Headphone Reviews

The Contest
First and foremost, this contest is just a bit of fun. What's really more important is giving DIYers the opportunity to get their headphones measured so they can get a little objective feedback for their projects. I think this is an important service I can provide U.S. DIYers (sorry, I can't afford to do worldwide return shipments), and I will continue tooffer this service to headphone DIYers. If you're in the U.S. and would like to have your DIY modified headphones measured, simply send me a PM on Head-Fi, or contact me through my email address: tyll@innerfidelity.com. None the less, it was fun to measure a bunch of hobbyist's efforts and spend a bit of time separating the wheat from the chaff.

There are three categories in the competition:

1. The Coolest Looking - I wasn't necessarily looking for the best looking headphone, but rather the headphone that struck me as the most visually interesting and engaging.
2. The Worst Measuring - I remember measuring some DIY cans Duggeh built at a show a couple of years ago. He achieved nearly 100% total harmonic distortion. He was so proud at his full marks that I just assumed someone would love to try to beat his record.
3. The Best Measuring - It turns out this was much harder to judge than I anticipated. There were about 10 headphones in the running here, and it wasn't easy to come up with a clear order. There was always something a bit wrong with all the cans---not unlike commercial offerings, though usually a bit weirder.

Initially, I was just going to have one winner in each category, but upon looking around my lab for things I might give away, I found enough goodies that I could have five winners in the "Best Measuring" category, and three winners each for the other two categories.

I have put together a .pdf of all the measurements for DIY headphones so you can peruse the results as you read. You can download it here.

I will try to contact all the winners, but sometimes that's not as easy as it seems. If you've won, please feel free to send me an email (tyll@innerfidelity.com) and please include your shipping address. I'll get your prize shipped quickly.

Okay, let's get on with it. Coolest Looking first!