good headphones

[waggythegeek]

What makes them "good"? How is sound quality measured?

[melias24]

Well i guess what the crowd thinks of them and how they perform at a certain price eg. the ATH-M50x's by Audio Technica, they are a very popular set of headphones as they are popular, have great sound and the fact that they are wrapped into a fair price. 

[waggythegeek]

Well i guess what the crowd thinks of them and how they perform at a certain price eg. the ATH-M50x's by Audio Technica, they are a very popular set of headphones as they are popular, have great sound and the fact that they are wrapped into a fair price.

How does one determine if they have "great sound" or not?

[melias24]

How does one determine if they have "great sound" or not?

They compare them to similar priced headphones and whether the bass, mids, treble, highs, lows are better or worse on the other similar priced/purpose built headphones.

[kuhchuk]

How does one determine if they have "great sound" or not?

If you like them or not.  I'm personally not a huge fan of the M50's, though.  I think there are other headphones in the price bracket that are more pleasing to listen to (my opinion of course), but there's nothing strictly bad about them.

[o0Martin]

This is a good free quick and easy test I've used before on some of my headphones: 

http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php

 

But good sound is subjective, some people actually like the sound of Beats headphones, because they are 'bass heavy' however I prefer my ATH-M50's because they produce clean and clear sound while still having good base. 

 

It all depends on the person really, but good headphones in general come down to a lot more then just sound, if you really want just good sound open back headphones will be the best choice, but they let in a lot of outside sounds and leak even more sound, a lot of people would prefer to listen to noise isolating headphones for general use, even if the sound quality isn't as high end. 

[Amature_m8]

It is very opinionated. Generally, the more money you spend, better sound quality. It is a mixture of treble, mids and bass. You really need to a listen to them and judge yourself.   

[Guest]

It is very opinionated. Generally, the more money you spend, better sound quality. It is a mixture of treble, mids and bass. You really need to a listen to them and judge yourself.   

 

It isn't, though: http://seanolive.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-relationship-between-perception-and.html

 

Links in my siggy contain more general information on sound quality and audio in general.

[xtroria]

The only way to really know it is to experience it. Good audio has clarity and level of details that bad audio gears wont have.

A good enough earphone can actually have better soundstage than $150-180 headphone *M50 cough cough*

[creatip123]

A headphone is like food.

 

How to know if a particular food is good or not? No sure thing to know unless try it yourself.

 

Reviews, prices, brands, ingridients, they're all hit and miss. Just playing with probability. The sure shot is to experience it first hand. 

[kuhchuk]

A headphone is like food.

 

How to know if a particular food is good or not? No sure thing to know unless try it yourself.

 

Reviews, prices, brands, ingridients, they're all hit and miss. Just playing with probability. The sure shot is to experience it first hand. 

Pretty much this.  And since preference on the matter is subjective, some people will find that they end up liking headphones that aren't considered to be "good" by general internet standards.  Whatever floats your boat.