Hacker News Reader

> the difference between an open-back vs. a closed-back headphone with identical magnitude response (by your definition, the differences between these two headphones should have mostly disappeared).

What an uncharitable reading! They said the quality differences mostly disappear.

View on HN

Imaging and distortion directly affect quality.

Yes, they do. I don't think that conflicts with anything they or I said?

Their claim is that most differences are either quality or eq. Imaging and distortion are more or less just subsets of quality. Open vs. closed is one of those differences that largely falls outside those two buckets. Their suggested comparison of H9i vs. AirPods Max is two models of over-the-ear closed-back headphones.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com