Headphone Corner is a blog or rather a review site which aims to address the limited amount of Finnish content related to headphones. From 2025 onwards, we will also provide content translated into English. On the site, you can read reviews and articles of various headphones, DACs and amplifiers. As the founder of Headphone Corner, I want to keep the content as impartial as possible. I also want to avoid situation where readers would be pressured into buying something. However, I am open to loaning or even receiving some of the products in order to make the content as diverse as possible. There will be no advertisements of any kind on the site to keep the look clean and the reading experience as pleasant as possible.
Besides myself, another headphone enthusiast also writes articles for Headphone Corner, so short introductions are in order.
Owner: Sword of Damocles
I am a geographer and headphone enthusiast born in 1990. I currently live in Joensuu Finland, where Headphone Corner's sort of headquarters is also located.
I primarily listen to music from digital sources, and I don't take my hobby or the term 'hi-fi' too seriously. I also don't really believe in expensive cables or 'magic crystals', preferring to focus on, so to speak, the essentials. In my opinion, the most important aspect of headphone listening is having headphones that suit one's own preferences, whose sound can also be slightly fine-tuned with an amplifier or a DAC.
In the headphone hobby, a higher price doesn't always automatically mean better quality, because product pricing involves many factors beyond sound quality, and prices often include a significant amount of 'air' (markup). Today, good sound quality is available at an affordable price, while the most expensive products cost more than ever before. Personally, I buy most of my headphones and gear second-hand, in order to test as many different products as possible.
The articles I write are a blend of objectivity and subjectivity, as in addition to the frequency response measurements, I always compare the listening experience to my own preferences. My understanding of the hobby has developed over the years as a result of self-study, so I am still constantly learning new things. I approach different products quite neutrally, and I don't believe there is such a thing as 'perfect sound', so to speak. Listening is always a subjective experience, so I feel that music is produced primarily to be enjoyed, and not to be objectively analyzed. Therefore, in my opinion, it is very difficult to say what music should sound like in reality. Rather, there are many approaches.
All headphones typically have their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of sound quality, meaning they are suited for different use cases. While a sound that is as neutral as possible is a safe choice, it's not necessarily the most enjoyable or pleasant listening experience. My own tactic has been to own multiple different headphones so that I don't get bored of any of them. I also generally enjoy testing new products that are unfamiliar to me.
Guest writer: Roderick
I contribute to Headphone Corner as a regular guest writer. I became seriously interested in headphone listening in 2009, and since then I have owned over 200 different headphones. My hobby has also included modifying, restoring, and building headphones.
My articles include subjective listening impressions as well as frequency response measurements taken with either the MiniDSP EARS or the Chinese IEC711 Clone. All the products I test are either my own or have been received on loan. If I had to pick one pair of headphones above all others, they would be the Focal Utopia. Headphones with a darker sound signature, such as the Audeze LCD series, don't generally appeal greatly to me. While I now focus more on higher-end headphones, I continue to follow the development of more affordable headphones with interest as well. Thus, I write reviews covering a wide range of products, both expensive and affordable.
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