Can an Audio Noob Even Tell the Difference!? - HD6XX vs. K7XX vs. DT990 vs HE4XX vs. M50x Shootout! 

Have you tried this with any non-audiophile friends? Were they able to tell the differences between the headphones?

You blew the experiment when you mentioned you were starting from least expensive to most.

I tried this on my wife and she realized how much I spend on my gear so the next day we were out shopping for makeup and clothes and stuff to "even out"

When she has “drummer” on her shirt and mentions pro tools when describing the sounds you know this might not be the “audio beginner” we expected.

I've done this before and I'll I got was "you spent how much on headphones, you should've just got beats" I haven't talked to then since

This confirmed my theory. The best head phones are the one that sounds the best to you.

She did an excellent job with descriptions (sound stage) without the wordy BS that irks me to no end. Reviews were simply stated and i immediately understood what she meant.

Great video. IMO audio noobs are in some ways even more reliable than experienced listeners. Experienced listeners often fall into the trap of focusing on certain aspects of the sound at the exclusion of everything else, and will end up with rigs that do well in that one respect but overall don't sound good. On the other hand, a noob will generally focus on the overall sound first and specifics second. They are usually a good reality check, and it's a very good habit to give your rig to others to listen to and see what their feedback is, though you have to be careful to not influence their perception of it. Which, I noticed, you were quite careful to not do. Detail freaks are a pretty good example of this. Many people chase detail at the exclusion of everything else, and often end up with something that sounds bright and shrill, and while it gives them the ability to tell how much saliva is at the back of the vocalist's throat, or how long it's been since their last cigarette, overall it might not actually sound all that pleasant. And for the record... been there, done that. The counter argument to this rule is that certain things are psychoacoustically likely to produce preferences in people, and an experienced listener knows how to spot those things and avoid them. By this I mean things like: if something is louder, it sounds better, and an experienced listener knows to volume match. Also if something is brighter, it will sound better on first listen, but will be grating over time, etc. This is sort of why consumer gear is pre-tuned to take advantage of those psychoacoustic phenomena and is designed to appeal on first listen, this way if someone is in a store checking out a bunch of gear at the same time, it stands out. On the other hand, professional gear is usually made to NOT have those kinds of tricks and instead is made to fulfill a role, i.e. neutral gear for mixing/mastering, bass heavy for drum and bass recording, mid-heavy for vocals, etc. TL;DR noobs are a good reality check and us audio nerds often live in a bubble, but a clever manufacturer can use psychology to make some headphones more enticing to noobs even if they're not technically better.

@Detroit Tech, fascinating evaluation. I wish you’d not told your wife that the headphones went from cheapest to most expensive as this introduces bias. It’s obvious that she equated price with quality, as many under informed consumers do. I was also impressed by her ability to describe what she was hearing and what her preferences for sound were. She didnt know the word for separation (“piecey”) but described it beautifully. I also wonder if she happens to be more informed because she’s married to an audiophile. Might be really cool to run this type of experiment on another 4 people and present a roll up episode with some footage from each of the participants but mostly focus on the analysis of the experiment. Cheers

Now get a room of 10 or more non-audiophiles and hand them around to see which they prefer.

Her evaluation is spot on. just amazing actually, give her a hug for us Audiophiles.... her words described Soundstage, Separation, Depth, Width et el.

Her descriptions were pinpoint, she’s a keeper! I like how she picked out the vocals on the 6XX (my headphones) but preferred the v-shaped 4XXs.

For a "noob" she did a really good job on describing what they felt like. I think that's the best video for someone that isn't experienced with the audiophile world but still want to enjoy good sound.

"I must really have long ears". "That's fair". OK. That's fair.

That's fair.

She gets what sound separation and sound stage is without knowing the terms which is dope.

RU-vid recommended it and I loved it! She didn't sound like a "total noob" as you stated earlier. Nice video, even nicer with the Tolkien's dedicated bookshelf!

