- Thread Starter
- #21
Could be that you are chasing a non-existing ideal with that "target of neutrality". At least not with the current tech/knowledge.It probably depends on what you are looking for, aye.
I always wanted neutral gear as a baseline (and it happens to be what I like in my sound as well).
I was never looking for sth. "brighter than my current one" or "darker than what I have" because that can be achieved via EQ.
For me, videos like these do not answer the question whether the demonstrated headphone is closer to the target of neutrality or not.
First of all, the best you can get nowadays in terms of "is this HP neutral" is a FR comparison with a neutral-curve like Harman's. But even if we assume that Harman's curve is neutral, it may or may not apply to your ears. Any such curve is just an average and the shape of your ears may or may not be inside that average. To fix that, you'll need a precise HRTF compensation for your own ears. And it gets quite complex from there because the inside of your ears, your brain, etc also play a role and may or may not be "average" and surely aren't neutral.
Long story short, truly neutral HPs do not and may never exist. But you can still chase an 'ideal' best-HP-for-me!
And that's where those comparisons help. Do an original-track vs recorded-with-hp-X comparison and you get the difference between hp-X and your current HP. Since you know how your HP sounds, you'll know if hp-X would be better or worse *for you*. That should be a very useful and a huge step in the right direction. Or as @Frank Dernie did put it, "a billion times more useful than nothing"