Reviews are in important part of researching a new product, especially before you drop potentially hundreds of dollars of your hard earned cash on a new gadget.
That’s why we take our reviews very seriously.
That’s also why we think you have a right to know exactly what our review scores mean, how they’re scored, and why certain products get the scores they get.
Scores
Our reviews are scored out of ten, and headphones are given a score in each category which ultimately informs the score that the headphones get overall.
- 0/10: Complete and utter trash. So disgraceful that you shouldn’t even consider buying a product with this score in any category.
- 1/10: Absolutely uninspiring in almost every way.
- 2/10: Frustratingly sub-par.
- 3/10: Annoyingly bad in most ways.
- 4/10: Worse than it should be and could use some work.
- 5/10: Average. Not very inspiring, but not the worst either.
- 6/10: Not top of its class, but still pretty good.
- 7/10: Quality, but with a few kinks.
- 8/10: High quality, but not absolutely perfect.
- 9/10: Excellent quality with only very minor imperfections. At the top of the game.
- 10/10: Unbeatable at any price. A product with this score is a game changer.
Review components
So what exactly gets scored? There are three main components to keep in mind when reviewing a pair of headphones, although wireless headphones get an extra component. Each of those components is outlined below, and the general score is calculated as an average of these four scores.
Sound
Sound is a very important thing to keep in mind, however it will be more important for audiophiles than for those buying headphones to wear on the go. So how do we test sound? We start out by listening to music the old-fashioned way — through our ears. Then, we run a tone-generator through the headphones, and then play a series of tracks through designed to locate problem frequencies, issues with wiring, and so on.
Comfort
This one is especially important for those that intend to wear their headphones for long periods of time, and may not be as big of a deal for those that just their headphones for a few minutes per day. There’s only one way to test out comfort — by wearing the headphones. We’ll wear a new pair of headphones for multiple hours during the day, and if they still feel okay after that time then they’ll get a good score.
Design
Headphones are a fashion accessory because they’re worn on your head. Many want headphones that fit with their fashion choices and style, and for good reason. Design is subjective, sure, but there are a few things we look out for. Uniqueness, a sleek profile, and a strong build are all things we look for with a new pair of headphones.
Value
The best headphones in the world may not be worth the price tag they come with. If there are other headphones with a comparable quality that cost a lot less money, then the headphones being reviewed will get a low value for money rating. If the headphones in question offer excellent quality at an amazingly low price, however, they’ll get a higher score.
Performance
Wireless headphones need to perform in two major ways — they need to have a decent battery life and they need to need to be able to maintain a connection to the source across some distance. Both of these things inform the performance score. How do we test performance? We’ll test a pair of headphones’ battery life simply by playing music through them. We can also test distance by walking away from our source audio and then measuring the distance.
Conclusions
Have any questions? If our reviews or how we score our reviews are confusing in any way, please feel free to reach out to us.