Phil's Superpower of Enthusiasm

I recently watched an interesting video Crinicle   posted a couple of years ago about the “IGN Problem”: basically grade inflation in online reviews in the audio space. And because I’m me, it REALLY got me thinking. [And to be clear, it’s a thing that’s been churning in my brain for much longer than that, definitely encouraged by the thinking behind John Green’s fascinating “ Anthropocene Reviewed ” [1] , AND conversations I had back in like … 2004 about Ivy League grade inflation.] It boils down to this: it’s really hard to trust online reviews (basically, you SHOULDN’T trust online reviews) because so many of them are as inflated as a Harvard GPA . And it made me wonder: I’ve been doing reviews for more than two years now. I have scored 19 pieces of audio gear on a two-part, 10-point scale. What’s my average score? Turns out: pretty high! Pure Cost-adjusted Average 7.68 7.63 Median 8 8 Mode 9 9 Minimum 4 3 Maximum 10 11   An average of almost 7.7? A minimum of 4 or 3? I’m...

  [MSRP $799. Purchased for $799 + tax on Amazon in January 2025.] [ Tl;dr: These are my new favorite headphones, period. They’re not objective-focused; their tune is warm (and buttery, and magic), but if that’s something you’re interested in, I cannot recommend these strongly enough. They’re so good out of the box, in fact, that I’m not even using EQ on them. This is my end-game open-back, at least until I can justify trying out the Meze Empyrean 2.] Scores: Cost-agnostic: 10 out of 10 Denalis Cost-sensitive: 9 out of 10 Denalis [I know. I know.] Intro.  I’ve owned and loved a pair of the Meze x Drop 99 Noir (the Drop rebrand and recolor of the Meze 99 Classic, a widely beloved entry-level audiophile-grade closed back headphone. Because I’d loved those headphones (still my favorite closed back ), but generally prefer open-backs, and because I love Meze’s steampunk-esque aesthetic, I decided to buy myself a pair of open-backed Mezes for Christmas. There are really two ch...