Mind helping out the average person and point them to websites that are good for figuring out if a certain pair of headphones are worth checking out or not?
There isn't really one unless you develop a really good bullshit detector. The problem with audio is a lot of people make it a lot more subjective than it really should be. The #1 way to bust through a lot of bullshit is to understand how measurements work because that gives you a baseline to:
- Understand forum user preferences
- Tell if someone is actually being consistent with their preferences or is just really bullshiting/shilling/fishing for review samples/beholden to advertisers. This is the #1 problem I have with Head-Fi.
- Understand what your own preferences are so you know what headphones you will definitely hate and which you will like
The story I always like to tell is Stereophile's review of the Sonus Faber Stradivari. The publication, unlike many other audiophile reviewers, actually provide measurements. The problem is that, since so many audiophiles think audio is 10000% subjective, the subjective review and measurement sections are done by different people and are practically separate entities.
But because Stereophile actually provides measurements, it lets you either read between the lines or see if the subjective review has any merit at all. In the subjective written review by Michael Fremer, he says that the Sonus Faber Stradivari have:
deep, tactile, well-controlled, pitch-perfect, solid bass
The problem with that statement is that it completely contradicts the measurements as Sonus Faber Stradivari has a huge low end hump that is
10 dB louder than anything else. This was measured in an
anechoic chamber so this bass will likely be even louder in an actual room taking into consideration your typical room modes. It definitely was when I walked into an ongoing demo at Carlton Audio, a local audio store. So Michael Fremer can write what he wants but I cannot see any way he is correct in his opinion unless you have a room the size of a basketball court.
Anyway, Tyll from Inner Fidelity is one of the better guys for headphone reviews since he measures his headphones and his opinions are generally very consistent and fall in line with what he actually measures. He also doesn't correlate $$$ or aesthetics with sound quality either. Changstar/Super Best Audio Friends are alright too if you're just there for measurements...I'd only stay for the measurements though.
good god, no, son. in-ear buds for playing games/watching movies/listening to music? ew.
why does it hurt, because you have the volume too loud or do you mean the fit of the headphones themselves?
you should get the HD 598's, they're like slipping marshmallows over your ears.
Good IEMs are actually more economical than headphones IMHO. Comparing IEMs to headphones, I feel the low end spectrum of IEMs are better than your similarly priced headphone and the high end IEMs are actually potentially worth your money unlike the majority of flagship headphones currently on the market.
Past your $400 headphones or your entry level electrostats (Stax 207 or Koss ESP950), full sized headphones just have too many fundamental engineering problems that most manufacturers just can't be bothered dealing with. Realtalk, I feel a $250 to $400 pair of JBL LSR305 are fundamentally better than any kilobuck headphone on the market and have more care put into them than the vast majority of headphones in this price bracket too. That's how low my opinion for "flagship" headphones are.