The new pads are supposed to be better but I don’t know if they’re the same. I was just playing around about them ignoring the dms mod.
1 Like
I’ve replied to your post here in another thread to avoid taking this one too far off-topic:
1 Like
@Resolve Thank you for creating this. As somebody with less experience with and access to these headphones, the explanations help me understand where our subjective experiences and values are similar and where they differ. While this helps save me time and money when it comes to purchasing headphones, it more important helps dampen any FOMO.
7 Likes
HD600 and HD650 are subsumed under HD6X0 in the bang for the buck tier.
7 Likes
Yeah there might not be now, but they used to have them on their website. I even did a video on them haha. So the line of “there is no DMS mod” is probably true now, maybe because they got a lot of requests and it was inconvenient to do.
1 Like
Resolve…if you only heard the sr1a on the Jot-R, then I’m not surprised with your findings. That amp is most underwhelming, IMHO.
2 Likes
But only in best bang for your buck? They really could be in that top tier too 
(Again, this is all in fun. No panty bunching)
2 Likes
Yeah I know some folks for who those are end game with certain sources. Insert 580 infinite scaling meme.
4 Likes
@Resolve , any chance of having another ranking list of headphones without EQ? Maybe the first two tiers for each open and closed backs to reduce the work required?
2 Likes
Pffft, what you need is one of these Etheraudio Abbssolute Intuition amps to get your Senns to shine:
I took out the drivers of mine and mounted them open baffle on a plank of wood. 2-channel endgame.
(not really)
6 Likes
Ranking is always a fun exercise.
I’m thinking about a whole tier of value phones, ones that don’t need anything but an Apple dongle, lightning or usb-c to sound their best. For example, you could EQ the HD58X to the Harman target and connect it to any dongle with a 3.5mm jack. For millions of people, that HD58X will be more than enough quality.
4 Likes
Now we’re talking!
2 Likes
I will only say the soundstage of both the abyss tc and the sr1a are pretty much acknowledged by pretty much everyone other than resolve as being the most spacious and open of any of the TOTL HP’s…truly, I have never read a review other than this one where anyone has said differently…the sr1a is different in that the soundstage is more in front of you but it is incredibly open and spacious…in any event it is to me incredible that people can hear things so differently…
1 Like
Again, not saying it was particularly bad or anything, in the TC’s case I would agree that it’s on the more spacious side, despite the 1.5khz bump. It does sometimes feel like as soon as you say “it’s not the greatest thing ever in category X” people take that as “it sucks at X”, but that’s a fairly crude interpretation that misses a lot of nuance - and it’s one of the reasons I’ve been hesitant about this type of ranking list in the first place.
The other thing you need to consider is that a lot of the time these descriptions are driven by narrative inertia. Like, the HD 800 S has a wide and spacious soundstage, sure, but it’s not like you’re listening to speakers or anything. And yet if you read up about that headphone’s soundstage you’d think it was. Another example is of the HiFiMAN Arya V2 vs V3. People are saying V2 has better soundstage… when I do the comparison, the difference is negligible, but because one reviewer set the tone for that difference, that’s become the narrative, and it now has a lot of inertia behind it. Now, he may have had that experience with it, and is reporting it accurately to that experience, but you have no idea the reasons behind that report. There way too many factors to consider than to say that this is just how it is for everyone.
Simply put, a report of an experience that’s different from what the set narratives are, shouldn’t negatively impact credibility, but merely be treated as an additional perspective. I’d like to point to Precogvision’s ‘critical takes’ on various products as another example of that. Now, you may disagree with this perspective, but in my view it would be a mistake to discount everything that gets said because of it, which seems to be a common trend. “This reviewer said X, therefore you can’t trust what he says about anything” is kind of a nonsense position as far as I’m concerned - and not just with respect to me, but all the other guys like Josh, DMS, Crin etc. It’s just people reporting their experiences. In fact, I’d even go as far as to say that it’s more interesting what people report when they’re not aware of narrative inertia. We should take those reports seriously.
20 Likes
@Resolve I appreciate the effort to do this. Always entertaining.
Some random thoughts (take or leave):
The ranking above leaves aside system synergies - tube vs. solid state, speaker vs. headphone amp, NOS vs. OS DAC, HQPlayer, EQ yes/no, …
One of the relatively unique and valuable contributions from @Torq was his ability and willingness to broadly test new gear, including headphones, across a variety of different setups. From the list above it’s not clear for each of the impressions and rankings under what circumstances they would apply (leaving aside “being @Resolve or his identical twin”)?
Between all my different toys I am getting closer to where I can optimize my listening experience per headphone (30+) in some pretty unique ways. Those routine changes alone would turn any tier list upside down for my ears, and not even consistently per music genre.
I understand the attraction of “a single number” but personally getting more value from @Resolve 's high quality detailed reviews.
As is, this is more a disclosure of Resolve’s personal listening bias - useful to understand his PoV if you are not broadly familiar with his reviews and approach.
My favorite list of this kind (with some >zero value for my purposes) is Crinacle’s IEM ranking table - he ruthlessly standardizes on a common configuration, and also breaks apart his score in a meaningful way. Plus then he enforces he normal distribution to keep his scores honest.
4 Likes
I thought about that. Without EQ things get a lot spicier haha. Maybe I’ll add that in the future.
One thing to keep in mind with EQ - and I’ll add this to the main post - the EQ tag doesn’t mean I matched it to harman or anything like that, merely that I felt the need to make some key adjustments in order for it to be sufficient at satisfying criteria 1). So it could be as simple as reducing a 5.5khz peak or something like that, but if I wasn’t able to do that I probably wouldn’t consider it where it’s at.
6 Likes
Yeah this ranking is more focused on the headphones, I might do a ‘system’ ranking at some point.
4 Likes
I mean it does say “Resolve’s Headphone Ranking List”. Not “Resolve’s Infinitely Variable Synergy Guide” (Or Torq’s Synergy Guide).
10 Likes
It would be great if you could add a bit about your consistent listening baseline configuration to provide context for the current list - e.g. 1. using EQ (as you confirmed) 2. solid state hp amp (which one?) for % of the time 3. tube amp (if any, which?) for % of time 4. which DAC 5. split between most frequent genres?
Not necessary, just curious to better understand how you got where you are with the list. E.g. the power hungry Hifimans on your list are different animals altogether when driven from a speaker amp (OG HE6 most extreme example) … As opposed to using a solid amp like Phonitor-X - then it would be more plausible why the LCD-5 could be anywhere near the Susvara … ?
2 Likes