| It is no different from other products. There are people who do subjective reviews, and others who put some science in it. Although, as far as I understand, headphones are both quite simple in engineering and complex with the task they try to handle. Every person's audio perception is unique and depends on unique anatomy and unique experience (brain calculations). So it is quite difficult to normalize every data we can measure. Still, some are trying to do it. E.g. http://rtings.com/ - authors develop their methodology to take into account all relevant measurements, and explain their function http://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/ - author does a measurement based subjective analysis of overall audio experience. Sometimes directly comparing rivals in relevant aspects. https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990 - based on research from Harman R&D, measure and develops equalisation parameters for popular headphones, as well as, their weighted score (deviation from target) The research is quite interesting in itself when addressing you statement, because it develops a statistical model of preference for audio reproduction by average human. Of course, it is not a silver bullet equal for all but many agree they enjoy headphones with "target" frequency response more. |