The Archive · Send one in

Send us your headphones.
We’ll measure them.

Every correction you can buy is built from somebody else’s sample of your model. This is the one way to get the curve of the pair actually in your hands. Your unit’sexact measurement comes back by email, and if that model has no page in the Archive yet, it gets one. Two ways in: if it is a model we are asking for, it is free and we cover shipping both ways. Any other headphone you own is $89, and you cover the postage.

Measured on a miniDSP EARS Pro, labelled by rig, and published either way, flattering or not. About a week on the bench.

What you get

What you get back.

Your unit’s exact curve

Not “the” HD 650 — yours. Unit variation is real, and knowing how your specific pair measures is exactly what Attune turns into a personal tuning.

Free if we are asking for it

We keep a public list of the models we most want on the bench. If yours is on it, the measurement is free and we pay shipping both ways. Anything else you own is $89, and you cover the postage.

Your name on the page

Published measurements carry a credit line, named however you want: your name, a handle, or not at all. Just tell us which.

Every result gets published

We publish what the rig says, flattering or not. A headphone that measures badly is as useful to the next person as one that measures well, and an archive that quietly drops the bad ones is worth nothing.

How it works

Five steps, most of them ours.

Your part is a minute of typing and a trip to the drop-off. We handle the label, the insurance, the measurement, and the return.

  1. 1

    Tell us what you’ve got

    Fill in the form below — make, model, and how to reach you. Takes a minute.

  2. 2

    We send a label

    You get a prepaid, insured return label, our address, and simple packing notes by email.

  3. 3

    You ship it

    Box it up and send it. It’s insured to the value you declare, door to door.

  4. 4

    We measure & publish

    It goes on the rig, gets an honest page in the Archive, and heads back to you in about a week.

  5. 5

    You get your curve

    Your unit’s exact measurement lands in your inbox, credited however you asked.

The fine print, up front

Your headphone, handled with care.

Insured both ways

You declare the value; we insure to it, inbound and outbound. We photograph condition on arrival and before return.

Back in about a week

Measured and shipped home within about five business days of arrival. If anything will run long, you hear it first.

Honest, or not at all

We publish exactly what we measure. If we can’t trust the data or the unit arrives damaged, we tell you why and don’t publish — you still get your curve.

A word on the rig. Your headphone is measured on our own bench (a miniDSP EARS Pro) and labeled that way. The Archive’s older curves came off a Head Acoustics HMS II.3 — a different system — so we keep the two clearly separated rather than pretending a single measurement is the last word. One unit is one unit, not the whole model.How to read the graph →

The list

What we’re asking for.

The Archive is strong through about 2014 and thin after it. These are the models we most want on the bench, and the reason each one earns a slot. Send one of these and the measurement is free, with shipping covered both ways. Anything else you own is $89.

Modern reference / most-compared open backs

  • Sennheiser HD 800 SP1The single most-compared headphone above $1,000 and the default soundstage/imaging reference in every review that mentions staging.
  • Sennheiser HD 560SP1Probably the most-recommended sub-$200 open back of the last six years, and widely used as an informal near-neutral reference people EQ from.
  • Sennheiser HD 490 ProP1Sennheiser's current pro open back, ships with two pad sets and a stated target, and is the model most often benchmarked in mixing/mastering roundups now.
  • Sennheiser HD 660S2P2The live 600-series flagship and the permanent subject of is it worth it over the HD 6XX.
  • Audio-Technica ATH-R70xaP2The R70x sat unusually high in Crinacle's list (A- tier, $350) for a cheap open back; the a revision is Audio-Technica's current professional reference and has noticeably thinner independent measurement coverage than the model it replaced.
  • Focal Utopia (2022) + Focal Clear MGP2The dynamic-driver counterweight to the planar-dominated top end.
  • Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro MKIIP2Beyerdynamic's current open studio flagship on the new 30-ohm Tesla.45 driver, a genuine break from the archive's 250/600-ohm DT 880/DT 990 lineage, and the model that inherits their studio slot.

Current budget and midrange workhorses (what people actually buy)

  • Drop Sennheiser HD 6XXP1Almost certainly the most-owned audiophile headphone in existence, and it recirculates at $130–170 constantly.
  • HiFiMan HE400seP1The ~$110 planar that is the default answer to what is my first planar.
  • Philips SHP9500P2The perennial sub-$100 open back recommendation, with a second life as a gaming/modding platform.
  • Koss KPH40 Utility (and KPH30i)P2The modern cult budget king that has largely displaced the Porta Pro in recommendations.
  • AKG K612 ProP2The surviving cheap AKG open back and the practical successor to the archive's K701/K702.

Planars

  • HiFiMan SundaraP1The reference point for affordable planars, full stop.
  • HiFiMan Edition XSP1Probably the best-selling audiophile planar of the decade at its $250–400 street price, and the most common Sundara or XS question in the hobby.
  • HiFiMan Arya OrganicP1Routinely described as the best-measuring headphone per dollar at street price, and the anchor of the $800–1,600 tier.
  • Audeze LCD-X (2021 revision)P1The archive's LCD-X is the original; the 2021 revision is a different tuning and is the unit actually in working studios.
  • Moondrop ParaP2The Chi-Fi planar that undercut HiFiMan on tuning at ~$340.
  • Meze Empyrean II / Meze PoetP3Meze has zero presence in the archive despite being one of the three high-end planar houses people actually shortlist.

