HEADPHONES SUCK!

In this video, I explain in detail, why over-ear headphones are terrible.

#audiophile #headphones

[barbasour]

that explains why I don't use all my high end headphones anymore. they are somewhat "off". I don't love ER2SE. I need it

[platotle]

Watching niche YouTube audiophile drama is like watching the purest, most distilled and abstracted form of autism.

[MTheoOA]

the most avant garde conclusion possible for a few bunch of articles which have multiple interpretations. All the memes and everything, but take care to not feel regret attacking real people and even being wrong and having people taking you this seriously. But please, comment and give a heart to your own comment pls man, GL

[xnoreq]

What seemingly 99% of headphone audiophiles are completely missing is that crossfeed or more advanced HRTF processing is necessary to make music mixed for speakers sound natural on headphones. I've been using both for many years.

Imagine a hard-panned instrument in the left channel. With speakers you will also hear it in the right ear, though with some time delay and attenuation especially at higher frequencies. This allows you to localize that instrument 30° to the left and outside of your head (where the left speaker is located).

But with headphones you'll only hear it in your left ear. Note how in nature this only occurs when someone is *whispering* into your left ear. So it will sound completely unnatural.
No, IEMs do not fix that. Crossfeeding is the simple solution to that problem.

[carminedesanto]

If you want “good or great” stereo imaging and soundstage ..you gotta go with a properly set up stereo speaker/ room / listening position.
There’s no substitute nor free lunch.

[justino]

1:27 and still people sometimes prefer listening to over ear headphones cause they dont think of all this kind of perfections it just sounds good and fun for them even tho is not the most realistic thing and a lot of the headphones you bash actually measure pretty good. Maybe not the most resolving or perfect stuff in other aspects like detail, or imaging maybe even resolution but at least tonality wise they are just solid a lot of them at their price point.
And ive bet there is still people that would consider them to have good detail. Without comparing them to iems. I also dont think you need the whole spectrum to measure headphones with a gras measurements you pretty much have enough information still.

1:38 not to mention also over ears are more close to how you naturally hear iems are not cause they go directly in your ear canal it has less colorations.

[Spyre_aint_it]

Have you tried the k712? The imaging is very precise on that headphone.

[theodoro]

Do you like speakers or you only like things that go deep inside your ears?

[christianblais]

Got the ER2SE today (admittly influenced by your reviews). Satisfied with the sound signature but only by using the big grey 3-flange tips that I already had, which reveal the bass more easily without raping my ears (like the smallest translucid ones did).

[camelpuncher]

The graphs show variation based on direction btw. You make it seem like they just randomly vary which is not the case. Assuming you have proper placement of the cups, you'll get consistent response. Although definitely more inconsistent than what you'll get with IEMs.

[cement_gaming]

few months ago i've watched your videos and thought that you're nuts. now after some time i'm back and the more videos i watch the more i agree with you. i really appreciate your objective approach, knowledge and yeah i'm going to buy ER2SE right now. to be honest i am kind of worried about the sudden change of sound i'm going for. i currently use DT 770 80hm simply because i really enjoy music with emphasis on bass and according to "audiophile" community it's one of the best bass focused headphones. hopefully this ER2SE (if inserted deep) can be worn for 8+ hours.

[MerseYattle]

yo sup, my only experience with iem are the old sony mdr-ex52 from way back (mobile use only), i recently tried them on my pc and was surprised how they hold up against the sony mdr-1a here (closed, over ear, velour pad mod)
what i dont like about the ex52 is how they hang out a bit its not tight enough, the fit inside the ear is ok though, do you consider it would be good for me to try out those newer type of iem's that come with that thingy that goes into the outside ear for a better fit? because i try to upgrade my over ears here but nothing turns out to be even remotely making sense at best its a sidegrade, i know you like those ER2SE but they look similar in design to the mentioned old ones i have just longer, i dont think i would like this deep into the ear canal, so are there other recommendations or is the deep insert part of the rec. due to sound etc anyways cheers

[christianblais]

REALITY >>> ~lost of information~ >>> RECORDING >>> [STUDIO ENGINEER: listens to the recording] OR [AUDIOPHILE: tries to compensate for the recording flaws in hope to recreate reality]

[DEALUX]

I don't know that this is completely accurate. I generally agree with the sentiment but I haven't demoed enough headphones to know that they share this flaw in regards to imaging and timbre. Where most headphones tend to fall apart (due to resonances) is the treble to upper treble regions which does in fact lead to disjointed imaging. Etymotic IEMs are kinda weird in a way, they're like a scientific tool that shows you how good things could be. I mean imagine that kind of smooth treble response in a full size headphone. Has that been achieved? I'm not sure. I have yet to hear any STAX, or the Susvara, or the HE-1, which I'm told have good treble responses. But then again, people say that about the HD800 as well, and that headphone is one that I've used myself and it does not image all that well.

I actually think the DT 990 and 880 have better imaging than the HD800 (it's more suited for binaural, treble timbre seems more realistic) but there's an obvious masking effect caused by those insane treble peaks. And the front dampening foam is softening the sharpness of the highs at the same time (Beyer stuff doesn't sound truly open back to me with the front dampening, but without it your ears will start bleeding).

[Maxxa]

This is actually a double edged sword perspective.
Although the it is True, you gain the perspective of an ear chamber or "headphone" sound, the positive fact, is that you totally avoid the room reflective sound, or the room size and sound.
So basically, headphones are still better than loudspeakers, especially the best open headphones, which remove much of the ear-chamber localization.
You end up with a uniformity of how each headphones sound, over the disjointed mess of loudspeakers sounding different in all cases with countless different room sounds even with same speakers used.
Speakers, by nature, will never have a uniformity of sound, as they rely on room acoustics, which will always vary.

[yannisgk]

what's your opinion about airpods max vs other over-ear headphones?

[DEALUX]

I kinda really want to buy the DT 880 lol. I actually quite liked the 990 600 ohm. Build quality was quite nice, perhaps above Sennheiser and AKG, but I'm not sure that I like these semi-open headphones that much.

[In-Marty-We-Trust]

Next video, do a video on how live bands and orchestras suck compared to the Ety ER2SE. 😂😜

[thehound]

Great informative content, keep going 👍

[johnepps]

My take: for any binaural recording or any recording meant to reproduce the sound and space of the location of the microphones used to record the music IEMs are unquestionably superior - however in recordings that have been mixed and mastered in studio to reproduce the sound of individual instruments and voices layered in and placed at different volumes on each channel to give the illusion of location - it can be beneficial to have a kind of "imaging" or perceived locating of the directions of the sounds dictated by the physical design of the headphone itself. A bad example of this would be a closed back like the HD820 that "locates" the music in a echoey chamber due to where the sound waves are bouncing with some frequencies being absorbed better than others. A good example would be the HIFiman Arya (not saying anything else they make is good by the way 😜 ) which adds an interpretation or manipulation to tracks that don't have much expansiveness due to dull studio recording that many hear as expansive or "live." Again - a binaural recording will sound really bad on an over ear headphone like the Arya that is in a way "creating" imaging not reproducing it accurately.

For my case it's fun to have the trick and good to have the straightforward IEMs as well. It depends on what I want out of the listening at the time.