Not looking for a specific headphone recommendation. Question is about attributes and qualities. Specially qualities which can be qualifiable via reviewing and can be scored (i.e. soundstage).  Im trying to define what an ideal Jazz Headphone should be and am wondering what the community thinks are the key features of such headphones. Here is how i see it - on the spec side i made circum-aural and Open design as essential, and on the reviewable (more subjective side) I have prioritized; Soundstage as most important, Highs, Mids and Bass as all equally important (for a balanced sound). Mind you i have added Bass extension as somewhat important to get a bit fuller sound (Dave Holland was asking for that one). Also, bonus points are added to comfortable fit for those long sessions.  I do understand that some might like that cutting sound, border-lining on sibilance, in which case Detail extension would be prioritized. Or those who wish to have uncoloured sounding headphones in which case priority should be placed on cans which score high in the Neutral Sound realm. Anyhow. I'm wondering what everyone considers to be an ideal set of attributes. Its like a reverse search approach - Let's define the attributes and see which cans fit those criteria in terms of both specs and subjective attributes (for this the glossary thread http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,2468.0.html to find descriptive language might work well). In short, i'm looking for a set of rules which will define or get close to defining what great Jazz Cans should be.

I ask this question as i'm working on a site which is somewhat of a recommendation engine.  It works by making certain attributes more important and other attributes less important (totally customizable by anyone).  I'm hoping to define what "Jazz headphones" should sound like so the app can return good selection of cans for that application.  The bast way to illustrate what i'm after is to link to what i'm doing, and it's been pointed out to me by one of the senior members here that, indeed, asking direct question is the changstar way and thus the community will be able to respond and understand my concern clearly. So, i saved this set of attributes which i think are important when looking for audiophile headphones.
http://www.acqurate.com/553806881f49d2bd155d2d55#below-header
I know how to tweak the settings to get close to results for the "Jazz" sound i want,
http://www.acqurate.com/559c4db411f5306c72254e56#below-header
but i'm wondering what everybody here thinks. and what others consider to be ideal settings, and if the selection reflects those settings (note this is all still in early stages and some cans might have some data gaps). But yeah, that's where my query comes from.

hello,

you may have some issues here if you are giving the LCD-X and the HD800's the same "Acqurate Score" of 98 . and list the "Acqurate Score" for the K812 at 94.

or are those preliminary numbers?

Thanks for checking it out. The acqurate score is not a static score. It changes depending on which attributes are selected and and how important one makes them. For example, if someone makes comfort important, headphones with favorable reviews for comfort will be pushed ahead of other headphones. But, yes, we are in the early stages and have just done a first pass to get a good cross-section of data. We are now looking to fine-tune that. More Reviews and specially comparative reviews are needed to create separation between headphones which end up with similar acqurate scores.

P.S. The scores come from individual scores for each attribute, plus any desired specs - still missing some review data. but how would you rank these headphones when it comes to listening to jazz music? How much separation do you think should be between them?

hello,

my observation was based on choosing no attributes, so i felt this might be an indication of overall rating/ranking. if not, my bad.

the issue i have is with the extreme instrument separation on some jazz recordings e.g. Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", i would want cans (or a two channel set-up for that matter) to have a MONO switch. 

Good point, especially with older recordings. DJ gear usually has stereo/mono switches and old receivers and integrated amplifiers used to have them too. Great feature...

My AKG K181DJ has that switch. Here is another example.



Some DJ headphones sound better than you think. The Stanton is one of them...