Another idea: How Does Volume Affect The Harman Research?
If you listen to music at very low volumes or very high volume, is Harman still valid at all? For what kind of volume range is Harman best applicable?
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Here is another topic suggestion: Do You Need Bad Tuning To Better Enjoy Good Tuning?
In other words, if you only listen to headphones tuned closely to a specific target (ex: Harman) will your appreciation of the music diminish over time because it gets boring and repetitive? Should we regularly use really crappy headphones on purpose, so that when we do switch back to our high-end collection, it sounds even better than before?
Here is an idea: Can You Make Harman Sound Bad?
Here is the concept behind the question: Could you take an easily EQ-able headphone (an Audeze headphone or something) and modify it in a way to guarantee bad sound. Put very thick foam in front of the driver, for example. Then tune the modified headphone as close to Harman as possible using EQ. Will it sound ok or horrible? How will this affect the distortion?
In the Subjectivist Challenge I don’t always understand why you’re scoffing or smirking in concert at the use of some terms that seem to me like they just help translate from technical descriptions to what a listener could expect to hear in purely musical terms from a headphone with technical property xyz. Maybe you could make a glossary of the “bad” subjectivist terms (or do one per episode) and give reasons why you think they shouldn’t be used in reviews.
But also, for the Subjectivist Challenge itself, I’d say you’re all mostly still cheating and trying to stay away from sound descriptions in subjectivist terms, taking refuge in talking too much about the build, aesthetics, comfort, anything to not use subjectivist audio terms. Section needs a much higher percentage of sonic performance talk. 
This One
I’d love to see @Mad_Economist do his presentation from CanJam SoCal on the podcast. I know he had to cut it short but also it was pretty dense so I’d like to see it again.
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Here’s another one: as objectivists I’d be curious to hear you talk about other objectivist sources of information, especially wrt. their thresholds of audibility and related recommendations to buy/not buy devices that improve on this or that metric. Like, case in point, do you agree with ASR/Amir’s strict thresholds of audibility that he shows on his various graphs when analysing source devices, and that it’s worth spending money on a new source if your existing one still isn’t satisfying all of those strict criteria? Which ones yes, which ones no, and why. Or else: do you agree with the more relaxed NwAvGuy thresholds of audibility and that those should be used to make purchasing decisions; which ones yes, which ones no, and why?
OMG, really? My source needs to satisfy me, not some graph.
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Bass ackward is one type of thinking. We need inclusion.
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I have a few for you that I’d love to hear opinions / open discussions about:
- Audio reviews (like yours) vs what people actually like to listen to … you sometimes mention this but most people actually prefer the “bad” stuff because it sounds better to untrained ears… meaning to me, people should never train the ears and just be happy with stuff they have?
- Audio has gotten so much better at any price range, are we approaching the limit where most normies just won’t care about midfi or highfi?
- I like some speakers because they look good, heresy, but feels like this is the silent part of audio. Above some price range (or price irrelevant?) how much of a purchasing decision do you think actually truly for real is affected purely by aesthetics?
- FOMO is real, how would you suggest fighting it? (fully admitting you’re all addicted and don’t know how to deal with it, but maybe you have ideas for normies) (asking because I really really want ferrum erco for my lcd-xc and everyone flat-out tells me I won’t ever hear a difference compare to my topping whatever but I really really want it)
- I can’t hear above 14khz … It took me a few years to learn that reviewers talking about “highs” often talk well above that … just a suggestion to keep reminding people to test their hearing and ignore reviews for “sharp things” that don’t actually apply to oneself.
- Norimes like me just want their shit to work … Focal just released Diva, why did it take so long for high-end brands to recognize the need for “just give me good sound”?
- There are different kinds of audiophiles, some like gear, some like music, and some like tweaking … what kind are you? (outside of reviewing stuff)
- What 20+ year old headphones or speakers or amps (say sub $2k) do you think still holds it’s own these days, if any? Asking because I’m really asking if buying something pricey-er but for next 20 years is really worth it?
- How do you make your hair so pretty?
- If you all get stuck indefinitely in Zeos’s basement, who is getting eaten first?
- A suggestion for a video: why do tube amps need to turn off every few hours, like the physics behind that kind of analog sound?
- It took me a long time to realize that what I like in music isn’t actually quality (above some acceptable level), I now know it’s dynamic range (ala loudness wars bad) … what took you a really long time to understand?
- When it comes to speakers, 50% of the sound is the room, not your speakers/sources, do you agree? Why/why not?
- For normies, 50% of the sound is the base output (full range sound), do you agree? Why/why not?
- How is there a market for 100k turn table? Any way to check how many are actually sold? Is it just like 3 old rich guys propping up the entire summit-fi turn-table industry?
- AI music … do you find anything you like? (outside of moral implications, just asking if you enjoyed any)
- Extension of AI music to personalized music based on your brain scans to find the absolute perfect music for you in your current state of mind … how far away do you think that is?
- What audio gear would you like to be buried with?
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I do wonder about unit sales in the super high price range. Status can’t be the main driver as how many billionaire audiophiles do you usually find in a room?
And I never worry about picking up a serial killer hitchhiker because what are the chances of finding two in the same vehicle?
To paraphrase Ferrari: Manufacture 399 units when you know the global demand is 400 units. In my experience with other niche luxury markets, the actual demand can be quite low. Some high-profile brands are great at marketing but never rise beyond aspirational dreams and high-gloss photos. They surely sell to the nouveau riche and hardcore audio hobbyists (by @Torq’s estimate <10 realistic buyers in some niches).
