Nine headphones and one dilemma

I went to a hi-fi store in Luxembourg called "L'Audiophile" today. (If you are ever in the country, they are extremely friendly, helpful and super knowledgeable. I feel they have a bias toward speakers, but they still have a good selection of head-fi products.)

My original goal was to test a whole bunch of headphones with different sound signatures. While I recently got into hi-fi (see here and here), my focus was primarily on DAPs and IEMs. But I thought it was time to update my home gear and get something new after using the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro for the past 15 years or so. I don't remember exactly how long I've had them, but forever.

And while I've probably consumed every piece of hi-fi-adjacent content I could find and now have a shit ton of theoretical knowledge, I've never compared different sound signatures. I couldn't really say whether I prefer a V-shaped signature, a warmer sound or a more neutral sound. All I knew was what I knew, which is why I made an appointment to listen to headphones.

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And I spent three hours in the shop, listening to nine different headphones with the same playlist of 14 tracks. Here's the tracklist,¹ in case you care:

• Chains & Whips - Clipse & Kendrick Lamar
• Got To Be Good - Gotts Street Park feat. Pip Millett
• Dethrone - Bad Omens
• Don’t Be So Serious - Low Roar
• The Summoning - Sleep Token
• Cornfield Chase - Hans Zimmer
• Maelle - Lorien Testard & Alice Duport-Percier
• Winter 1 - Max Richter
• Animals (Pt. I) - JID & Eminem
• WHO TF IZ U - J. Cole
• Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85: I. Adagio - Moderato - Edward Elgar
• Beirut - Ibrahim Maalouf
• Introvert - Little Simz
• C.R.E.A.M. - Wu-Tang Clan

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I listened to the following headphones, in that order:

• Meze 105 Silva
• Sennheiser HD 650
• HiFiMAN Arya Organic
• Focal Clear MG
• HiFiMAN Ananda
• Focal Hadenys
• Meze 109 Pro
• Austrian Audio The Composer
• Meze Elite

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I went in with no expectations. My goal was not to buy anything, after all. I just went in to learn, ask questions and see whether I recognized any patterns in what I liked.

I took a ton of notes, which I later compared with reviews and articles online. What I learned was that I like headphones that sound lively and spacious. I want clean bass, strong dynamics and enough separation for complicated mixes to breathe. At the same time, too much treble quickly becomes shrill and tiring.

I'm fully aware that I must sound obnoxious as shit...

My favorite headphones were the Focal Hadenys, the Sennheiser HD 650 and the Meze 109 Pro. At least, that was true until I listened to Austrian Audio's The Composer.

They fucked it all up for me.

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I approached these songs by listening for anything that surprised or annoyed me. Most of these headphones are probably more than good enough for most people. I am not a headphone reviewer (yet?), and I don't have enough experience, after all. But I did hear some sounds that bothered me, such as the shrill highs in Beirut or Winter 1 with some of the cans.

Others surprised me because their sound had more of an impact than it did for the rest.

But I also paid attention to my emotional reaction. The song Maelle, right around the 1:20 mark, moves me. I get an actual physical reaction. But on some of the headphones, I felt nothing.

But The Composer? They made me cry. On Got To Be Good, I started laughing. Winter 1 gave me the shudders. I don't recall the last time I had so many reactions to music in such a short time, and I saw Hans Zimmer live...

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But I ended up buying none of them. Not only because I wasn't planning to anyway, but also because The Composer costs a whopping 2500€.

I'm unreasonable and very often overkill (heh!), but even that was too much for me.

For now.

I am still eyeing Austrian Audio's The Composer. They somehow became my holy grail of headphones in half an hour.

So, thanks Austrian Audio: I went in to learn what I liked and left with a 2500€ problem.