resources/experience that others have.

Everyone realizes that this forum is subjective, but for those of us that have limited resources/funds this could greatly help point us in the right direction.

Just the opinion of a hack who is trying to learn/improve/enjoy.

Ed