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Anyone else use rtings as part of researching headphones?

devopsprodude

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Last week I finally got fed up with the just overall meh sound of my Sony WH-1000XM3 ANC headphones. They are comfortable, have excellent ANC, and are good for Zoom calls, but the sound when listening to music is just muddy and underwhelming. So I started doing research. I follow Sean Olive a bit and used https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/blob/master/results/RANKING.md as one guide and based on Sean's recommendations, starting using rtings.com.

Initially I was wanting closed back cans for the isolation and improved bass, but I've already been down that road with the OPPO PM-3 headphones, which are quite good, so I decided instead to focus on soundstage and overall sound quality. Triangulating based on the Harman curve list and soundstage/sound quality/comfort ratings on rtings.com I eventually settled on the Hifiman Sundara headphones. I'm glad to say that I was not disappointed. They aren't super great in the bass department as reported by rtings.com, but soundstage is pretty frickin' amazing as is overall sound quality. Plus they are very comfortable. And this is using headphone jack from Macbook Pro (Schiit Modius and Magnius won't arrive for another 3 weeks or so) with Spotify at highest quality setting. By the way, this playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWZtZ8vUCzche is indeed very good for checking out how your headphones perform.

Anywho, long story short, TL;DR version, I found rtings.com to be pretty accurate in their headphone assessments and was wondering if others have found the same. And yes, I know that Amir has done some reviews like of the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pros that contradicts rtings to some extent. I however found the site to be extremely invaluable in selecting headphones that fit the parameters I was looking for.
 
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devopsprodude

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And yes, I'm aware that I could have gone with the Heresy/Modi 3+ stack instead of the Magnius/Modius stack, but I bought headphones that could do balanced, so figured I'd give it a try. Not everything has to be hyper rational as long as we're up front with our intent. I did it because I could, not because it made the most sense. Same reason why I went a bit more expensive with the headphones. I could have tried something like AKG 702s, but decided to try another route.
 

brimble

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I think there's a lot to like about rtings.com, but I think they have one huge problem: by foregrounding their "best of" lists, they encourage you to try to use their site in isolation (pun not intended), as if they've tested all the contenders in each category, and as if they've considered all the relevant variables. I realise that this is a criticism of their superficial presentation rather than the substance of their reviews, but I think it's very important.
 
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devopsprodude

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I think there's a lot to like about rtings.com, but I think they have one huge problem: by foregrounding their "best of" lists, they encourage you to try to use their site in isolation (pun not intended), as if they've tested all the contenders in each category, and as if they've considered all the relevant variables. I realise that this is a criticism of their superficial presentation rather than the substance of their reviews, but I think it's very important.
Yeah, Amazon tries to do the same thing and I generally ignore it. It's definitely nice when you have more than one trusted source for data points.
 

amirm

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I think there's a lot to like about rtings.com, but I think they have one huge problem: by foregrounding their "best of" lists, they encourage you to try to use their site in isolation (pun not intended), as if they've tested all the contenders in each category, and as if they've considered all the relevant variables. I realise that this is a criticism of their superficial presentation rather than the substance of their reviews, but I think it's very important.
Yes, I fell for the same thing when I went to search what to buy for testing last summer.
 

valerianf

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I read RTING reviews before buying my headphone, computer monitor and TV.
I love this website because I can find what I am looking for.
The tests are detailed.
I do not follow their ranking but pick up the tests that I am interested in and make my own ranking.
It is sad that they do not test receivers and speakers.
 

Sean Olive

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Last week I finally got fed up with the just overall meh sound of my Sony WH-1000XM3 ANC headphones. They are comfortable, have excellent ANC, and are good for Zoom calls, but the sound when listening to music is just muddy and underwhelming. So I started doing research. I follow Sean Olive a bit and used https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/blob/master/results/RANKING.md as one guide and based on Sean's recommendations, starting using rtings.com.

Initially I was wanting closed back cans for the isolation and improved bass, but I've already been down that road with the OPPO PM-3 headphones, which are quite good, so I decided instead to focus on soundstage and overall sound quality. Triangulating based on the Harman curve list and soundstage/sound quality/comfort ratings on rtings.com I eventually settled on the Hifiman Sundara headphones. I'm glad to say that I was not disappointed. They aren't super great in the bass department as reported by rtings.com, but soundstage is pretty frickin' amazing as is overall sound quality. Plus they are very comfortable. And this is using headphone jack from Macbook Pro (Schiit Modius and Magnius won't arrive for another 3 weeks or so) with Spotify at highest quality setting. By the way, this playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWZtZ8vUCzche is indeed very good for checking out how your headphones perform.

