Above: The brands and models of six popular headphones used in this study.| Audio Musings by Sean Olive
The predicted sound quality of 61 different models of in-ear headphones (blue curve) versus their retail price (green bars).| Audio Musings by Sean Olive
Fig. 1 The Harman Headphone Virtualizer App allows listeners to make double-blind comparisons of different headphones through a high-quality replicator headphone. The app has two listening modes: a sighted mode (shown) and a blind mode (not shown) where listeners are not biased by non-auditory factors (brand, price, celebrity endorsement,etc). Clicking on the picture will show a larger version.| Audio Musings by Sean Olive
At the recent 137th convention of the Audio Engineering Society we presented our latest research paper entitled, "The Influence of Listeners' Experience, Age and Culture on Headphone Sound Quality Preferences."| Audio Musings by Sean Olive
The 2014 Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook came out this week. In it, you can find an article I wrote called "Perceiving and Measuring Headphone Sound Quality: Do Listeners Agree on What Makes a Headphone Sound Good?"| Audio Musings by Sean Olive
Todd Welti, Sean Olive and Elisabeth McMullin are shown above with their custom binaural mannequin, "Sidney" wearing a pair of AKG K1000's. No fit or leakage issues with these headphones.| Audio Musings by Sean Olive