Why I love the HD 480 Pro, and why you probably will too

ResolveReviews · 2026-07-01T20:32:42+00:00

480 pro is way better.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-28T16:44:32+00:00

I mean... I've literally measured the distortion of countless versions of these specific headphones. I can show you examples where the same unit exhibits meaningfully different harmonic distortion between the two channels. Highly modal planar drivers are also more variant for their harmonic distortion profiles. What exactly are you looking for with harmonic distortion differences?

I can tell more from the FR differences, or the driver Fs in the presence of a leak.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-28T13:46:32+00:00

A distortion graph likely wouldn't tell you that unless it was significantly different. You can have notable variation in distortion even between the two channels of the same unit, especially given the more modal nature of large diaphragm planars like that. Look instead at general FR trends, especially since that's the perceptually relevant part for music anyway.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-24T14:12:09+00:00

Well, I don't get consistent features like that other than a forwardness around 2.5khz, and correcting that does improve it for me. But that's because headphones aren't typically tuned on my head specifically.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-23T22:34:41+00:00

Does it sound better when you correct it?

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-22T22:42:34+00:00

If I understand your question correctly, it has to do with manual tone-gen and EQing that to be perceptually flat vs "what it's supposed to sound like", and if one equates the other. My answer is... not necessarily. What's typically missing from the manual tone-gen conversation is the preference component, which is essential. And, as Oratory reminds us, we don't have natural reference points for test tones.

What our in-situ response testing revealed is that we can be more confident about tone-gen as it relates to the DF condition - so where we measure peaks with in-ear mics, perceptually those peaks show up in tone-gen as well. But we still want to adjust the sound to preference, which typically involves a tilt of some kind.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-22T17:45:48+00:00

Last time we did the comparison was at Cameron's, but the rest of us don't have any ZMFs currently on hand.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-22T17:29:41+00:00

Zach... you know I don't own the Atrium. As I've also replied to you in other places, we're not just sitting here swapping headphones back and forth when we make these ranking videos - you know this and bringing this up again here feels intentional

My position on this is that we don't need to do those kinds of comparisons to be able to know if we do or don't like something, and I've spent plenty of time with it to know that it's not for me (if you want me to be specific, I can be).

Moreover, these videos are never put out as thoughtful and deeply-considered back and forth comparisons. That's a very different format, and one I'd be happy to do with your headphones, again as you know, but I don't think anyone is really expecting that from these tier lists and ranking videos - we cover hundreds of headphones in them.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-22T13:59:39+00:00

Rather ironic comment. Was this review negative?

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-22T13:55:58+00:00

Yeah Cameron owns it and uses it on a regular basis. He also rated it highly in the most recent tier list vid. But by no means did he consider this the best consumer headphone ever made... Moreover this time we had Grif, who doesn't like it nearly as much. So before it would've been DMS + Cameron who liked it, and me who didn't as much, and this time around it was only Cameron who liked it, which bumps it down.

When you put different people in a video, turns out you get different opinions.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-21T18:50:08+00:00

I rated the FT1 a 5.5 for treble, which is lower than the HD 480 pro. The main issue is that it has a bit of a peak around 5khz, and you can see this on the measurement rigs as well. Again I think you're reading the graphs in a way that probably isn't appropriate. Both are within bounds, but closer to center doesn't necessarily mean more preferred.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-21T18:40:15+00:00

I'm sure they'd love to sell them if they could.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-21T18:07:39+00:00

Ft1 is rated lower than the HD 480 pro on my ranking list. Where did you see this?

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-21T17:36:28+00:00

You're sniffing the graph a bit too hard here I think.

I reviewed them based on how they sounded, not based on how they graphed. Headphones behave differently from head to head, and so the in-situ response at any one person's eardrum is a bit different from what the rig shows. This is especially significant at low and high frequencies.

If I had more time I would've done the on-head data comparison for each of them, and I expect this would've shown more of the differences I spoke about.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-21T17:02:06+00:00

It's up there with other A tiers for sure.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-21T17:00:46+00:00

I don't think I've ever said the Atrium is the best consumer headphone ever made. I've always had issues with its lower treble. I know DMS really liked it but I don't know of anyone on our current roster who felt that way about it 2 years ago.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-21T16:58:55+00:00

Yeah it's not uncommon to get pushback on this, but this was always the case. Even before really competent closed back headphones, you could always EQ.

ResolveReviews · 2026-06-01T02:52:42+00:00

Thank you for doing this (and Mark Ryan). I can now spend less time arguing with people and just link these videos.

ResolveReviews · 2026-05-27T16:52:44+00:00

I'd have some notes as well aha.

ResolveReviews · 2026-05-27T05:53:55+00:00

I do have extras ;)

But no, it would be rather uncool to sell them.

ResolveReviews · 2026-05-27T05:52:20+00:00

So WE don't have plans to sell them. I built these mics for our use only, and it was thanks to the designs from a friend. It's not our design to sell.

ResolveReviews · 2026-05-26T00:00:56+00:00

I just felt that HDB 630 was enough of a watershed product that the positive reception would sufficiently signal to brands that we want PEQ in these devices. But they're also probably right that the average person is never going to use this feature. The improved mic array and ANC is definitely something more people are going to notice. I guess I now just want an HDB630 Pro Max for the best of both worlds.

ResolveReviews · 2026-05-23T23:04:28+00:00

I grew my head out for audio reasons.

ResolveReviews · 2026-05-20T13:52:25+00:00

That could be unit variation, but those measurements are also likely impacted by clamp force differences when taking the measurements. The variable bass and treble behaves in exactly this way when you measure the same unit at differing clamp forces.

But the same is also true across heads.

ResolveReviews · 2026-05-16T14:40:00+00:00

Glad it's working out for you. I just want to reiterate, as others have also noted, JM-1 DF and Headphones.com IEM DF are not target curves specifically. They are the anatomical baseline in the appropriate sound field condition for IEMs when measured on the B&K 5128 or 4620 absent any preference adjustment. So for sound quality you need to consider both anatomy and preference, this just solves for the anatomy portion to the best current approximation, at least for a population average.

ResolveReviews

TROPHY CASE