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by astrange 1101 days ago
Objective headphone reviews are only valid in the same setting, which means if your room sounds different, your head is shaped different, or you're wearing glasses they stop being true.

Noise cancelling headphones and IEMs are better than reviews make it sound due to this.
1 comments
spurgu 1101 days ago
> Objective headphone reviews are only valid in the same setting, which means if your room sounds different, your head is shaped different, or you're wearing glasses they stop being true.

I get this with speakers but how are any of these valid with headphones?

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yetanotherloser 1101 days ago
Hang on a moment. Headphones can be the best in the world but uncomfortable on my wonky head or incompatible with my glasses and they're worthless to me personally, so I'll give him a pass on that. I have some not-audiophile-but-better-than-meh headphones I rate very highly because they're nicely made and super comfortable; they sound good but that would count for zero if they didn't feel nice.

Room acoustics, though, ought not be very important with headphones unless I'm missing something...

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astrange 1101 days ago
If you're in a noisy room then open-back unisolating headphones are not "more accurate" than closed ones, because you can't hear the audio.
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hug 1101 days ago
The room you're in has no bearing on headphones, except perhaps for the background noise.

Having a wonky head, however, may affect the seal of the pads against your head, or the headphones may clamp too much or not enough, or the cups might be oddly angled, all of which may affect the sound somewhat.

Same with ear shape versus driver placement. If you have shallow or deep pinnae, that may make a difference depending on the relative location of the driver.

Almost all spatial audio is built around a head related transfer function, which attempts to model all sorts of things, like how much sound reflects off your shoulders and other such things, although those questions are usually considerations more for DSP than they are for the tuning of the headphones themselves -- in cases like the Airpods Pro & Max, though, those two things may be one and the same.

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astrange 1101 days ago
You don't get bass or spatial imaging if they don't fit on your head. Glasses are enough to break the seal.
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