Dedicated to Headphones and Earphones
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- Written by: Geoffrey Morrison
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A recent episode of the Audio Unleashed podcast touched on something important to audio enthusiasts of all kinds. Important enough that I felt it worth diving into a bit more here. If you haven’t heard of the Audio Unleashed podcast, it’s cohosted by my predecessor here at SoundStage! Solo, Brent Butterworth, and the editor of SoundStage! Access, Dennis Burger. The topic was AI, and if you’re Very Online like I am, I’m sure you’re tired of hearing those two letters even remotely near each other. More than a buzzword, AI has the possibility of changing the web in dramatic ways. None of them, in my opinion, good. But we’ll get to that. Where it’s going to directly affect you is the increasing potential that you’re going to stumble upon an AI-generated review, or even more likely, an AI-generated review aggregator. First, though, a quick primer.
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- Written by: Geoffrey Morrison
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It’s been six months since I took the reins of SoundStage! Solo from Brent Butterworth. While this is a small percentage of the total time I’ve been reviewing audio gear, it’s been an interesting stretch, with a much more intense focus on headphones. As such, I had a few random thoughts that I wanted to put down somewhere, none of which were worthy of a full article. So consider this a clip show from my first half-year here at Solo.
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- Written by: Geoffrey Morrison
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For a while now I’ve been noticing an increasing number of TV and movie scenes, as well as real-life instances, of people thinking headphones are magic. Specifically, that by wearing any type of headphones, they’re completely isolated from the rest of the world. A cone of silence so powerful that shouting, gunshots, and explosions can’t intrude on the wearer’s solitude. If only. Even if you play the music at dangerously high levels, you’re not totally isolated.
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- Written by: Geoffrey Morrison
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I’ve been reviewing headphones for a long time, and I’ve done quite a mix: in-ears, on-ears, over-ears, high end, low end. At one point or another, I’ve listened critically to every style of headphones at a huge range of price points.
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- Written by: Geoffrey Morrison
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A few weeks ago I reviewed the Audeze LCD-5s. They are, unquestionably, amazing headphones. Are they the best headphones I’ve ever heard? Honestly, I don’t know. Aural memory is a fickle thing, to be sure. I can only definitively say that compared to others I heard at the time, these were subjectively better.
Read more: Is There Such a Thing as a Perfect Pair of Headphones?
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- Written by: Geoffrey Morrison
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If you’ve ever watched a documentary about the making of an album, where they show behind-the-scenes footage of the band recording and mixing the music, there’s something you’re always going to see. It’s the same thing if you watch someone recording sound for a TV show or movie. Basically, anywhere a professional is listening back to something live or recorded, you’ll see it: they use the same pair of headphones.
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- The Endless Hassle of Connecting to In-Flight Entertainment
- In-Ear vs. Over-Ear for Travel
- Traveling as an Audiophile
- Greetings!
- A Fond Farewell
- When Is the Amp Important?
- Evaluating the Knowles Preferred Response Curve
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- The Problem with Hearing Correction in Headphones
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- The Big Mistake Many Headphone Makers Keep on Making
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- David Chesky’s New New Revolution in Headphone Sound
- Why You Shouldn’t Always Rely on Measurements
- The Shocking Truth About Truck-Stop Earphones
- Are There Valid Objections to the Harman Curve?
- Is It Possible for Headphones to Sound Fast? (Or Slow?)
- The Four Things that Recording an Album Taught Me About Audio
- What Playing Music Taught Me About Audio
- Voicing Headphones, Part 3: Campfire Audio's Ken Ball and 64 Audio’s Vitaliy Belonozhko
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- How Not to Go Deaf from Headphone Listening
- What’s the Future of High-End Headphones?
- How Audio Writers Are Killing the Audio Industry
- Why Buying High-Quality Headphones Is a More Responsible Purchase
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- The New Standard That Killed the Loudness War
- Headphones 2020: The Year in Review
- Three Cases Where Measurements Didn’t Work
- How Much Can We Really Tell From Listening?
- Balanced Armatures: Why You Might (or Might Not) Want Them
- The Coming Revolution in Headphone Sound Quality
- Can Accuracy in Music Reproduction Exist?
- The Biggest Lie in Audio
- Voicing Headphones, Part 2: HiFiMan’s Fang Bian and Focal’s Mégane Montabonel
- What Will the Next Generation of Headphones Be Like?
- How Far Have Headphones Come?
- Voicing Headphones, Part 1: PSB/NAD's Paul Barton and Dan Clark Audio's Dan Clark
- How Will Headphone Testing and Reviewing Change in the 2020s?
- What the AKG K371 Headphones Tell Us About "Slow Listening"
- Where Are We At With The Harman Curve?
- Why Headphone Amps Are More Interesting Than Speaker Amps
- 2019’s Most Important Headphone Presentation
- Noise Canceling Is Much More Complicated Than We Thought
- How Does Aging Affect Audio Perception?
- Noise-Canceling Headphones for 17 Cents?
- Is Chesky Dumping Binaural?
- Why My Fi Ain't Hi-Fi
- Latency: A New Concern for Audiophiles?
- How to Read Our Headphone Measurements
- Eardrum Suck: The Mystery Solved!
- Should Audio Gear be Considered Luxury Goods?
- Headphone Equalization Using Measurements
- Why Is It So Hard to Rate Headphones?
- Five Things Headphone Enthusiasts Get Right (and That the Two-Channel Guys Get Wrong)
- The Best Possible Way to Test Audio Products (and Why Most People Don't Do It)
- Will aptX Adaptive Improve Headphone Sound?
- Is the miniDSP EARS the Death of Headphone Measurement? Or its Savior?
- What Are Measurements Good For?
- How Much Noise Do Your Headphones Really Block?
- Why We're Launching "SoundStage! Solo"
Latest Comments
4 days ago
JBL Tour Pro 2 True Wireless Earphones
@Geoffrey MorrisonThank you. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm just clumsy. Earphones and their cases never seem ...
4 days ago
JBL Tour Pro 2 True Wireless Earphones
@ToddSeems pretty solid. I don't think it will scratch if the case is in your ...
5 days ago
JBL Tour Pro 2 True Wireless Earphones
How rugged is the screen? Does it scratch? Does it work if you drop? Will ...
17 days ago
Six Months In
@Brent Butterworth
The Lautsangers have received some very positive reviews from
people who have actually listened to ...
26 days ago
Six Months In
I'd love for you to get ears on anything by ETA Audio (Do you allow ...
Can someone tell me the size of the earpads for the MZX300? I need to ...
1 months ago
Six Months In
@Geoffrey MorrisonPLEASE review these. And please see if the manufacturer will provide an explanation of how ...
1 months ago
Six Months In
@Joe Werner It's a good question -- and something we're working on. When Brent departed, there was ...
1 months ago
Six Months In
When do you think you will start including headphone measurements with the reviews again?
1 months ago
Sony WH-1000XM5 Headphones
I have the Sony M 5. I like them fine. I not a fan of ...
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