I thought she needed to be blind to tell a difference

Nice Video! This is watching someone with a great ear without the audiophile pretense. Hearing her descriptions match up with audio reviews of the products is great! Per her review, it makes total sense that the HE4XX won due to the "fun" factor. Great job, just tell her next time that she can use tenths in her ratings....

I appreciate what you've done here, but what we need to see if a blind test that starts with a pair of KSC-75 and ends with a pair of Stax SR-007 MkII. I just want to see if the latter has the same jaw-dropping impact on someone outside the hobby as they do on those of us who've heard umpteen dynamic/planar headphones. Thanks for the vid.

I've been reading/watching headphone reviews for the last week, and THIS was the most helpful. Such a good idea to bring it down to laymen's terms. Just purchased a pair of 4XX's, thank you so much 👍

7:56 she did a great job here describing imaging and sound stage. Amazing haha.

To start, I wouldn't have let her know that certain cans were more expensive, or even allow her to see them. Just put them on her head and see which ones she thinks sound the best.

My wife is like this and will give a very honest overall impression. She'll say things like "that sounds too sharp", but she doesn't get into the specifics too much. She could easily hear differences in speakers when we went shopping, and (luckily) agreed with the speakers I was interested in buying. I think women's hearing is different than men's, and a bit more sensitive to the higher frequencies.

That MKBHD shoutout was so random but I got you man 😄 We all like the man Marques.

Man your wife is really sweet and patient

HD6xx, the way she mentioned "when the vocals comes in" i got that too, i got that feeling of being mind blown. hehe

In 2008 my girlfriend, who never listened to any hi-fi, once asked to listen to her favorite, russian singer Pavel Kashin (there are a lot of live instruments). When she listened to 5-6 songs with pleasure through famous Philips SHP895, I wanted to surprise her and offered Sennheiser HD650. She didn’t even listen to one song, frowned, took them off and said - these headphones play bass very badly, some messy, and the vocals are worse. In short, then I sold them - because the unreal rise on the mid-bass also interfered with me (especially when the double bass played). By the way, this is a common problem with Sennheiser - with a low sub-bass, many models have an emphasis on mid-bass, which interferes with the low-mid.

I came across your video purely by accident,. I thought the reviews of all the headsets were brilliant, very well done. It was a true and honest review. I really liked it. If I was looking for a headset these quick reviews, would actually be very helpful. Good job.

6:17 didn't she give the last pairs comfort 5/10 and those 9/10?

The cat observing you like humans are weird 😄 Love the Community reference at the end by the way

She had a really impressive description of the soundstage. She maxed out the points scale pretty quickly. Think you should have gone through all the pairs with her before rating, so she'd have a better chance of setting a baseline.

Wow I thought her analysis was really impressive! She even accurately described things like imaging and soundstage between headphones without even knowing the terms. :P I can understand that she didn't care too much for the 6xx, but I'm glad she at appreciated the amazing vocals.

next: please do blind test! oh and add m40x to the line.. just curious tho nice video!

She's a great sport for agreeing to do this. It was actually pretty insightful too

Great review and video. It's interesting hearing your wife's opinion without outside influences. A great idea would be to have a stack of headphones and prices on the table. She would look and listen then place them at the price she thinks they would cost. Interesting to see if they matched up.

This was amazing. i was just sad that you didnt use the M40x's instead of the 50's :P

she said the Hifimans were like 5/10 in comfort and the 990s were 9/10 in comfort, yet she said the Hifimans were more comfortable?? huh??

She did a great job in her descriptions. Thanks for sharing

I use a Sennheiser HD555 (games and music), I forgot when i bought them, it's been more than 10 years ago. Also over the years I've mod them, removed the tape from inside, changed the cable, replaced earpads a few times. The thing is I never had to buy anything else all these years....they are so good.

I have the 400i. Definitely a great product.

She nailed it.

