Is Audiophile level sound an acquired taste?
Aug 19, 2007 at 6:44 AM Post #46 of 244
Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMahler /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Imagine we were the dumb ones, and it turned out the apple buds produced the purest sound on earth......and companies like AKG, Stax, and Sennheiser paid companies like headroom and audiocubes to promote "less lusterous" sounding phones which looked more expensive but were in fact not the real deal - the apple ibuds! Imagine we were all fooled
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then it would mean head-fi is a scam. CALL THE FBI/CIA/MIB
 
Aug 19, 2007 at 6:48 AM Post #47 of 244
I'll tell you....my dad got a pair of 7 dollar sony ear buds last week. While I wouldn't call them god's gift, it still sounded good and it makes it hard to justify spending 1000 dollars on my UE10s...........The UE10s probably arent 140 times better than those ear buds, but I would say they are 20 times better and I have to convince myself that thats worth paying over a 100 times the price
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Aug 19, 2007 at 6:55 AM Post #48 of 244
All my friends that have heard my L3000s love them...My old pair of He60's/HP-2s did not get the same reaction...One girl called the L3000 "sex on ears" haha
 
Aug 19, 2007 at 6:57 AM Post #49 of 244
Quote:

Originally Posted by juzmister /img/forum/go_quote.gif
All my friends that have heard my L3000s love them...My old pair of He60's/HP-2s did not get the same reaction...One girl called the L3000 "sex on ears" haha



I think I'll rename my band that: Sex on Ears!
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Aug 19, 2007 at 7:08 AM Post #50 of 244
Well, lets not forget there's two things going on here.

One is sound, those of us here appreciate good sound.

Two is music, which happens to be the relationship between sounds.

You can have crappy sound and still have good music.

Which apparently is good enough for most folks. What does this mean? I dunno..., but it's gotta mean something.
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Aug 19, 2007 at 7:16 AM Post #51 of 244
I think there's a misconception with some people that good sound or good musicianship tarnishes the quality of the music. I know people that prefer an untrained vocalist or vocalist that simply cannot sing to someone who can sing very well. The reason for this is they feel that their ears are not distracted by the platitudes and "superfluities" of a great voice and instead of being dazzled by the voice they can bypass this experience and just be dazzled by what the voice is saying. My friend who loves Dylan, Lou Reed and Tom Waits feels this way....says he prefers the vocals by those guys more than Stevie Wonder or Jeff Buckley or Paul McCartney. He knows that the latter three are better singers in that they address the melody with more understanding and their timbre is more controlled. However, he just prefers the raw quality of a less skilled singer.

I now forgot why I'm typing all this.....

Oh yeah........I think my friend who feels this way, feels actually distracted when the sound is so "good" and prefers muddled sound. It's weird, maybe he should see a shrink
 
Aug 19, 2007 at 7:35 AM Post #52 of 244
Quote:

Originally Posted by Chu /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Back in college a roomate I didn't get along with "borrowed" my Grado's for a night, knowing nothing about them. I noticed he bought a pair later.

Had something similar at a LAN when I had an extra pair of V6's I loaned out.

The more laid back sounds of cans like the HD600's seems to be a much more acquired taste though. The idea of measuring sound quality by the base output is just so ingrained these days.



^
*Slap*

Anywho, my friends are a mixed crowd, I have brought alot of equitment into school for "demo" days, one or two would ask for me to bring in my old Zhaolu and my Micro (gone, will miss it forever
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) along with my stash, and we would listen in study off my friends laptop. Some others would join in, with varing responses. I noticed after a few days that the negative responses got more common, even from those who praised the setup at first. That said, peer pressure may have to do with it, or they just went deff due to high volume iBud listening. I think its more of option one than 2. Try having your friends over one by one and see what the responses are.
 
Aug 19, 2007 at 8:39 AM Post #53 of 244
i jz read the 1st post, i wil think that most of the person dont know who to measure the GOOD/GREAT/BAD, most of the "common" listener only focus on low frequency which is bass, bass strong means GOOD, dont blame them. they do not know the measurement.
 