Anywho, long story short, TL;DR version, I found rtings.com to be pretty accurate in their headphone assessments and was wondering if others have found the same. And yes, I know that Amir has done some reviews like of the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pros that contradicts rtings to some extent. I however found the site to be extremely invaluable in selecting headphones that fit the parameters I was looking for.

It is possible to generate the same Spotify list you link above for TIdal? I don't have a Spotify account to import it..so I don't know any other way besides rebuilding it manually. THanks
 

Sean Olive

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I think there's a lot to like about rtings.com, but I think they have one huge problem: by foregrounding their "best of" lists, they encourage you to try to use their site in isolation (pun not intended), as if they've tested all the contenders in each category, and as if they've considered all the relevant variables. I realise that this is a criticism of their superficial presentation rather than the substance of their reviews, but I think it's very important.


A couple of years ago, we wrote an AES paper "A Survey and Analysis of Consumer and Professional Headphones Based on Their Objective and Subjective Performances" and I looked at predicted preference scores of headphones that both we and various review sites had given sound quality scores.

The correlations were pretty low Rtings was only around r = 0.5 for ratings given to FR and sound quality. Now, I'm not sure if those ratings were calculated after they adopted the Harman Target completely or before. How they calculate their ratings are different from us, and they use a different test rig than we do. But still I wish the correlations were higher.


https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=19774
 

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devopsprodude

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It is possible to generate the same Spotify list you link above for TIdal? I don't have a Spotify account to import it..so I don't know any other way besides rebuilding it manually. THanks
Sure, but it sounds great on Spotify, so why would I do that? :D Joking aside, if you have an account on both you can use tools like Soundiiz https://tidal.com/import-playlist
 

Sean Olive

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Sure, but it sounds great on Spotify, so why would I do that? :D Joking aside, if you have an account on both you can use tools like Soundiiz https://tidal.com/import-playlist
Yeah I tried that but it required me to know the username and PW of my daughter's Spotify account. When she wakes up at 3 PM I will get her to help me :)

I wish there was a function on Tidal where you just give it a Spotify Playlist and it can create a Tidal version without having a Spotify account.
 
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devopsprodude

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A couple of years ago, we wrote an AES paper "A Survey and Analysis of Consumer and Professional Headphones Based on Their Objective and Subjective Performances" and I looked at predicted preference scores of headphones that both we and various review sites had given sound quality scores.

The correlations were pretty low Rtings was only around r = 0.5 for ratings given to FR and sound quality. Now, I'm not sure if those ratings were calculated after they adopted the Harman Target completely or before. How they calculate their ratings are different from us, and they use a different test rig than we do. But still I wish the correlations were higher.


https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=19774
Yes, there's only some level of correlation between their ratings and Harman curve scores, but I used both in determining what to buy. Assuming that the github list I used is accurate.
 
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devopsprodude

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Yeah I tried that but it required me to know the username and PW of my daughter's Spotify account. When she wakes up at 3 PM I will get her to help me :)

I wish there was a function on Tidal where you just give it a Spotify Playlist and it can create a Tidal version without having a Spotify account.
By the way, since it's not obvious, although you'll eventually see my Facebook message, this is Alex Scoble. If it helps any, the AKG K702s were my 2nd choice. :D
 
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pozz

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Jimbob54

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It is possible to generate the same Spotify list you link above for TIdal? I don't have a Spotify account to import it..so I don't know any other way besides rebuilding it manually. THanks
I think if I follow that playlist I can use soundiiz to sync to tidal then share the tidal list. Will try in the morning (UK)
 

Jimbob54

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Yeah I tried that but it required me to know the username and PW of my daughter's Spotify account. When she wakes up at 3 PM I will get her to help me :)

I wish there was a function on Tidal where you just give it a Spotify Playlist and it can create a Tidal version without having a Spotify account.

PM you the link
 

oldmate

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For Headphones no but when I was looking for a new 4K TV yes. I do sometimes compare frequency responses between 2 headphones though - that can be handy.
 
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