New Delhi, July 5 -- I think most modern consumer audio gear is designed to lie to you. I have been noticing for decades that many mainstream audio brands try to condition us to go for artificial bass shelves, aggressive V-shaped tuning curves, and even heavy digital processing algorithms that mask the true nature of a recording. It's like they are telling us to crave sensory excitement over raw accuracy. There are many of us who would not mind enjoying these artificial flavours, but as a true audiophile lover, you know it's like choosing the red pill to know the harsh truth over the blue pill giving you blissful ignorance.

This is how I felt when I stepped into reference monitoring with the Sennheiser HD 480 Pro Plus, where the entire p...