Nr. 5 is interesting.
I raised something similar in the Raal Immanis Thread.
Do we need a target curve for older listeners?
If there isn‘t already any investigated by Sean Olive.
As said above some hear piercing heights and others are happy that there is something that is able to tickle their ears… 
Why is this of relevance? Usually the older listeners are the ones spend the most money on equipment, thus TOTL headphones are often tuned to satisfy this customer group, at least this is my hypothesis.
May be I am wrong but I think it is still worth while to investigate and discuss this topic.
Pad Swap.
You should talk a bit about pad swap.
Like the Deconi Elite Velour on the Bathys,
Deconi Elite Velour on the DT-1990,
Deconi Choise Suede on the DT-770,
Yaxipads on the MDR7506, etc, and show with measurement curves,
what a problemsolver different pads can be. 
All the more reason why Tyll Hersten’s Orpheus story is so amazing:
Tube Amps
It’s a rather large part of what I saw at CanJam and as aspirational purchases for audiophiles.
I have several Tube Amps myself and I genuinely love using them for the coolness factor. But I honestly feel like the “Tube Sound” is a bit overblown. In my own (not double blind) AB test between my SS and Tube amps yield minimal differences. There are some Tube amps where I can hear a larger difference in the bass. But i’m fairly certain that’s just the high output impedance of that tube amp.
So more succinctly: What is Tube Sound? If it exists, can it be captured in FR and if it can, can’t you just EQ Tube Sound?
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Great q. I’d like to know as well. Would be great if specific amp names are pinned down so people can have a reference point.
I’ve only listened to two, the Woo Wa33 and Cayin 170HA. The Woo is supposed to be SS sounding, while the Cayin rep alleged that it’s supposed to sound analytical iirc. Confusing! So I’m still struggling to understand what “tubey” sounds like.
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The biggest difference i’ve heard (Using a sescom a/b switch hooked up to a tube and ss amp)
is a slight presentation shift (Soundstage?) with the Schiit Valhalla and an HD6XX. Where a voice that was center, was now a bit higher filling in an area between 11 to 1 o clock (Subjective experience). Was that “Tube sound”?, I don’t have a measurement rig to test my HD6XX… (This is the one and only combo that to myself I genuinely like for my own listening experiences, but because i have the switch, I often have it running on the “wrong one”. Only later realizing i was on SS and not tubes the entire time while working)
I have more expensive tube amps and more expensive headphones and the differences were far far less noticeable and as I think, more related to the output impedance of the amp. I can’t say that I don’t hear anything, but i feel like the differences are small (if any for some tube amps). As stated in some one of the streams, if tubes are mostly for the looks, i’m down for it. I do get significantly more enjoyment out of my tube amps than my SS just for the coolness alone.
However, tubes are such a large part of the upper tier hifi community, I feel like we need to ground some of the discussions around what they can and can’t do.
Tube amps fall into several categories. Some of them sound virtually identical to solid state amps. To my ears:
- Old-school tubey means vintage McIntosh speaker amps: Creamy, thick, warm in the mid bass, rolled-off treble, hazy, rumbly. Much of this comes from the transformers rather than the tubes per se, but many people think of this vintage profile when they say tubey.
- Modern tubey typically means elevated harmonics/resonance. When implemented well it results in a more expansive and encompassing 3D soundstage. Tube harmonics range from just a faint clean shimmer to ultra-vibrato (especially old-school designs). Amps with audible/dominating harmonics are often described as “wet” (versus dry/clean).
- Some tube amps turn the gain up and force the tubes into overdrive. This makes everything sound like fuzzy retro rock-n-roll. Listen to Peggy Lee’s “Fever,” Elle King’s “Ex’s and Oh’s,” and most everything from Adele for vocals affected by tube overdrive. It adds sizzle and zing and…makes female vocalists seem tough or powerful…
- Some tube amps have random gain, balance, or timing issues and sound like trash. Some of these amps cost $20K or more. They don’t image well and can be very harsh. Beware of elderly vendors. Seriously. Many audiophile systems sound terrible to younger ears.
To my ears smoothness and warmth don’t depend on tubes per se, but on high quality transformers and adequate current delivery. The old Class A design makes everything sound better. Many solid state amps sound thin and clinical because they too have cheap or poorly designed transformers.
Oh, test with a clean and technical DAC and neutral to bright headphones. You won’t be able to hear much if the details are covered with thickness.
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It’s an overused term to describe the “wet” midrange forwards audible harmonics sound a lot of cheap/old/bad (pick your term) tube amps have. Some people like this sound, some amps are specifically tuned to achieve it, and for a certain class of source material, it can be quite engaging, but it’s not generally my preference.
IMO the best tube amps have none of that and generally the more linear they are the better they sound, I look at tubes as just another way to amplify, there are tradeoffs, better linearity than SS devices being one, that allows reduction in feedback for the same distortion in the output. We can argue the audible effects of feedback in an amplifier design, it won’t show up on a frequency sweep. On the other side good output transformers are large heavy and VERY expensive, and still have limited bandwidth compared to a SS output circuit.
There are plenty of tube amps most people wouldn’t know were tube amps in a blind test, but I will say all my favorite sounding amps have tubes in them, and I’m not someone who buys tube amps because of the tubey sound.
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