Aug 19, 2007 at 8:47 AM Post #54 of 244
Been awhile,

Anyway, I noticed that a lot of audiophiles dislike people who can't hear a difference between iBuds and the higher end. They call them "idiots" or "sheeple", and that just isn't cool. It may seem odd to us, but everyone is different. If anything the people trying to dampen the vibrations on their DACs/CD players are the odd ones.

I never really got into the 300+ dollar headphones, and am content with my A900s and SR225s. I notice the difference, and so do most people I let listen to my headphones. When I let them put on the A900s I always get a "it sounds like I'm there" response. Most people like things better because they are louder, and not because they sound better.
 
Aug 19, 2007 at 10:31 AM Post #55 of 244
Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMahler /img/forum/go_quote.gif
My friend who loves Dylan, Lou Reed and Tom Waits feels this way....says he prefers the vocals by those guys more than Stevie Wonder or Jeff Buckley or Paul McCartney. He knows that the latter three are better singers in that they address the melody with more understanding and their timbre is more controlled. However, he just prefers the raw quality of a less skilled singer.


Hey now, Tom Waits has an amazing voice. I have a pretty clear, "nice" voice, and I'd trade it in for Tom Waits' voice any day of the week. :p

</offtopic>
 
Aug 19, 2007 at 10:43 AM Post #56 of 244
Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMahler /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Imagine we were the dumb ones, and it turned out the apple buds produced the purest sound on earth......and companies like AKG, Stax, and Sennheiser paid companies like headroom and audiocubes to promote "less lusterous" sounding phones which looked more expensive but were in fact not the real deal - the apple ibuds! Imagine we were all fooled
evil_smiley.gif



yikes..I just A/B my ibud with K701 thanks to your conspiracy theory since I just toss the ibud in the draw the second I got it......wow..that was not even close and I just wasted 30 sec of my life doing it!
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Aug 19, 2007 at 11:27 AM Post #57 of 244
I do feel it is an acquired taste. About a week ago I received my Darkvoice at the office. I got a lot of puzzles looks, and people that were curious but didn't ask. I also got two people really interested. One of them is very curious about technical stuff, and didn't have the chance to attend college. But he was way open to listening to my explanations. He was also curious enough to try, and he told me before hand that he wasn't into sophisticated stuff, that he wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I told him to try and he told me he didn't notice a difference between the Darkvoice and the Corda Move. To be honest, I hadn't AB them yet, he was the first one to try because he was eager to figure out why I had bought that kind of stuff. I did one simple thing for him to experiment. I told him to close his eyes and try to imagine teh soundtage and he did. I played for him "Got my mojo workin'" from the Mojo album by Big Joe Maher (Mapleshade), and he did close his eyes and relaxed to it. He was marveled at the positioning and clarity. We then changed to teh Darkvoice, and he was smiling. he told me that it felt better in some way he could not describe, as if the music had more presence.. more strength to each element and as if the room were bigger. I was amazed by his description.

As opposed, I had guys that usually listen to music on sony ear buds that started up by attacking my choices without listening to the gear. Without losing themselves in the music first.

So I believe that several factors are at work here. The first question for such individuals is "How long has it been since you don't really just listen to music?". I've found most people just use music ans background noise and don't have listening sessions in their lives. It's been years since they don't listen to music and do only that.

The second factor is an open mind. If your audience is not willing to understand that there are other hobbies out there then there can be no common talk. As many have said here we all have to learn to respect other peoples hobbies, and we also have all to learn to try an understand how deep stuff can go.
 
Aug 19, 2007 at 11:43 AM Post #58 of 244
Lend your mates some of those headphones for a few weeks and let them return to their normal audio equipment (ibuds?). Ask what they think then.

And you have a large collection of great headphones but only an ipod for a source?
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Aug 19, 2007 at 12:08 PM Post #59 of 244
Quote:

Originally Posted by DJShadow /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Lend your mates some of those headphones for a few weeks and let them return to their normal audio equipment (ibuds?). Ask what they think then.

And you have a large collection of great headphones but only an ipod for a source?
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An iMod. There's a difference.

A $250 difference.
 
Aug 19, 2007 at 12:26 PM Post #60 of 244
I think it is.

At least the definition of good sound between me and Joe Bloggs is not the same. The bass thing, already mentioned, but the trend in boosting CD levels and dispensing with frequency range is proof.


Screenshot by me.
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