[TakashiMiike]

I've been around mid-fi land quiet a bit and I feel confident that I know how most things sound (bar ultrasone.) I sketched out a quick little thing that I think would be a cool idea to expand on and clean up, but perhaps something like that would help new people find the correct headphones for them, or help guide those that are wanting to upgrade.
 
I thought this up late at night and sketched it all down REALLY quickly so it's quiet messy, but I think if anyone is willing to add anything to this, or help me clean it up it could serve as a nice organized educational tool.
 
I see newbie threads pop up all too often, and no real central source of common data.
 
 
 
To the left are headphones with more bass emphasis, I choose to call it smiley, but there is probably a better word for it i'm just really tired. Towards the right there are more bass light or mid centric headphones, and down the middle would be neutral headphones. I tried to sort of judge their distance left and right based on how well they fit into that category.

 
What do you guys think, is this worth cleaning up, or just a mad man's scribblings, that will do little to no good, I feel like I want to contribute to the community I've been observing and participating in for 3 years now.
 
 
Perhaps with a collaborated effort we could make a quiet large flowchart with headphones I haven't heard.
 
Ideas, corrections, suggestions, etc, all welcome

 

[JoetheArachnid]

Hmm. From what I can see it's more of a graph than a flow chart, so frequency response varying across the top and price increasing as you go down? There are also other factors that might need to be included like amping (or not) and comfort, etc. Another thing (and I don't mean to be picky, I'm just throwing out ideas) I don't think the smiley freq. response is really appropriate for the LCD-2 at least. It's definitely a dark headphone from my recollection but was also very strong on the mids.
 
What might work (or might not at all) is an algorithm structure that asks you about your different preferences on comfort, budget, sound preference and music before offering one or more options. Obviously that would mean an incredibly subjective structure that might not cover things like, say, Grados and classical music.
 
Or alernatively we could just make every concluding branch the M50 and then everyone would be happy, obviously.

 

[ib1dance]

Good idea

.
 
I'm sure there will be people with the relevant information wishing to help out.Use a free diagram editor program so people can download it and you can share the  chart file and people can add to it .
 
 

yEd Graph Editor  <<< Look like a Good and free one .

 
Quote: http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.html

yEd is a powerful diagram editor that can be used to quickly and effectively generate high-quality drawings of diagrams.
 

 
 
 

 
 

 

[zomg]

I like the idea. However, I think you could implement more entries: you could use the font color to indicate the warmth/coloration (darkness?) of the sound and some kind of symbol (something like that ****) to rate the soundstage. Perhaps also something about the level of details as well.
 
For stuff like comfort or built quality, I don't think it should be there, you can find that on the forum afterwards and it's easier to appreciate than SQ. Now, I'm not sure about amping...

 

[JoetheArachnid]

I don't know about you, but a lot of the recommendations threads I see have 'I want a pair of comfortable headphones' or 'I want a pair I can throw around without them getting damaged' or even 'I want cans that look good' as much as people put their budget or sound preferences. I'd say that they're still pretty important.

 

[zomg]

Well, that's one of my main concerns, I like sturdy HP; but I was thinking of this graph more like a sound oriented tool, since it's more difficult to appreciate. I guess it depends on who will use it: most head-fiers are already aware of the built quality of various brands (shure vs grado for instance - and if they don't they will search for the existing threads); whearas most newcomers will probably ask about that and will have less precise requirements about the sound.

 

[TakashiMiike]

Some good suggestions, I'll check out yed graph editor and try to sketch up a better way to organize it. Perhaps more of a flowchart form is what i'm looking for where it branches, asking questions such as "what part of the music is most important to you" things like that.
 
 
Quote:

What might work (or might not at all) is an algorithm structure that asks you about your different preferences on comfort, budget, sound preference and music before offering one or more options. Obviously that would mean an incredibly subjective structure that might not cover things like, say, Grados and classical music.

 
Everything is subjective in this field, however I feel like there are things that can be objectively said for headphones. Frequency response is one of those things. I don't think I would so much cover music preference, as sound preference. If you love jazz but want the double bass to blow a hole in your head, then you have a different sound preference then another person who likes jazz and loves saxophone, or whatever.
 
I'll see what I can make up, any other suggestions and crits, much appreciated.

 

[rroseperry]

If you're thinking about a flow chart set up, you might want to put in a couple of initial filters like "Must be durable. yes/no", "Style is important, yes/no" before jumping into the whole audio quality and cost calculation.

 

[maverickronin]

Quite an interesting idea.  Subbed for now.  I'll be back if I think up some good ways to implement this and make it updateable and interactive.

 

[joelpearce]

I considered doing this a while ago.
 
Ultimately, there are simply too many variables to consider to make it a convenient process.  Open and closed need to be considered, not to mention budget, sound preference, intended use, amping requirements, availability by geography...
 
Some sort of chart with headphones charted along various axis (axes?) seems more promising-- bright/dark, forward/laid back, but even that would create massive controversy.
 
If you can make it work, though, more power to you.

 

[Chacobo]

I'm new to HP and would definitely like these kinds of ideas, as it's just too tiring to crawl through the process of screening the price (new and used)/ photos/ performance/ amping requirement for every HP in every recommendation thread, and I forget stuff and need to search for them again (k I know it's me who doesn't drop things down

).
 
A chart like this, as a starting point targeted for newbies, could be far less extensive or even "accurate", dare I say. Even this initial sheet helped me A LOT. So please by all means, make one!

 

[joelpearce]

All right, I'll try to take this on.
 
I have a rough outline here that I think could work, but I'm going to need help.  If I've missed anything important in the pro/games/movies/DIY/all rounders area, let me know.  For music, I should be able to fill out the Pop/Rock area well, but I'm going to need help from some people that listen to rap/metal/electronica/classical/jazz, etc. for the best list.  I'm not trying to make this exhaustive, so much as to give people new to the headphone world a place to start doing some research.

 

[maverickronin]

Wow, that's pretty awesome...

 

[TakashiMiike]

Quote:

All right, I'll try to take this on.
 
I have a rough outline here that I think could work, but I'm going to need help.  If I've missed anything important in the pro/games/movies/DIY/all rounders area, let me know.  For music, I should be able to fill out the Pop/Rock area well, but I'm going to need help from some people that listen to rap/metal/electronica/classical/jazz, etc. for the best list.  I'm not trying to make this exhaustive, so much as to give people new to the headphone world a place to start doing some research.

That's really great, really a better way of organizing things. The questions are great and lead you down unique paths. I think for music though seperating by genre may not be the best way however, I think bass forward/ mid forward/ high forward/ neutral. I'll see what I can do about making it more appealing and complete tonight
 
Thank you for your contribution. Really awesome.
 

 

[joelpearce]

Quote:

That's really great, really a better way of organizing things. The questions are great and lead you down unique paths. I think for music though seperating by genre may not be the best way however, I think bass forward/ mid forward/ high forward/ neutral. I'll see what I can do about making it more appealing and complete tonight
 
Thank you for your contribution. Really awesome.
 

Except that the people just arriving, who need this the most, don't necessarily know whether they want something forward or neutral, etc.  Either way, I'll start trying to put it together, and if I can get advice for additions, I'll keep adding to it.
 
Maybe I can set it up both ways...