Headphone retail price shows almost no correlation with sound quality

Evidence

Breebaart (2017) published a large survey of 283 models of headphones with the provocative title “no correlation between headphone frequency response and retail price”. The survey included three headphone types: circumaural (AE), supra-aural (OE) and IE headphones. He calculated the correlation between headphone retail price and how far the frequency response deviated from two references: the mean response across all headphones, and an objective quality metric: the Harman target curve. High correlation values implied that spending more money would get you a better sounding headphone. Using the Harman target curve as a reference the Pearson correlation coefficients for each type were: AE (r = 0.12), IE (r = 0.17) and OE (r = 0.02). The correlation values based on the mean response were very similar. The paper initially shocked the headphone community with the realization that price was no guarantee for better sound. It was a wake-up call to the consumers and the industry that they had no clear idea or consensus how to design headphones that sound good. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1824

Categorization

• SEED: A consumer-advice essay explaining that the Harman target exists precisely because price fails to predict sound quality — a practical guide for buying headphones by measured response, not price.
• SHARE: Send to an audiophile friend who bought expensive headphones on reputation — the r=0.02 for supra-aural models is a striking number.