Reference
Description
My reference playlist for comparing audio gear.
Quickstats
Playlist Length
0 days, 6 hours, 36 minutes
Playlist Followers
107
Source
Playlist Last Updated
August 12, 2021
Mood
Mixed Mood
Track Popularity Rating
Somewhat Popular
Style
Varied
Average Release Decade
2000s
Main Genre:
Mixed
Reddit Info
Reddit Post
Right now, you're like farmboy Luke Skywalker who's used to flying his T-16 back home and you just bought the god damn Millennium Falcon, except it's shiny and new and not a rust bucket. Sure, you can fly it around, but you're not making the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. Right now, you lack the skills and experience to get the most out of your equipment and you don't have the Force to guide you. Hell, I've been buying my own high end audio equipment since before you were born and I'm still learning. Luckily, you have a bunch of Obi Wans and a few Old Bens to guide you. The first thing I'd do is go download the [Harman How to Listen](http://harmanhowtolisten.blogspot.com/2011/01/welcome-to-how-to-listen.html?m=1) program and start doing some exercises. You don't have to go through one program at a time to completion before you move to the next. You can jump around and do like 10 of each and come back and finish the rest off at your leisure. What this will do is help train your brain to listen to the details in the music. Another exercise I like to do is to follow one instrument through an entire track. I find it easiest to start with drums and then move to something like electric guitar. It's a little more challenging when you're trying to follow 2nd violins through a classical piece. I do this almost automatically now, shifting my attention between layer and layer of a song as I hear something interesting. You also should get a reference playlist together. This is a playlist of songs that you're going to use to compare every single piece of equipment you test out, until you die, so make sure they're songs that you love. You're going to learn these songs intimately. You're going to use certain snippets of certain songs to test out a certain characteristic of everything you listen to. Songs sound so different from each other that it's really difficult to compare a headphone you're listening to now to something you heard 3 years ago unless you're playing the exact same recording. To get a head start on building your reference playlist, Google "audiophile music" and pick out the songs that you like from the playlists that show up. [Here's mine](https://open.spotify.com/user/u2akwvl7dw7ahb0qotlnl5328/playlist/6WnU5heIBpwGTyGvq5gFe7?si=LhPyvsLWQrSQBtLllcQQww) and [another one](https://open.spotify.com/user/u2akwvl7dw7ahb0qotlnl5328/playlist/32eESO6kwh06gECoT23S4w?si=k_rhr4YSSPqB8_pU6vTSAA) that I like to point new audiophiles to. Ultimately, appreciation of audio is an inherently personal and subjective thing. If you can't hear the difference, or don't like the difference, then the gear is not worth your money. A lot of people act like everyone has exactly the same hearing, tastes, or experience when talking about audio. We don't. Hearing sensitivity to different frequencies diminishes due to age or damage. We all have different preferences in music and how it sounds. And we all have different levels of critical listening skills and experiences. You can take suggestions and advice but use that as a guide to do the exploring on your own. I might be full of shit for all you know. Trust your ears and only your ears to tell you what you like or don't.
Upvotes
30
Subreddit
headphones
Reddit Username
McMadface
Reddit Timestamp
7/10/18 11:53
Reddit URL
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