Resolve's Headphone Ranking List

Headphones General Headphone Discussion
464

What about a live one on Google Spreadsheets?

1 Like
465

Yeah we’ve been working on an updated ranking system. Should be public soon.

11 Likes
466

Hey Resolve, approximately when will the new rankings be released? Thanks🙂

467

Should be soon. Probably in a few weeks.

1 Like
468

A christmas special article! Sounds good :ok_hand:

469

Well, we’ll see. We filmed a new tier list video that’s being edited right now and it’s based on a new ranking system. But we’re trying to also make it a component of the website, which also takes a bit of time to implement.

I do expect the new ranking system to break some hearts, particularly because we’ve changed the scaling a bit. So there is no headphone that actually achieves higher than like… 7/10 for me, or there abouts, and what we might consider otherwise ‘good’ headphones are closer to 5 or 6. That’s because we’re considering the full range of possible sound quality for bass mids and treble, rather than a compressed scale which is what people might be used to from ranking lists, and quite frankly there is no headphone that genuinely achieves top marks across the board without EQ.

But, we figured this is actually a better depiction of how a given headphone performs relative to how a headphone could perform.

6 Likes
470

Are you accounting for EQ? I mean sure I’m interested in a ranking of headphones without EQ, but I’m more interested in which ones can easily be EQ’d to S tier level and how those would compare in comfort, drivability, etc.

1 Like
471

It’s not an EQ based ranking list. I think that may be something for future lists or sub lists. We also haven’t decided which parts of it to make visible, since there was a specific methodology to this. But I can see for example a list where it weights our treble scores much more highly, and it would thereby entail a better “easy EQ” ranking.

5 Likes
472

Hi Resolve! Do you have any favorite setup for quite/low volume sessions? Can the Susvara OG reach its best at low volume levels with some amps?

1 Like
473

Yeah Susvara OG is probably good at low volume as well. I don’t typically listen very loud.

1 Like
474

A massive effort here. Mostly have to concur with the overall listing. A lot of time and effort must have gone into this. Much appreciated.

There are two headphones that should be considered:

  1. Sennheiser HD 490 Pro (EQ): A very neutral headphone that gets even better with a bit of EQ. Extremely comfortable, well balanced sound. Gets the highest over grades for playback form Sonarworks (FWIW). I find the 490 Pro to be a better sounding option over the Focal Clear, which was recommended.

  2. Verum 2: If one puts the past controversy aside, and focuses on the headphone itself, IMHO, this is one of the best overall buys in the headphone market, especially at it’s price point. Follows the Harman curve more so than not, vanishingly low overall distortion, does not need EQ to sound good (but it could help), well built, and fairly comfortable. It’s been compared favorably to the LCD 5 by other reviewers, rather high praise indeed. I’ve been using it with a Topping D900/A900, which is a outstanding match for the headphone.

2 Likes