When you have a group of enthusiasts gathered around, certain things will tend to dominate the conversation. Certain headphones will gain praise over most. (To an alarming degree, which is where I agree with ya)

So when ten people praise a thing, more people will buy the thing, then more people will praise it, while a percentage will have a negative experience.

It’s not only headphone preference. There’s an even greater enthusiast market for listening sources. A different source can give someone a totally different experience. And from what I’ve heard, the hd600 is a very amp dependent headphone. So people are hearing different experiences in general.

There’s also a fuck ton of snake oil coming outta YouTube reviewers that flows into this forum.

It all just makes for a VERY frustrating hobby, when you can’t just try the shit before you buy it. I’m the type of guy that will do a stupid amount of research before I settle on something. It’s why I like the Deva over the Sundara.

Bro you’re going crazy trying to find a headphone that 100% people like which is impossible. imagine going on Rotten Tomatoes being upset because you’re trying to find a good movie to watch and you don’t know what to choose because a movie has 90% good reviews and not 100% good reviews lol you’re crying because of the 10% bad reviews?

I mean, headphones are subjective. Use your ears and find people who share your tastes.

What are you trying to get out of reviews that’s lacking? Outside of an obvious flaw that justifies saying “this is objectively bad” most headphones are fine from an objective standpoint. Beyond that it’s basically just the reviewer saying if they liked the sound or not, and what other headphones it’s most similar to. You have to either know what reviewers have similar taste to yours, or have heard enough other headphones for the comparisons to be meaningful. Without either of those, no, reviews aren’t really useful.

I dont really take this sub or anysub to be honest, too seriously
So I don t know if I really trust review on here, because even if the guy is qualify to do the review you don t know his taste really.
Being 4 years into the hobby you should know what you like or not and the taste of the most famous reviewer on YT for exemple if Z says a headphone is bright its probably gonna be too bright for me ect ect
For people being negative its probably just “elitism” and the few louder one
And about your upgrade sadly the best ways will always be to listen to the headphones on your radar by yourself

It’s simple.
Audio is a solved thing meaning they’re all high fidelity, high quality headphones that are by and large the same.
People are arguing over minute differences that are all based on personal preferences.

HD 600 has consistent reviews.

Go find a YouTuber who has the same musical taste as you. See if they have a forum or a discord, ask the question there

From the OP: “It almost feels like 75 percent of reviewers here are just fan-boys of a single brand and are trying to destroy other headphone brands.”

Bingo!

Think of headphone reviews like restaurant reviews. On any restaurant, you’re going to find people with different views on how good that restaurant is. Some will say “this is the best German food I’ve had!” and others will say “this food was terrible!” Or some reviews say “this dish was too spicy”, and others will say “this [same] dish was perfectly spiced”. Same deal with quality of service, with some people saying the service is great and others saying it’s terrible. Some people don’t care about service, others deduct two stars because “food was wonderful, but the waitress didn’t smile. 3/5 stars.”

Reviews are good for both restaurants and headphones, as someone else said, to calibrate expectations. If I see a restaurant has many reviews saying how their Peking duck is great, I’ll probably try it for its Peking duck. I’m not actually that big a fan of Peking duck to begin with though, so I’ll probably try other restaurants first. Same thing with headphones; if many people like the mids on one headphone, I’ll probably check it out if I want to listen to a mid-centric presentation.

I only look at this sub to see some pictures of headphones when I’m bored scrolling thru my phone. I’d never take any advice or reviews on here seriously lol.

I look at the frequency response of the headphones they review, and mainly i take it more serious if ‘em show which DAC they use, it it’s FiiO i discard imediatelly since these dacs always add color to sound, even more their dongles

Myself, when i say something about an headphone, i at least try once one or the same headphone neutralized by EQ, and then i try without, as i told in an comment below, i say “it’s increased there” or “it’s reduced there” so I don’t disturb much in others choices and perception, and i always prefer to tell what i say as “Opnion”

While this is very subjective, there is still enough agreement if you research a bit.

When I was starting with the hobby I got some well regarded headphones (from Beyerdynamic, Hifiman, Audeze, Sennheiser, Meze) and I wasn’t disappointed.

But nothing beats trying headphones for yourself. Also you can find some reviewers/sites with a good track record and similar opinions to help you decide.

Well, you can use frequency response to tell you some things, like if they are bass/treble heavy or v-shaped response. After that when you have heard some things that reviewers have also done reviews for to gauge how much your own taste aligns with various reviewers.

Welcome to literally any tech hobby. Cameras, guitars, headphones, keyboards, video games, they’re all the same. People will buy something and then dig their heels in the sand that whatever they buy is the best version of that thing and anyone not doing the same thing is dumb. You have to be able to filter out the dumb/obviously biased comments from ones that actually might be applicable to your question or point of interest.