Rai Thistlethwayte's video: Rai Thistlethwayte THE BIG HEADPHONE LINEUP Focal Utopia Sennheiser HD600 Oppo PM3 HD25 MORE

Dear reader, Of all the headphones I own, here is a list of my favourites to least favourite, after many hours of comparative listening and personal reflection. I tried to contextualise this unique and extensive lineup from the point of who I am and where I see myself fitting into 2020's headphone listener's landscape: Part touring musician, part recording artist, part audiophile, part casual listener, and part audio gear geek who's somewhat interested in technology, tech specs and electronics. I do not intend this to be a review to necessarily aid others' purchasing of headphone models. I try and be conservative in my use of 'audiophile' or audio terms, out of choice. I do not mention the term 'soundstage,' for instance, even though I am aware of this term. Instead, I try to keep the language at a level where I can get my feelings across, so some descriptive words are used, but I hope the style isn't seen as an omission. Its intention is to mitigate confusion in semantics. I do not mention cost or value to the consumer (in most cases, unless I see it as a particularly important thing to note), or follow a set criteria in how to appraise each item on this list. The fostex models and hyper X models would have also been included in the line up but weren't because they are in my storage unit and I can't get to them at present. In the last part of the video especially, I wish to strongly stress the importance of personal opinion and assert my personal feelings about importance of everyone's differing hearing perception, due to things such as hearing losses, congenital or lifestyle, age, wax build up etc. This is in addition to creative aspects of different listening practices ie genre and musical style choices, which also change how one chooses their favourite products. I wish to show that one needs to play around with items they own to get the most out of their particular product, instead of focusing on an unattainable search for 'the perfect' product. The final part of the video was made as a disclaimer to show, even though I have been studying headphones and their attributes heavily over the last long while, (more-so during COVID-19), I have eventually found that there are TOO many factors involved, and therefore there is a pointlessness in trying to play off this product against that, or even to care at all about the differences, and in turn, a pointlessness to try and tell others that this is better than that (FOR THEM!). In ALL cases, I suggest to not believe reviews of products much, if at all - and similarly, anything you read on forums or reviews, you should not trust MORE than your own feelings after doing personal listening tests, if available. This also helps to explain my thoughts on scientific measurements of total harmonic distortion, signal to noise ratio, frequency response, etc, even though not mentioned in the video: We need them, make no mistake. The manufacturers and R&D departments are immersed in this world, some more or less than others, I assume, anyhow. But given tiny changes in person to person's hearing, for instance, even from left to right ear, even a 'flat' scientific EQ measurement, could be perceived as not flat - in the real world. This statement is made in conjunction of why so many people historically have often enjoyed audio gear with non-linearities, over gear with better scientific readings. It's all about personal choice, and my opinion needs to be known as simply that: 'just my opinion, man.' (Big Lebowski reference, obv ;) Note on my non-scientific, but arguably obsessive method of comparative listening: When testing, I always try and use the same source material and musical passages, played at the most volume matched levels as perceivably possible (using the idea that the overall 'energy' is matched by ear so a LUFS meter would hopefully be integrating similar readings from dB output on the two sets of cans. Failing that, using, say, the perceived volume level of a lead vocal as the yardstick from 'A' headphone to 'B' headphone. I try to set up the the quickest A/B comparison change time, keeping everything else in a critical listening chain the same and at least wait until I'm mentally focused enough to pick up on what is really going on sonically. Rinse and repeat, ad nauseam. I realise after this entire time spent on this, it was too much effort and time to listen, think, speak on the topic, to not want to share it on the internet. If you're bored reading this info, you are probably in a similar place to where I've landed with my own 'Audiophila.' I've realised, it's an endless rabbit hole, and although a worthy thing to check out in life, it's time for me to forget all that I've learned, and employ this study simply as a 'background' to get back to my first love: MUSIC, and CREATIVITY, albeit with somewhat of a new framework from these recent studies. Thanks for watching and listening, and I hope you got something out of this video. Love, Rai XX