IEMs

  • Moondrop Chu 2 (~$20)P1The floor of the hobby and a genuine mass-market product.
  • 7Hz Salnotes Zero 2 / Truthear Gate (~$25)P1The other two sub-$30 defaults.
  • Simgot EA500 LM (and EW200)P1The technical benchmark under $100 and the most-cited punches above price single-DD of the current era.
  • Truthear Nova (~$150)P1The clearest current expression of Harman-style IEM tuning at a price that made older reference IEMs redundant.
  • CrinEar Daybreak ($179)P1Explicitly tuned to a published 2025 target curve.
  • Etymotic ER2XR / ER4XRP1The archive has the ER-4S, which is discontinued.
  • Apple AirPods Pro 3P1The best-selling in-ear on earth by an enormous margin.
  • Moondrop x Crinacle Dusk (DSP)P2A DSP IEM with switchable presets, the frequency response is software, not acoustics.
  • 7Hz Timeless (and 7Hz x Crinacle Divine)P2The planar IEM lineage, of which the archive has literally nothing.
  • ThieAudio Monarch MkIIIP2The default ~$1,000 tribrid recommendation for several years running, and the flagship most people upgrade toward.
  • Shure SE846 (Gen 2) or 64 Audio U12tP3The professional stage/CIEM reference tier, and the natural continuation of the archive's SE215/SE535.

Closed backs and studio staples of the current era

  • AKG K371P1The most-cited measures right and costs $150 headphone in existence, tuned to the Harman over-ear target and used as the closed-back benchmark in most modern comparisons.
  • Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro, current 80Ω and 250ΩP1The archive has the 600Ω variant, which is discontinued.
  • Sennheiser HD 620SP2Sennheiser's new closed 600-series entry at ~$350, positioned directly against the DT 770 / M50x tier and generating a lot of closed HD 650?
  • Sony MDR-M1P2Sony's actual modern successor to the MDR-7506 that the archive holds.
  • Dan Clark Audio E3 (or Stealth)P2DCA is absent from the archive entirely and is one of the two or three brands that define the modern closed high end.
  • Sony WH-1000XM6 and Apple AirPods Max 2P2The two products that most non-enthusiasts mean when they say headphones.

Genuinely contested or measurement-scarce

  • Grado SR325x / Hemp / RS1xP1The archive has five Grados, all pre-x-series.
  • HiFiMan Susvara (and Susvara Unveiled)P2The top-of-market reference, and one of the few headphones where 5128-vs-711 results are documented as behaving oddly relative to other models, including unusual low-frequency variance under imperfect seal.
  • ZMF Caldera / Atrium, with the full pad setP2ZMF has no third-party presence in the archive and comparatively little anywhere: the response is strongly pad-dependent, wood cups introduce unit variation, and the manufacturer publishes its own measurements.
  • Stax SR-L700 MkII or SR-X9000 (plus energizer)P3Electrostatics need a dedicated drive setup, so third-party data is thin and rarely comparable.
  • RAAL 1995 Immanis / MagnaP3Ribbon drivers, very high hype-to-data ratio, and an unusual transformer-fed drive requirement.
  • Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 (open-ear / bone conduction)P3A fast-growing mass-market category with essentially no rigorous published measurement, partly because standard couplers do not apply cleanly.

P1 is what we want first. P2 is the second wave. P3 fills a real gap when one turns up. Not on the list and still want yours measured? That is the $89 lane, and the answer is yes.

Start here

Send one in.

Tell us what you’ve got and how to reach you. We’ll email a prepaid, insured label and where to send it — no charge, no card.

We only use this to arrange the measurement. No spam, no list-selling.

Brands & retailers

Have a lineup? Let’s measure it.

A loaner gets your headphone an honest measurement and a permanent page built to rank for “model frequency response” — a durable marketing asset, not a one-off review. We cover shipping both ways, insure it in transit, and send it back the day the page goes up. Pick “A brand or retailer” in the form and we’ll take it from there.

Arrange a loaner
Questions

The obvious ones.

Does it cost me anything?

No. We email you a prepaid, insured return label and cover shipping both ways. If you would rather not pay to ship it to us either, ask — we prepay inbound for local and community contributors.

Is my headphone insured in transit?

Yes, both directions. You tell us the value, we insure to it, and we photograph the unit on arrival and again before it ships back — documented, not a gotcha.

How long will you keep it?

We measure and ship it back within about five business days of arrival. If anything will take longer, we tell you before you send it.

What if the measurement is unflattering?

We publish it anyway. Honest graphs are the whole point — we show exactly how a headphone measures, good or bad. What we will not do is dress it up.

What if you can’t publish mine?

Sometimes a unit arrives damaged, won’t seal on the rig, or gives data we don’t trust. If that happens we tell you why, you still get your unit’s curve, and we simply don’t publish it.

Do I need an account?

No. There is no account, no profile and no sign-up. Tell us on the intake form how you want to be credited, and that is all we need.

What headphones can you measure?

Over-ear and on-ear headphones, and IEMs where the rig takes a proper seal. If you’re not sure yours qualifies, tell us in the form and we’ll say.

How is this different from the historical Archive?

The Archive’s older curves were measured on a Head Acoustics HMS II.3. Your headphone is measured here on our own rig (a miniDSP EARS Pro) and labeled as such. We don’t silently mix the two — they’re different measurement systems, especially up in the treble.

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