I think we can all understand in this age where thousand dollar headphones are common, that there is a push towards understanding how these headphones sound without listening to them. Customers want to be informed of their purchase decisions before spending their hard earned money, and that has partially led many many many people to turn to objective measurements to get these questions answered. The high cost of some of these headphones has also encouraged broad skepticism about price and performance relationships in general.
I think we can all understand fundamentally part of the motivation for learning about a headphone outside of actually listening to it.
The problem is, that even the most staunch "objectivist" will tell you that the measurements will only tell you so much. The picture they paint is one of a shadow on the wall. And those measurements themselves, while they may do a good job of informing customers about certain aspects of the equipment, are not a replacement for actually listening yourself. I believe most objectivists would still weigh subjective listening impressions as the single most important aspect of any potential purchase, doubly so at this price level.
From the angle that people want to be informed and learn about headphones, partially because they may be spending a long time saving up for a big purchase and want to know what they are getting and make sure they make the right decision for themselves, objective measurements help inch them along. The gravity of these purchase decisions has increased along with their price tags.
But I think we can all admit, that endless back and forth about "objective flaws" coming from a peanut gallery of individuals who admittedly have never heard the headphone themselves is a bit counterproductive. These people are fundamentally saying things (and worse, recommending products) based on shadows on a wall. Fundamentally, these people do not understand what objective measurements are telling them, and the incomplete picture that they paint. If they did, they would not be so adament about trying to prove to a community of owners who enjoy said headphone about how objective measurements tell them more than an individual actually sitting there listening to the headphones themselves (as I am as I type this, Fleetwood Mac Rumours for those still interested in listening to music, a classic made better by the Z1R).
I've noticed a trend also among this crowd of individuals who seem unusually focused on objective measurements, that they tend to skew younger. In college, in high school, just out of school on their first job. It is a bit of a combination of:
- lacking the disposable income to make purchases like this very easily and therefore putting disproportionate faith in objective measurements,
- a bit of an overzealous young person's over confidence in that they have discovered something no one else has and know the One True Way,
- having grown up in hostile and generally toxic environments online, such as twitter, Facebook, and others, where the bully personality dominates, (say what you want about head fi, it bends over backwards to avoid the toxic and overly hostile trap of other communities),
- and it must be said a general immaturity in general towards their approach to discussions like this.
I know that head-fi recently changed forum software, and I am not sure if it is possible, but I think it would be very helpful for equipment threads like this to be able to tag contributors based on whether they own a product, whether they have even heard a product, or whether they are commenting from a position where they neither own nor have heard the product.
I have seen other forums where once contributors are appropriately tagged, other members of the forum can easily filter out responses based on the category. This tagging system could also be used to tag conversations such as those that talk about measurements, so that those who really don't care, can filter those responses out as well.