Man right off the bat I think she totally gets it lol "it sounds like the sounds are coming from different places"

what I noticed ,, you are very respectful for your wife AND your cat

It's just a cat video disguised as tech stuff.

Ha! It’s like you copied my headphone collection. Change to the DT 990 Premium 600 ohm. Add a DT 880 Chrome Edition. Remove the AKG. Add a Sennheiser HD 58X. There are a few others but these are the best for now. Great channel!

I do not have the best hearing, but I love music. I do not hear a big difference between dacs and amps, but here is my opinion about headphones. I have 6XX, HE4XX and Bayer DT770, and I love them all different. My dac/amp combo is audio gd r2r 11, also I have darkvoice amp and fiio x5 II dap. HE4XX is super detailed, wide soundstage, good base. Wow effect guaranted. Less comfortable compared to 6ХХ and beyers, but still very comfortable, not heavy. Best with fiio x5 in my opinion (because it produces more details compare to r2r 11, more sharp I guess). DT 770 closed back, more V-shaped, awesome sub bass, very detailed highs, good soundstage, great for office use, great with r2r 11. 6XX is darker sounding overall, less details to me, but they are so sexy with the darkvoice... (I have only stock tubes). They are great with r2r 11 too, but more soundstage with darkvoice. It may seem ridiculous, but most of all I like them when listening to audiobooks and watching RU-vid videos. Don't get me wrong, the music also sounds great (little bit dark to me), but the voices are so intimate.. most used headphones

11:45 cat said " Hold up let me get a good view of these things since you're buying another pair.. mmmhmmm you mine tonight "

You should let the cat judge about the sound. Her little ears and instict will tell which ones are more better. ^^ Fan of Beyerdynamic's hehe.

"But I don't think they're very cute." Pro headphones review!

Rocking job Emily (and Jeremy), I'm going to listen to that Post Malone Congratulations track a little more closely now

I have to say that I really enjoyed this video. Listening to a "audio noob" describe things rather well was enjoyable. Also the video quality and editing is great. You guys are doing a good job.

Which Post Malone track were you listening to? I'd like to try to find the spots in the music she's talking about.

Best review ever! Your wife is brilliant! I think this was spot on 👍👊

Wow! That was a great video! Being that I own 3 of the 5, and the one I am considering picking up is HE 4XX. I loved your respect and interplay with each other. And it was nice to hear her audio descriptions using normal words, instead of audio speak. Hmmm... maybe I overlooked these HifiMen! Thanks bro! And Mrs. bro!

I just ordered the HE4XX as my first pair of decent (ie non-gaming) headphones. Glad to see more reinforcement that I made a good purchase :D

It would have been more interesting to feed the cans with cd quality and up music files...

Good video man, Btw your wife/girlfriend is beautiful. Seem like a awesome couple!

Would have loved to see the X2's in here not a very natural sound but so much fun. Would have been awesome to see her reaction if any to them. Great video overall and really helpful especially if you're not looking for too much technical jargon.

Ayyy I have the HE4XX and it's a great headphone. It's super clear but has a nice little bump in the low end, and also has the "fun" factor that you get with V-shaped headphones. Plus they can be driven with a phone, which is awesome.

I really love my DT990!

Do a blind test.... close her eyes and put on the headphone..

I'm glad I found this video, as someone whos never bought headphones over $50, even though I do "basic" audio mixing - its nice to see what others who are not headphone/audiophiles think of the crazy priced headphones and how it matches up with reviewers/forum posters thoughts.

my brother said that dt770 pro, and dt880 edition, and ath ad500x sound exactly the same :) (didnt listen to them on the same day but sill) he only noticed a doff when i put meze 99 neos on and told they sounded really boring and sounded like his tv

basically, planar is the answer.

She's perceptive. The only thing that struck me as odd was her description of the bass on the HE4xx pair. They are notorious for bass rolloff.

