Recently I returned to headphone reddit/forums for recommendations and everyone only recommends around 150 euro chi-fi and say that this and that measures well or don’t get this because apple dongle measures better. Before people used to give opinions about gear describing the way it sounds and not linking measurements. For example on r/HeadphoneAdvice I asked multiple times for recommendations of Amp/Dac combo in 1000 euro price range and all people recommend now is Topping X30, Atom and Schiit stack because (here is a link how it measures) and all DACs sound the same and if they dont they suck, people that say that didn’t even try the gear they recommend and didn’t compare it to something better most of the time. I remember the previous metas of “FLAC sounds the same as 320kbs mp3”, Chi fi hype trains, “All Amps and DACs sound the same”, Hi-Fi is 1000$ + gear only and now this “Only measurements matter” BS that frustrates me the most.
With that said, you will likely enjoy Zeos YouTube channel of reviewing headphones and equipment. He pays little mind to measurements and graphs. He speaks mostly on how things sound, build quality and “quirks and features” of what he has.
I quite enjoy the videos, even on products I may never buy.
It seems to be something that everyone in this forum is annoyed with lol. It’s like the measurement geeks are so fucking ridiculous. Or at least the way they interpret the measurments is just silly. The problem with knowledge without experience is that you never learn true wisdom where you find the more nuanced meanings of things.
Experience with different dacs and amps pretty much overrides the whole measurement narrative, but it requires experience and not everyone is gonna get out of that thinking. All of the dacs, amps, daps I have, have provided some difference minor or major to what I’m hearing through any of my headphones. And yet I’m supposed to believe somehow there’s no difference whatsoever? It’s a bunch of fucking nonsense.
Measurements are good, but only if you know what they mean to you. No use fretting over flaws that are inaudible to the human ear, but there is also valid reason not to buy an external DAC that would perform worse than a soundcard, unobtanium cable with more noise than stock, etc.