I'm not replying to anybody in particular here, but going to the thread... Personally, I enjoy reading different peoples opinions here and I wish that can stay. I do believe that most people here are real enthusiast about high fidelity and really do listen. Yes taste vary but there's more to it than that. I'll give you an example, without stating models or brands, to not stir a debate but more to illustrate my point, we can dismiss someone's opinion because lack of objective data. How about this one, my old headphone was headphone X. I purchased headphone Y. It's the first time I can distinguish clearly all the brass section partition in Bowie's Rock and Roll Suicide. Trumpet, Trombone, Baritone and Tenor saxes. Is it a random unquantifiable assessment? totally. Is it controlled conditions? nope, would it show on measurments? hard to tell, but does it means that headphone Y perform better than headphone X? Well as listening tests go, it's as objective as they get. Binary, I was hearing a vague brass ensemble, now I know which instrument plays which notes. Unbiased, never heard it before, I couldn't possibly know what to expect. Headphone Y might not be better in ALL aspects, but Objectively it does THAT better. at least with a determined data and electronic chain upstream. What I'm trying to say is, we should chill out a bit about "your finding don't have values, it's uncontrolled conditions, you don't have the experience, the right vocabulary, therefore it's just woo". I think we can grow and learn from everyones experience, not just Amir's.
I'll give you a second example. The Focal Clear, reviewed here, came trough as a not recommended headphone, If we read the review, it's mainly about a design flaw which can cause the driver to clip under certain conditions. Fair enough. I don't own the Clear, but the Elex is my main driver and it's well documented that it has the same mechanical characteristic, and same issue. The truth is ME, PERSONALLY, I have NEVER experienced it in normal usage. When searching for it, yes, I was able to reproduce it, am I saying that it's not a flaw? no, it is, but in my usage, it doesn't matter at all since it doesn't ever disrupt my experience, maybe because I listen to lower volume, maybe the equipment upstream, maybe my choice of music (and I do listen to a lot of electronic synthetically generated basses by the way). What it says is this criteria, which is indeed objective, don't have the same value for me than it does for him. For him it's a no go, don't buy it, for me it's something that never occurs. What it says is, we need to put things in context, and read between the line in reviews and not swallow everything as Gospel. If you don't do this and take every sentences word for word, You may be led to think, by reading a review, that the 10$ Sony headphone reviewed lately, with EQ, sounds just as good as a Focal Clear. That would be false by any stretch of imagination, objectively and subjectively.