I wonder what everyone’s thoughts are on some of the confusion and arguments over headphone targets?
Personally I think it stems from a lack of understanding on why there is no “standard response curve”. When I researched on different philosophies and methods to EQ headphones, I came across these types of comments:
Categories of opinions on EQ (and headphone response):
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People who don’t trust EQ - No EQ (Manufacturers know best, sound signature of equipment is a good thing and most pure)
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People who only trust measurements (Harman is the “Standard”, cannot trust our own ears). 2a. Use Oratory and ignore the rest of the FR. 2b. Use Amir’s simple 2-3 filters and ignore the rest of the FR
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People who trust their ears (I just want it to sound good). 3a. Add a bass and/or treble shelf. 3b. Use Oratory and then sweeps to tame treble peaks. 3c. EQ by ear. 3d. EQ using sweeps to correct for personal HRTF and HpTF, then adjust tonality to taste. 3e. Use flat speakers as reference (Flat speakers is the one true reference) 3f. Use equal loudness curve corrected sweep as reference. 3g. Use pink noise only
I’m sure I’m missing a few more, feel free to add to my list.
The point being there are many schools of thought, many of them not accounting for the limitations inherent in mixing, mastering, manufacturing of headphones, and differences in how people hear sounds with headphones compared to speakers. Most people intuitively jump to the conclusion that “duh, sound is simple, you hear a tone play and it just needs to sound like what the artist envisioned”.
It’s no wonder why there are so many myths and misinformation on headphone audio quality. Not to mention the added uncertainties by manufacturers in order to justify expensive products, and consumers justifying their purchases.
You Headphones.com guys are doing a good job with your new graphs with more variability built in, but I think there are still areas of communication which could be improved upon to get your point across better. For example, an article or a short video rundown with intuitive graphics on why headphones (and not normal day to day sounds and to a large extent, speakers) creates specific wave cancellations and peaks in the cup + ear. I think starting with this one fundamental fact would open a lot of people’s eyes as to your reasoning to why there’s no one true curve or one true headphones. Do it like how some Youtube exercise channel put a link to a 5 minute warm up on all their videos. Put a link to this short explainer video in all your review videos.