![]() ![]() ![]() One person’s welcome “detail” is another person’s dreaded “harshness”, and we clearly aren’t all chasing the same result. That sort of granular thinking is great for click-bait web reviews or audio-forum arguments, but here in the real world, we know that different listeners value different things. I do want to clarify that this is most certainly not a “shootout” type comparison where we end up with a ranked list of absolute winners and losers. It therefore might make more sense to throw all our eggs into one dedicated single-purpose basket, instead of duplicating efforts on features that may not be used very often. The target market in this space likely already owns or has their eye on, a quality stand-alone amplifier, whether it be for headphones or speakers. That said, assembling a system using a US$2000 DAC likely also involves some rather high-end headphones (and/or speakers), an equally nice transport, aftermarket cables, etc. Those still make a lot of sense in many situations, and I have not wavered in my enjoyment of those multi-purpose machines. Readers have no doubt heard me opine about my love for integrated units which handle D/A conversion, headphone amplification, preamplification, and even network streaming. In addition, I also wanted to focus on stand-alone DACs which stick to a single purpose. ![]() Competition here is extremely fierce, and all that pressure tends to produce some diamonds. Products in this category have left the “budget” zone and thus have more breathing room for quality parts and construction, yet must still rely on clever engineering solutions if they have any hope of standing out amongst the crowd. Gear in that range tends to give listeners compelling performance without being so pricey as to become out of reach. Is the review headphone similarly challenging, or more/less so? These comparisons (and many others) give us vital context to help calibrate the author’s perspective against our own.įor this article, I wanted to explore the dedicated DAC space around the US$2,000 mark. How does the headphone under review compare to that established product? Moving on to amplification requirements, HiFiMAN’s Susvara is infamously the most demanding option on the market. The well-known Sennheiser HD800, for example, is notorious for having just that sort of signature. That’s a reasonable conclusion, and it gives me a general idea of what to expect from the headphone being evaluated.īut in order to take things to the next level, it would help tremendously to understand where this headphone sits in comparison to other options. Let’s say their ultimate conclusion is that the headphone has exceptional clarity but also sounds a bit thin and tipped up, and requires very powerful amplification to properly drive. They tell me all about what they hear, using musical examples when appropriate, or whatever it takes to paint a vivid picture of the sonic landscape. When reading a review of a headphone I have yet to experience, it’s great if the author goes into detail about the sound signature. I certainly still want those descriptions, but the comparison is often the key metric by which I decode the opinion of a given reviewer. Comparisons give us context which other descriptions – as eloquent as they may be – lack the ability to convey in isolation. In my humble opinion, they are critical in helping others understand the sound of a device under review. ![]()
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