[Steve999]

My feelings exactly!

Quote:

Originally Posted by clarke68 Don't get me wrong...I like Stereophile. I am getting a little bored with them, but they write about audio, and I like reading about audio...what's not to like? I just take the facts/opinions they publish about as seriously as the facts/opinions I find in People or Us.

 

[clarke68]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beagle Read John Atkinson's measurements and comments.

Quote:

The 505LTD is of average voltage sensitivity, at an estimated 86.9dB(B)/2.83V/m—significantly lower than the specified 91dB...Despite the benefits claimed for the primary enclosure's tetrahedral shape, its panels were lively, with strong resonances detectable...Pausing the noise stimulus used to generate this graph proved interesting, in that a reverberant honk could be heard dying away. While Paul Bolin apparently managed to work around this speaker's limitations to some extent, its disappointing measured performance precludes any recommendation for the Tetra 505LTD from this magazine...

Ouch...I see what you mean. Looks like J.A. used his editorial veto power to get the 505LTDs de-recommended!

 

[allenf]

In a previous, very similar thread, Tyll @ Headroom provided this insight into Stereophile's ratings system:
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showp...1&postcount=41

 

[allenf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by duchamp Here is an interesting article on audio journalism and includes an opinion on Stereophile magazine. http://www.high-endaudio.com/magaz.html

An interesting read - but the author is taking an extreme and cynical position.
Why should I believe a word he has written - they're all at it aren't they?

As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

 

[Elephas]

Thanks for the link to Tyll's post.

I own both the PX100 and K26p, and they are nowhere close to an SR60 in terms of sound quality. I do agree with Tyll about people taking appearance into consideration when making choices, but don't agree with the reasoning to take off points from the SR60 because of its appearance. After all, the HeadRoom ratings are supposed to be primarily based on sound quality and value. Or at least that's what I had assumed before; apparently they are also based on aesthetics.

 

[allenf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revliskciuq Clearly it's not a "bang for the buck" scale if they gave their own Max Balanced a 5 out of 5, an amp even they describe with these words: No one needs this amp; there’s just no excuse for it. Unless, of course, you can afford thoughts like, “I can hear the cellist breathing through his nose. He needs to clip his nose hairs.” Personally, we have a hard time thinking at all when we listen to this amp. Maybe I'm off my rocker, but that doesn't sound like an amp that should get a 5 out of 5 value rating, so I'm lead to believe that HeadRoom takes things other than value into consideration.

If one requires what is possibly "The Most Accurate and Revealing Headphone Amplifier Ever Made", and one is "only" willing to spend second-hand car prices for it...one might consider it exceptional value for money

 

[donunus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beagle Low cost is bad? What a snobbish generalization. Would you rather they just gave sh--ty reviews to sh--ty equipment? Or would you rather find out about some of the great sounding new components available? No they do not. Show me something that got a bad review that made it's way onto Recommended Components.

Ive heard mediocre sounding equipment given good reviews at stereophile though. And another thing about stereophile, Class A should represent more realistic sounding equipment than class C right? wrong! Ive heard a speaker given a class C rating have a more realistic presentation than some products in higher classes. Generally I believe them but don't take what they say as gospel. When I went to the Las Vegas CES a while back, I found some raved products really suuuuuuuuck! and some are just ordinary and uninvolving, especially for the prices. I find the standouts to be more obscure brands like Fi, and sound labs for example. Its a lot of politics! I went on the days when the media get to roam the booths(before the general public gets in) so I got to observe how these guys behave too. hehehe. just checking out whether certain reviewers really love the products they rave about

 

[dhp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus Ive heard mediocre sounding equipment given good reviews at stereophile though. And another thing about stereophile, Class A should represent more realistic sounding equipment than class C right? wrong! Ive heard a speaker given a class C rating have a more realistic presentation than some products in higher classes. Generally I believe them but don't take what they say as gospel. When I went to the Las Vegas CES a while back, I found some raved products really suuuuuuuuck! and some are just ordinary and uninvolving, especially for the prices. I find the standouts to be more obscure brands like Fi, and sound labs for example. Its a lot of politics! I went on the days when the media get to roam the booths(before the general public gets in) so I got to observe how these guys behave too. hehehe. just checking out whether certain reviewers really love the products they rave about

You should never take any reviews as gospel. Take everything with a grain of salt, regardless of whether it comes from Headroom, Stereophile, or our very own head-fiers

 

[donunus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DieInAFire You should never take any reviews as gospel. Take everything with a grain of salt, regardless of whether it comes from Headroom, Stereophile, or our very own head-fiers

There it is. Couldn't have nailed it better.

The most important thing to notice when researching before buying new equipment here on headfi is to read between the lines whether the replies are second hand information (the echo chamber) or firsthand. I am annoyed by the echo chamber so I tend to state on my replies to people whether my reply is from firsthand experience or just from summarizing/reading between the lines from others. Also remember there is also a great amount of the "fanboys of own equipment" syndrome so beware

 

[Duncan]

Getting back to the point of this thread...

IMO the SR125s are the ONLY headphone that i've ever owned that have made my ears bleed (almost literally, they behaved that sharply!)

I tried to warm them up with a tube amp, and it just didn't happen - so sold them on pretty quickly... to me, even the SR325 sounds restrained and calm, yet a lot of people think that they have a scarey treble... that gives you an idea

I'd probably go with a value / sound rating of about 2.0-2.5/5 so, i'm with Headroom

 

[murrmax]

Steophiles got plenty of suckers wearing the emporers new clothes - Duchamp
figured that out years ago...

Magazines are just marketing machines , salesatorials and advertising.

 

[applebook]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revliskciuq Clearly it's not a "bang for the buck" scale if they gave their own Max Balanced a 5 out of 5, an amp even they describe with these words: No one needs this amp; there’s just no excuse for it. Unless, of course, you can afford thoughts like, “I can hear the cellist breathing through his nose. He needs to clip his nose hairs.” Personally, we have a hard time thinking at all when we listen to this amp. Maybe I'm off my rocker, but that doesn't sound like an amp that should get a 5 out of 5 value rating, so I'm lead to believe that HeadRoom takes things other than value into consideration.

The Max is a good amp for its price range, not at ANY price, while Headroom feels that the SR-125 is not a good value for its price.

 

[AdamCalifornia]

I was surprised but I've read an article in
Stereophile where a recording engineer
preferred Grados SR325 to Senns HD650
due to better transparency etc.

Also in the recent article in Hi-Fi+ the reviewer preferred Grados SR325 to
Sennheiser's HD650, because the latter are too laid-back.
This is the same article in which he called the DT880s 'muddy in the midrange'!

See you at the Olympics in torino

,

Adam

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamCalifornia I was surprised but I've read an article in Stereophile where a recording engineer preferred Grados SR325 to Senns HD650 due to better transparency etc. Also in the recent article in Hi-Fi+ the reviewer preferred Grados SR325 to Sennheiser's HD650, because the latter are too laid-back. This is the same article in which he called the DT880s 'muddy in the midrange'! See you at the Olympics in torino , Adam

Some prefer the Grados, others prefer the Sennhausers. That's the way it will always be, Time to move on..

 

[NotJeffBuckley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beagle Some prefer the Grados, others prefer the Sennhausers. That's the way it will always be, Time to move on..

Grado people talk like this, while Sennheiser people talk like this!

Isn't it a crazy, mixed-up world we live in?