Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Science and mass market headphones

"What happens when V5 is released, will you continue that approach?"

It's impossible to say. V5 may be crap for all we know. Or it may not offer valuable enough improvements.

Note the OP made absolutist statements that I felt I had to respond to. His statements are prefaced with a dash or are encapsulated in quotes. My responses follow.

The Harman Reference curve headphones were a "meh" according to my son.

Well, there's another half dozen target curves to try. Get him on that consumerism train!

https://www.soundstagesolo.com/index.php/features/318-are-there-valid-objections-to-the-harman-curve

https://soundstagesolo.com/index.php/features/354-do-we-really-need-all-these-target-curves

I bought a set of ANC IEM's as a Christmas gift. What a miserable shopping experience.

I gave my Sony's to my son, but now they only hold a 30 minute charge. The safe choice were the premium ANC IEM's from Apple, Samsung, and Bose, but I don't trust a high school freshman to a set of $300-ish Cdn headphones.

I checked a variety of headphone review websites, and they're just awful. Most of them just don't test enough models, nor make it easy to browse competitors and their feature set.

I settled for rtings as the best headphone website for me. At the time of this writing, their headphone reviews were no longer behind a paywall, and their sound quality measurements and scoring were against the Harman target curve.

I settled on a pair of JBL Tune 130NC for 80% less than what I paid for the Sony's in 2019. Sound neutrality was a 7.5, the same as the WF1000XM3 and better than the 6.8 of my old Apple EarPods (subjectively, the sound quality gap is huge between the two).

We'll see how he likes it after Christmas.

I had a chance to compare the JBL's with the Sony's. They're tonally different but both sound similarly good.

The JBL goes deeper and doesn't require bass equalization. The Sony has better noise cancellation. The JBL's earbuds and carrying case are half the size and weight for roughly the same initial battery life; they're also more comfortable and less likely to fall out. I didn't download the app, so I can't comment on its functionality. Long term durability is a question mark, I don't expect the JBL's to last past 2027.

My general remarks:
1) rtings "neutral sound" headphone rankings have merit as a consumer shopping tool, as long as you aim for green rather than yellow or red.
2) Perusing the rankings, you can't trust newer models to sound better; you can't even trust headphones from the same brand to cluster together in sound quality.
3) the Harman target curve will probably satisfy most consumers. EQ to taste if you wish.
4) $55 US or $70 Cdn is a reasonable price floor for good sound in a Bluetooth in-ear monitor with active noise cancellation and water resistance. You could spend more, but you don't have to.

Just adding another sample to the list, I bought a couple of pairs of Jabra Elite 4 Active so that everyone in the family has ANC IEM's for flying. They were $100 Canadian a pair, or $74 US. I was originally going to buy the newer Jabra Elite 4 for the same price, but the Active adds IP57 water resistance. Both Jabra models have a rtings neutral sound profile of 7.5.

I find the default sound to be bright and the bass a bit underwhelming. Rtings considers the treble to be lacking, so I'm at a loss to explain the difference. But I can adjust to taste using the app's equalizer, and there's no major sound defects such as cupping or boxiness. Active noise cancellation is the weakest of the three.

Unlike the WF1000XM3 and Tune 130NC, the Elite 4 Active uses physical buttons rather than touch control, and it's annoying. The Sony is the only earbud that feels like a premium product, and continues to add new functionality every 6 months through the app. But I'll probably replace it by summer with whatever I can find on sale.