Where should I go for headphone reviews?

[KuJoe]

I'm looking for a reliable blog, forum, or (preferably) YouTube channel for headphone reviews. I am new to the whole audio thing and feel really lost right now. I was going to post a thread on here but after viewing all of the "what should I buy" threads it's apparent I don't know what what I want or where to start. I checked out Head-Fi.org and that place is a mess, the mods/admins should be ashamed of it. The pinned threads designed to help new people instead instruct viewers to go to another thread but don't both linking to it or making the other threads easy to find meaning the outdated info that the mods agree is wrong is prominently displayed instead. The review threads are filled with people arguing over whether something is good or not (they aren't even arguing if something is great, just good which should be a low expectation to hit). Sorry for the rant but I've been searching for new IEMs for weeks now and don't want to regret my purchase.

[Guest Kloaked]

What are you looking for specifically? You're not going to find much better help anywhere else as there's a handful of experienced people here. Anywhere else you're most likely going to be told a ton of buzzwords and all of that garbage and you're less likely to find what you probably want.

[SSL]

head-fi is indeed garbage.

 

The truth, though, is that at the end of the day reviews are not a good way to assess the performance of audio equipment. They can provide a useful frame of reference IF AND ONLY IF you understand the preference and perspective of the reviewer. Otherwise, a review could be less than useless.

 

You also need to have an understanding of your own hearing and, most importantly, your OWN tastes in sound. You can't make an informed decision about a purchase if you don't know what you actually value. Realize that no one headphone does everything right.

[KuJoe]

1 minute ago, Kloaked said:

What are you looking for specifically? You're not going to find much better help anywhere else as there's a handful of experienced people here. Anywhere else you're most likely going to be told a ton of buzzwords and all of that garbage and you're less likely to find what you probably want.

I was just hoping there was a "Linus" of headphones out there, maybe a YouTube channel like LTT dedicated to audio or something.

 

Basically I bought a cheap pair of IEMs off Amazon for like $20 shipped after reading all of the reviews about how amazing they were (both on an off Amazon). I bought them mainly because the mic quality in the YouTube videos I watched was better than the built-in mic on my laptop. The IEMs arrived and the mic doesn't work at all and the sound quality of the IEMs is awful, but being my first IEMs ever I was impressed with how amazingly comfortable they were so now I'm looking to replace my Audio Technica headphones with IEMs and just want to be sure I'm making a quality purchase and as much as I appreciate the work people have put into helping others on this forum, I figured actual video reviews would be more helpful for me since I don't understand any of the audio jargon or numbers people talk about when it comes to headphones.

[SSL]

1 minute ago, KuJoe said:

I was just hoping there was a "Linus" of headphones out there, maybe a YouTube channel like LTT dedicated to audio or something.

 

Basically I bought a cheap pair of IEMs off Amazon for like $20 shipped after reading all of the reviews about how amazing they were (both on an off Amazon). I bought them mainly because the mic quality in the YouTube videos I watched was better than the built-in mic on my laptop. The IEMs arrived and the mic doesn't work at all and the sound quality of the IEMs is awful, but being my first IEMs ever I was impressed with how amazingly comfortable they were so now I'm looking to replace my Audio Technica headphones with IEMs and just want to be sure I'm making a quality purchase and as much as I appreciate the work people have put into helping others on this forum, I figured actual video reviews would be more helpful for me since I don't understand any of the audio jargon or numbers people talk about when it comes to headphones.

 

innerfidelity.com is okay, but they review relatively few things. $20 IEMs are certainly off the radar.

[KuJoe]

5 minutes ago, SSL said:

head-fi is indeed garbage.

 

The truth, though, is that at the end of the day reviews are not a good way to assess the performance of audio equipment. They can provide a useful frame of reference IF AND ONLY IF you understand the preference and perspective of the reviewer. Otherwise, a review could be less than useless.

 

You also need to have an understanding of your own hearing and, most importantly, your OWN tastes in sound. You can't make an informed decision about a purchase if you don't know what you actually value. Realize that no one headphone does everything right.

Thank you, I completely understand this but having no idea what I like or what is important to me I don't even know where to start.

[KuJoe]

Just now, SSL said:

 

innerfidelity.com is okay, but they review relatively few things. $20 IEMs are certainly off the radar.

I don't mind spending money for something decent that will last me a while, the $20 IEMs were basically a test since I had never owned IEMs before so I wasn't sure if I'd like them.

[SSL]

1 minute ago, KuJoe said:

Thank you, I completely understand this but having no idea what I like or what is important to me I don't even know where to start.

 

Buy stuff and try it. Some research is good, but don't over-analyze.

[othertomperson]

3 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

Buy stuff and try it. Some research is good, but don't over-analyze.

Better yet, find a brick and mortar store that lets you try stuff out in person before committing to purchase. I know RicherSounds is good for this, if you can find anything equivalent.

[KuJoe]

1 minute ago, othertomperson said:

Better yet, find a brick and mortar store that lets you try stuff out in person before committing to purchase. I know RicherSounds is good for this, if you can find anything equivalent.

Thanks, I was hoping some place like this existed but it would probably cater to specifically higher end audio.