Yeah, you are most probably right. All these discussions about the distortion at 113dB SPL is irrelevant.
Could you please care to explain what are the objective measures you use evaluate headphones?
Every graph that is in the review. They are all generated by a machine and can be replicated. The machine doesn't care what brand it is, how much it costs, what it looks like, etc.
No, that is not responding to what I said.
The Susvara comes with very modest accessories, not remarkable built quality, has a very jagged frequency response which is not very Harman compliant, messy group delay, high level of distortion already at 104dB, which becomes even much higher at 114dB (frequent burst of music might attain this level, even if the average SPL is much lower), is very hard to drive and has a premium price. What else do you need to disqualify this headphone?
Of course.
Huh? We measure because we know what we are measuring. We have standards and references. When I show a graph like this:
I am really surprised by your response. Where did Expanse come from??Of course.
Huh? We measure because we know what we are measuring. We have standards and references. When I show a graph like this:
We know we are looking at design problems when other headphones show this:
I can readily and defensibly conclude that the Expanse is far better designed to keep distortion at bay compared to Susvara.
We also have a reference for frequency response and can explain deficiencies relative to that.
So once more, measurements are objective. What they tell us is also objective. They may not be normative/prescriptive but they are objective.
This is what separates my reviews from others. The cornerstone of my reviews are the measurements based on both research and engineering. With proper measurements, we get quite far in assessing performance of a headphone. Others use measurements as an afterthought or footnote.
I will answer this but then you need to move this generic discussion out of a review thread.
Degree of accuracy doesn't make a review subjective. Measuring something with a ruler or micrometer are both objective. Former simply has less accuracy than the latter.
Any conclusion or recommendation cannot be objective based on this. For example, it's impossible to be completely objective in not recommending something measured as trash, because there might be people who appreciate a specific kind of trash. By not recommending that you are being subjective, as it already reflects your personal preferences.
Headphones used to be an accessory, but during the last two decades audiophiles have started to take them seriously. Which usually means that the amount of audophile woo increases exponentially (likewise in computer audio).
The 400 is such a workhorse. It has good spatial qualities and with a bit of EQ, sounds excellent.
Let me help you.
