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Written by: Brent Butterworth

Created: 01 January 2022

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The Harman curve—the well-known, science-based “target curve” for headphone and earphone frequency response—has been with us for almost a decade. Yet it seems more controversial than ever, and a group of audio enthusiasts who could be called “Harman curve haters” has emerged. I knew this phenomenon existed on some level, but I started to realize how prevalent it has become only after I recently reviewed the Apos Audio Caspian headphones. The Caspians were voiced by a reviewer/consultant named Sandu Vitalie, who describes the Harman curve as sounding “soulless and boring.”

Read more: Are There Valid Objections to the Harman Curve?

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Written by: Brent Butterworth

Created: 01 December 2021

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In audio, as in so many fields, language unites us and divides us. Specifically, I’m talking about the use of technically questionable and scientifically unquantifiable jargon in subjective reviews. To subjectively minded audio enthusiasts, this is just an honest attempt to describe what they’re hearing. But to objectively minded audio enthusiasts, this jargon—terms like “inner detail,” “microdynamics,” and “texture”—may suggest the reviewer’s grasp of their subject is informed more by reading other reviewers than by digging into technical books and scientific papers.

Read more: Is It Possible for Headphones to Sound Fast? (Or Slow?)

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Written by: Brent Butterworth

Created: 01 November 2021

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When I turned in last month’s column, “What Playing Music Taught Me About Audio,” SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider replied, “I like it. But from reading the headline, I thought it was going to be about what you learned from recording your new album.” Fair enough—because actually recording, mixing, and releasing my first serious attempt at an album taught me a lot about audio and music, even after being deeply involved in both for decades.

Read more: The Four Things that Recording an Album Taught Me About Audio

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Written by: Brent Butterworth

Created: 01 October 2021

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When someone on Facebook recently commented, “Compressed audio sounds horrific, and even uncompressed 16/44.1 isn’t great,” I felt terrible. I knew he came to these conclusions not through any sort of careful, unbiased testing, but because the audio industry—manufacturers, press, dealers—has told him he shouldn’t like compressed audio, and that 16-bit/44.1kHz audio is, after decades of enthusiastic acceptance by billions of users, now unacceptable.

Read more: What Playing Music Taught Me About Audio

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Written by: Brent Butterworth

Created: 01 September 2021

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In past editions of this series, I’ve interviewed professionals from Dan Clark Audio, PSB, Focal, and HiFiMan to learn their philosophies about voicing headphones. In those articles, the focus was on headphones rather than earphones, simply because earphones are at most a sideline for those companies. This month, we’re focusing on companies that specialize in earphones—which may seem similar to headphones, but in actuality, are radically different from an acoustical standpoint.

Read more: Voicing Headphones, Part 3: Campfire Audio's Ken Ball and 64 Audio’s Vitaliy Belonozhko