I don't thing she is an audio noob, she recognized petty accurately every headphone main characteristic.

I guess people are never satisfied. Me i have to thank u for this great video. Dont forget music its all about happiness and love. Not audiophile serious situations.

I own all these expect the M40x because they are better than the M50x. I like the HE4XX the best out this gorup.

Okay, this is pretty much a good way to recommend the HiFiMan HE-4XX. I returned the AKG K7XX because of build issues and the sound was just not exciting. Might jump on the HE-4XX train.

this was cute i loved it and also great to get a fresh perspective on these headphones thank you

She uses noob terminologies, but her observations are quite mature. I have at one point owned every pair (except the Beyers) and I agree with her observations except that the AKG is a bit better in separation than how she described it. But overall, spot on. Maybe you can do another video that includes Beats and Bose to see how she would describe compare them to the lot. But great video and she did an awesome job.

Very interesting

You should not use Google Music for audiophilic requirements..... Please use a more genuine listening experience... FLAC or go home...

Would've been neat if it was a blind test and she had to guess which were more expensive. She had really good insight for somebody who hasn't spent a bunch of time comparing listening devices. Good video.

The dude with "that's what she said" expression made me lol

She has great incite to your hobby. Really perceptive hearing .....Shes a great catch......and very attractive shes a keeper!

Audio noob or not what she said makes a lot of sense! I think DT990s price/performance ratio is unbeatable, they are good and super fun, HD6XX and 7XX are incredible boring, I don't like them. HE4XXs are probably better than the DT990s but I didn't try them (I have HifiMans Edition X and HE1000 though and they are better than the DT990s but they play in another league). Very good video and review!

Nice . There is a difference. She did good noticing the changes . Get her a pair of the Hifiman's . She earned it

you could do this experiment with almost any item. tell the person the most expensive is the last item and they will pick it everytime. regardless which is actually better. in 2021 far too many people associate price with quality. not saying expensive things are bad or low quality, just not all inexpensive things are trash

Is that Jennifer Lawrence?

this test is done wrong, if you really want a true opinion then this test has to be conducted without knowing whether it's cheap or epxensive headphones...

I have been looking at the HE4XX, it was nice to see that a newbie ( llike myself ) was able to pick them out of these headphones. No tech talk, just real world explanation. Although I agree telling her the price range right off the bat was a mistake, that didn't seem to sway her, even her thinking that one should have sounded better to her knowing it was more expensive. I think I am sold on the 4xx now...

I've done this with my AKG K550 MKIII, Massdrop x AKG M220 Pro, Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250oHm, and Massdrop x HiFiMAN HE350(swapped pads for Brainwaves angled pleather pads + done the bass mod that they list on Massdrop). Most people like the HE350's best with music, as they have the most bass response, with the DT990 Pros close behind. Alot of people don't really like the M220 Pro, as it lacks alot of bass, and seems to solely focus on the high end. *Thank you RU-vid for fudging up and making me retype half of this(it deleated itself)

If 650s don't sound good to you, it's probably the fault of your dac/amp. AKG have the widest soundstage and vocal clarity along with DT990. I first guessed that she wouldn't appreciate 650s and 702s on that focusrite and magni combo. They are soooo power hungry. You need some really good amp/dac to appreciate that. I have HD800s, but I still keep my 650s. Giving them away is blasphemy to me. Besides, my girlfriend has 702, 712. And I have DT990 too. And I also have M50x for recording (but not mixing) in the studios. And hey! Germans like to keep it simple.

you can't give out 10's....what happens when you try a Focal Utopia?

Can't wait for my HE4XX to be delivered !

I like how noobs shy away from using physical properties on sound. Meanwhile audiophile: yeah, so it's wide/narrow, wet/dry, warm/cold, etc.

of course the #1 is the aesthetics

She kinda looks like Jennifer Lawrence smash for sure

She's right about the crackly highs and Sennheiser hd600 are a lot like the m50x except cleaner in the bass. The m50x has a little standing waves issues probably due to the closed back. I think the highs are a mids are a little more lifeless but the highs are almost identical.

