One of the founding assumptions of high fidelity audio is that it is in a quiet space. It is great if you have a location with an ambient noise level is in the 20’s db. It profoundly makes a difference. Most of the time, it is probably likely most folks have listening areas in the 30s db. If you are into the 40s... it is a compromised area and you are just not going to be listening to high end sound because of the high noise floor covering details and nuance... and filling in the silence in between notes or sounds. For a reference, a plane at cruising altitude background noise is 78 - 84db. For automobiles is 70 - 85... similar in a supermarket. The world is loud.
It took me decades to realize that trying to do high fidelity in those environments Is hopeless. While if you are in your home and there are some activities around and it is in the 50’s closed headphones can help. But if there is much noise the high fidelity is lost.
I think lots of folks / reviewers go to a quiet room and evaluate earbuds and headphones. The problem is, if you are going to be using them in noisy areas, then this is not the right way to evaluate them. They need to have a completely different sonic balance to sound good. I finally realized this when I ditched my high end headphones, DAC, and battery powered headamp I used on airplanes while traveling and switched to Bose Quiet Comfort headphones where the sound is well balanced if somewhat cartoonish. It just sounds great... although not "audiophile". I noticed that the system in my 4Runner is JBL and is punchy and actually sounds better than the Mark Levinson system in my Lexus (which, if you are sitting in the car in the garage sounds like a high end system). So car companies, headphone, and earbud companies are figuring this out. The sound needs to be crafted for the environment you are going to use them.
