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The most overrated and underrated headphone you tried?

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yuki980e

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Aug 3, 2019
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Overrated: Sony XBA N1 & N40 AKG, never understood the hybrid hype. Coherency is not there on metal/electronic you can tell the dynamic is doing stuff that don't suit the BA's highs. Multi BA's sound way better even with bass drivers that are only 5mm(SE425)

Underrated: Shure SE425, Yeah its a 2 BA IEM but after trying the ER4SR. It 95% close to the ER4 netural wise but never gotten a good fit.

Was gonna add the ER4PT as a joke, but i might do it anyways since with the right bass boost(+4db & DAC bass switch) they can give near basshead bass without killing the mids/highs. Which made me question the wither adding more drivers work or not, Also a IEM example big drivers don't mean good bass. Since there quite few <40mm headphones with deep and big bass.
 
I have seen rave reviews about complete crap devices and thrashing of excellent gear ... and vise versa.
What is overrated or underrated is purely in the eyes of the beholder.
For every product I know there are those that love it and those that have little to no affinity it.
That does not seem to be related to price either.
It seems more like a personal taste thing or brand loyalty.

I think every headphone has its fans (they might overrate it) and those that find it meh (they underrate it)
There are those that see the value in a product and those that don't.

There are gems and awful products found in each price class.

So each person that tried a number of comparable products but not all products may have a personal underrated or overrated product but that does not mean these products actually are over- or under-rated.
 
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solderdude said:
What is overrated or underrated is purely in the eyes of the beholder.
For every product I know there are those that love it and those that have little to no affinity it.
That does not seem to be related to price either.
It seems more like a personal taste thing or brand loyalty.

I think every headphone has its fans (they might overrate it) and those that find it meh (they underrate it)
There are those that see the value in a product and those that don't.

There are gems and awful products found in each price class.

So each person that tried a number of comparable products but not all products may have a personal underrated or overrated product.
Click to expand...
I say old chap. That's awfully close to an endorsement of subjectivity for this forum.:D
 
Over-rated: Campfire Andromeda - sound quality is "meh", ergonomics and electrical aspects are "WTF?"

Under-rated: FLC 8s - great sound, flexibility of filter system, and comfort.
 
dc655321 said:
Over-rated: Campfire Andromeda - sound quality is "meh", ergonomics and electrical aspects are "WTF?"
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Not to mention outdated with the ER4XR and newer dual/triple BA IEM's out.
 
q3cpma said:
I'd say the Beyerdynamic's DT250. It's a very comfy, pretty cheap, robust and quite neutral model that's almost unknown compared to the other Beyers (especially the DT770).
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I would also add the DT150 but using the velour pads of the DT100. A very neutral headphone.
 
The Etymotic ER4 SR is superb, and punches well above its price in SQ terms. The deep insertion fit isn't for every one though.
 
I recently got to demo the Audeez LCD4 on my THX 789 and Cayin HA300, boy were these a 4k disapointment, my M1060 that have been modded slightly sounded much better to me and the owner of the LCD4.
 
This is not going to be a crowd-pleaser!

Under-rated: Bose QC 35 II

Over-rated: Beyer DT-990
 
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StevenEleven said:
This is not going to be a crowd-pleaser!

Under-rated: Bose QC 35 Ii

Over-rated: Beyer DT-990
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Agree that the DT-990 is over-rated. I am not sure whether the Bose is under-rated though. I have the QC25 and except for a bit low energy in the highs, I think the Bose QC series has been quite highly regarded.
 
DT990 were one of the highest scoring headphones in Harman blind tests. Untrained listeners rated them even higher than the Harman target.

While DT150 and DT250 are pretty good sounding headphones, both models suffer from serious channel mismatch problems. DT150 pads also have coupling problems which can result in lack of lower frequencies.
 
Erik said:
DT990 were one of the highest scoring headphones in Harman blind tests. Untrained listeners rated them even higher than the Harman target.

While DT150 and DT250 are pretty good sounding headphones, both models suffer from serious channel mismatch problems. DT150 pads also have coupling problems which can result in lack of lower frequencies.
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That was suprising. I was part of a test in the Swedish Audio Society (LTS) with > 30 headphones and the panel verdicts were very consistent in ratings between individuals. DT-990 did not fair well. Eleveted highs and midbass. The DT150 did not fair well either with its boosted bass. But that was with original pads. HD600, AKG K271 Studio and some Stax got the best. Stax were however a bit distorted in the low bass. Unfortunately the AKGs later 271 models suffer from low bas and nasty resonance 7-10 kHz. I bought those and was very dissapointed.
 
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Thomas_A said:
That was suprising. I was part of a test in the Swedish Audio Society (LTS) with > 30 headphones and the panel verdicts were very consistent in ratings between individuals. DT-990 did not fair well. Eleveted highs and midbass. The DT150 did not fair well either with its boosted bass. But that was with original pads. HD600, AKG K271 Studio and some Stax got the best. Stax were however a bit distorted in the low bass. Unfortunately the AKGs later 271 models suffer from low bas and nasty resonance 7-10 kHz. I bought those and were very dissapointed.
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The difference in the recordings you used is a very important factor here. Maybe Harman test tracks had not much going on at the resonant peak the headphones have, or your test tracks had too much energy there. It would explain everything.
 
Erik said:
The difference in the recordings you used is a very important factor here. Maybe Harman test tracks had not much going on at the resonant peak the headphones have, or your test tracks had too much energy there. It would explain everything.
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We used various music tracks of high quality and those peaks and dips were easily detected. Nothing that was of excess energy in the HF region.
 
DDF said:
I agree. My DT250s had to go back, the left/right mismatch was so bad images wandered all over the head space
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For the DT250 I think there is a mod to fix the imbalance.The 150 suffer from too much bass but with pads allowing for more leakage such as the DT100 velour pads the bass is better. I find them excellent as closed cans.
 
I'm not sure how they are rated in general, so I don't know if I should consider them overrated, but I returned a pair of Beyerdynamic DT880 headphones (600 ohm version). They sounded muffled in the lower registers and there was a certain section of the treble that was nasty and brittle on piano recordings.

Eventually I settled on Grado SR80i. Not the most detailed, maybe, but they sound more natural to me, with no nagging defects.

I've been told that because everyone has differently-shaped ears and ear canals, each person will experience a given pair of headphones differently. Apparently this is particularly true of the closed-back variety, with the most pronounced differences in the bass. If true, following the headphone recommendations of others would seem a fairly futile enterprise.
 
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