This is the thread for discussing The Headphone Show’s tier list, as well as for users to share their own tier lists (using the Tiermaker site we made here).
Thanks for doing this enormous job (I watched chapters in the video I was interested in, bit not all of it).
As a recent purchaser of the HEDD D-1, I noted happily that two of the reviewers (Golden and Resolve) each found only one headphone that they rated higher (and their #1 choices differed). Listeners ratings were often quite divergent from the other two reviewers. Interrater reliability would be low here, which doesn't invalidate the ratings but makes them questionable as a guidance for prospective buyers.
How did two of the reviewers arrive at ratings including one or two decimal points? I mean, the ratings aren't intended to be an exact science, so such precise numbering seems puzzling to me.
I also rate D1 highly, but I admit the treble is a bit too forward for me. And yeah, we’re not looking to maximize “interrater reliability,” such a thing seems futile given what we know about interpersonal variation.
Re: decimal points, Cameron’s Sound score is not an average or calculation based on the scores in the other columns, it is simply his vibes based score of the overall sound for the headphone. For Andrew and I, it just came down to preference. I preferred to show more decimal places (rounding the weighted averages from my individual metric columns to 2 places) whereas Andrew seems content with one decimal place.
Differences in ratings don’t impact their value as guidance for prospective buyers.
Headphones sound different to different people and different people have different preferences.
Prospective buyers need to understand this when looking at ratings, and the first paragraph on the page tells people that the ratings are not intended to be universal.
With all due respect, your first two sentences contradict each other: How are the ratings valuable as guidance when “headphones sound different to different people”? Even assuming adequate amplification for every model, many factors affect the actual sound coming into our ears: Fit, clamp strength, whether we wear glasses, where the headphones are positioned on the ears, shape and size of the pinna, whether the listener has a lot of earwax, age of the pads, etc. Add our personal preferences for response curve and our hearing abilities into the mix. Considering all of these factors, I find it hard to rely on reviews except in the most general ways. I did enjoy the tier list, especially when I had my own impressions of some of those that were rated.
The ratings are valuable because they narrow the field of candidates, particularly when readers determine which reviewers have a similar preferences to their own.
It seems like you are expecting a rating or review to give a definitive statement that a specific person will like a specific headphone or iem, which is not the purpose of ratings.
Whew, was thinking about getting into headphones. Luckily these guys showed me they all suck. Save my money for worthwhile things!
Just because headphones have room to improve doesn’t mean there aren’t incredible experiences to be had.
I also think we wouldn’t say anything over a D-tier “sucks”, and that’s where most of the list is.
It’s fascinating to me how the discourse largely only makes allowance for outright glazing or outright shitting on products. Saying things are okay or good is simply not something people are willing to hold space for, for some reason.
I mean… you shouldn’t be surprised that this is the reaction. For most people, if something isn’t amazing, it’s awful. Obviously that’s a myopic view of it all, but people are often looking at these lists as a snapshot window into what to consider buying, so they just look to skim what’s at the top and then dip out. When nothing lands in the top tier, at least for consensus, you can see how that impulse of “it’s all shit” takes hold.
It’s not that I’m surprised, its just fascinating is all 
Great effort by the team to put this list together. It’s a great cheat sheet to shortlist headphones to buy at various price points.
for every person criticising the “scientific validity” of such a list there are 20 people ordering Hedd D1s which encourages the whole industry to up its game 
Thanks 
NickZ, if the same headphone sounds quite different to different pairs of ears (for the reasons I explained), then it would be a mistake to “narrow the field” based on reviewers’ opinions. Unless one is lucky to live near a brick-and-mortar store that carries lots of headphones, or is willing to order lots of candidates online and return them, the chances of a review picking out what sounds great to a specific user are IMHO slim.
I think I have expressed myself clearly and I don’t have anything else to add to this.
I will say I appreciate the work put in to create these ratings and I find them valuable.
You gents are fighting a lonely battle against grade inflation.
In all seriousness, it’s an entirely respectable thing to reset the curve as you’re doing in this video. And I say this as someone who largely can’t be arsed to use EQ (though that’s mainly because I don’t know of any way to do it with vinyl; it’s easy enough to do on a DAP).
I’ve gone back to the 2023 “GIANT” list I don’t know how many times. That one had a lot of consensus. There was hardly anything over which there was sharp divergence. The 2025 “MASSIVE” list has a lot more (polite) disagreement. Which is quite useful, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it makes clear each of us is welcome to like what he likes.
This list is more a ranking of the reviewers’ preferences than anything, with a couple of exceptions.
Thanks for this list. It’s a great resource to look at considering you guys have experience with a wide range of headphones. Any extra guidance out there is welcome.
Any idea if you’ll do a similar list for iems?
Isn’t it explicitly that?
It can’t be said enough though. Some people take it personally when their favourite headphones don’t get a high ranking and have a meltdown online.
For sure, and that’s kind of what I was alluding to above – given the extent of the disagreement over quite a few notable makes and models, anybody watching should feel welcome to disagree himself.