Very honest opinions. He4xx would sound awesome from focusrite scarlet>magni 3! I like how the listener described the treble extension of DT990 & wide soundstage of AKG K7xx in her own words. With more powerful amps & more resolving DACs though, Sennheiser HD6xx would scale over the others

I viewed your video and where to begin ? Okay bad equipment for A B comparisons . lets start with 35 Ohm headphones versus 300 ohm headphones ( you do see where i'm headed with this ) okay lets go back to the amp . Magni 3 factory specs Maximum Power, 16 ohms: 3W RMS per channel Maximum Power, 32 ohms: 2W RMS per channel Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 1.3W RMS per channel Maximum Power, 300 ohms: 430mW RMS per channel Maximum Power, 600 ohms: 230mW RMS per channel Pay attention to the 35 Ohm output and compare it to the 300 Ohm output . 4X the power right ? This amp struggles to output pass 50 ohms . This is why the Magni is not the best option at least not for full size cans When the girl picked the HE 4XX / HE-400 over the HD6XX / HD650 and then called it even with M50X I knew that something was very wrong . I'm not saying she was wrong in fact I agree with what she felt was better based on your amp selection and it's limitations . I did AB comparisons on equipment that doesn't struggle with 300-600 ohms . Now, I am comparing the Schiit versus more expensive equipment My HDVA 600 with dual outputs My HE400i was no match for my HD650 . HD650 Is not starved like in your comparisons . With my WA5 it wasn't even close . I did a blind side by side using my McIntosh MHA150 and properly set and stored it so when I switched it was set to the proper impedance Night and day the HD650 was much better . I own the little magni 3 because it's a hobby for me in search of nirvana and hidden treasures . He-400i / He 4XX are good headphones for the money the Magni 3 not so much . They just struggle with anything above 75 ohms . The Schiit Magni 3 is really not a good amp . The static / distortion / garbage was the amp struggling to keep up. That is why I commented on your other video . If you can maybe pick a better stable amplifier .

I like the: "We can talk about that"-comment at the end. Usually means: "We can't afford it" in polite speech.

That's similar to what I think of them too, in terms of the sound quality the HE-4XX is the bang for the buck, and the only headphone I've not heard/own from these is the DT990.

Love the description of the sounds, fresh - not technical jargon, very accessible. You should bring her along for another feature.

I'm really impressed she noticed the differences between closed and open back. I'm going to try this with someone but swap between Tidal MP3 and Master quality.

AKG are noted for the sound being around your head not in it.

I have been around studio gear in a broadcasting - not home enthusiast - environment since the early 2000s, so I'm very familiar with the subject. Even so, I think her descriptions that are completely devoid of tech lingo, and instead describe the experience she had listening to the cans is a thousand times more valuable and reliable than buzzwords and phrases like sound stage this, sound separation that even for someone like me, who knows what they mean. I won't even search for further reviews and comparisons. You helped me choose my next pair. Thanks!

Also the best pair of them all. I tried them all. Now I'm using Koss Porta Pro's. Porta Pros are just up my alery in terms of sound. ANd a steal at their price. So are KCS75's if you prefer treble/detail, and KHP30i for a bit more neutral sound compared to Porta Pros. (Yes I bought these 3 as well, always hesitated cause of on-ear) But they are really comfortable. Listening to The POrta Pros whcih are my personal favourite of them for 5+ hours everyday without issues. I my ears gets a little.. What's the word.. Bad? I loosen the fit over ears so it pushe more on the temples. Seems to fix the issue, then going back and fourth with these settings. In terms of value, you can't go wrong with these 3 pair. Would love to still have he HE4XX's to see how they compare directly to them, but I sold mine. But was the best sound I ever heard up until then.