Most Reference Sounding Headphone

you mean their soy, right? make their soy better? LoooL!!!

So we just one talk about Taco Bell. Form Headphones - Food I love this forum, but seriously headphone opinions?

Isn’t reference a term used to describe a headphone you are very familiar with and (best case scenario) a headphone that others are also familiar with to help describe sound and draw comparisons to when reviewing or assessing a new hew headphone?

Reference in like u hear what what the artist hears I guess.

Like an ndh20 on thx 789 (that’s what @ZeosPantera would say)

:no_good_man::no_good_man::no_good_man:

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I said thx and your spidey sense went off :joy:

But op I’m not sure as I dont have headphones like that… I think maybe what you’re looking for is something uncolored :man_shrugging:

Just thx and reference really don’t correlate imo lol. Unless you want a reference of a product that prioritizes numbers over sound lol

What would u say other then thx

In what price range?

List some at different price point example 200, 500, 750, 1000, 1000, 1500, 2000+

I mean the other thing is that it depends on the headphones, there are some amps that sound great with some and bad with others, so I would say you would want to have pairings

lol probably not even that, paper more likely

To me reference means a headphone that comes out thats so good it becomes a pinnacle of the hobby. everyone gets it cause its so good and then we reference it when talking about other headphones. therefore - reference.

THX is a reference. it came out and everyone was so blown away buy it they recommended it and a lot of people buy it. so we can reference it when talking about other amps and we do.

But lets say for instance i love my Elex. i paid 600$ for it and i’m kinda proud i was able to afford it and its so good. The company it comes from is the best. but lets say some fly by night company pops up and comes out with their own headphone, the ā€œXeleā€, and they sell it for 200$ and its just as good as the Elex. and everyone buys it and talks about how great it is and your stuck looking at your Elex and thinking ā€œgod damn them!ā€ Thats Mon, a bitter old man. =P

I got it too. Even the 4 star restaurants were Taco Bell. That’s a world class way to fit a paid product placement into a story.

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That’s one way of thinking about it, I’m thinking more of a reference in sound quality

It’s moreso that I would argue that something like the archel 2.5 pro or asgard 3 outperforms thx in actual sound, for a lower price, I just personally have a hard time finding a place for thx in my mind, but it’s moreso the stigma that thx ingrained into people that irks me

Maybe the AKG371.

And it follows the Harman curve.

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Why do you think the asgard 3 out performs the thx amp?

So here is the thing, the amp sounds more natural in presentation imo. The thx is a fair bit analytical and detail forward, which makes it unnatural. It also doesn’t recreate space as well as other amps. Overall I would say that the asgard 3 is able to recreate things with more naturalness. If you enjoy a fairly analytical amp the thx isn’t a bad option, but if you wanted something more natural/neutral sounding something like a archel 2.5 pro would be a better choice imo. I just think it’s worth skipping the thx lineup and instead saving for something like a rupert neve rnhp or higher end amp, or sticking with the heresy/2.5 pro/asgard 3 etc

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THX provide a lot of cheap clean power.
But they really aren’t the greatest sounding Amps in most circumstances, and almost no one needs 6W’s for headphones.
I know of at least one speaker amp that puts out less than that.
A HD600 has an efficiency of 100dB’s/mW. So there are ā€œbetterā€ sounding amps for the price, with adequate power.

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