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Do your friends understand your obsession with audio?

post #1 of 74
1/5/10 at 5:59pm
Thread Starter 
I'm fairly new here, and haven't spent nearly as much as many of the members of this community, but I personally find that my friends are blown away by the amount of money I spend on audio gear in a year. I've told people at work that I own $200+ headphones, and some people seem blown away as if I had thrown my hard earned money down a well.

I guess like all other 'hobbies', it's hard to explain to others your obsession with great sound. All to often I put my cans over a friends head ("listen to this"), only to have them take them off 20 seconds later with a "yeah, it sounds okay". My roommate swears his $30 Walmart Sony's sound "as good" as my Senns. My other roommate buys $200 worth of Airsoft gear a month, but tells me I'm wasting my money.

Do you find this frustrating? Do you even care? In all fairness, when my roommate talks about Airsoft, I have no idea what he is talking about, and frankly, don't care to much.
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post #2 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:07pm
Nope not at all.
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post #3 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:10pm
Yeah, as with many hobbies, it can be hard for people to understand your obsession with them; conversely though, it's not reasonable to shove our passion/belief down their throats, either. I've been able to convert some of my friends at least to entry levels of headphone audiophilia (one of my best friends bought the D1001, and my sister recently purchased the HD238 after hearing how good it was), but I'm not expecting them to go any further than that and I won't bug them about upgrading or anything.

As long as they respect my hobby then I'd have no beef with them; it's fine if they don't understand it. But if they start picking on you for "wasting money" or "you have issues" or "They all sound the same" and all that jazz without even hearing you out then that's the point where I'll start to have some issues with them. I'll respect other peoples' hobbies and I'd expect others to do the same for me.
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post #4 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:17pm
Yeah they are often befuddled by it, but I really don't think it's that unreasonable. It's something that I spend 3-4 hours/day doing for leisure, why wouldn't I spend money to make it the best possible experience if it's such a big part of my life?
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post #5 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:17pm
Very true. It does matter a lot on your level of attention to the sound you are hearing and how much you enjoy and care for that additional effect. Most of the people I know don't really focus on what they are hearing. They just have it playing in the background when they are focussed on doing something else, in effect missing out on the finer details of the sound but just taking in the general ambience.
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post #6 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:26pm
When I bought my Sennheiser IE7's and had some custom earpieces done for them, a lot of my friends are like "What!? That much just for sound" Same when I told them I'm getting a vinyl set up. Others are a bit more understanding and think along the lines of "If you enjoy it, it's worth spending money on" I only have one friend who is in any way into higher end audio, and understands the want for better SQ.
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post #7 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:26pm
Thread Starter 
The funny thing is my Airsoft roommate loves music, and will sit in his room painting Warhammer models (another hobby I don't get) for hours with cheap Skullycandy headphones on. I offer my headphones to him all the time (I have at least 4 pairs within visual distance right now), but it's not of interest to him. I've repeatedly told him that if he spent even $100, he could have drastically better sound. He also tells me that if I spend $200 on a cheap gun, we could both go to an Airsoft field and practice.

In the end the argument is fairly circular. Neither of us gets the others hobbies. To each their own I suppose.
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post #8 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:29pm
nada !
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post #9 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:32pm
My good friends do quite understand my obsession with expensive audio gear, and they definitely do respect it. A little while ago we had a meeting where we presented each others' album top 50 lists at my house. We used my headphones whenever somebody wanted to play a track that would sound better through headphones. They admitted my Audio-Technicas sounded very good. One of them even thought my AD900 sounded wickedly awesome.

Other friends, well, they don't care that much. They are just as happy with their cheap Sennheisers. That's good, though, because them having Sennheiser headphones means there's still hope for them. It could have been so much worse...
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post #10 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:33pm
I own 5 sets of phones. Friends ask why I have that many as I only have one noggin. That is why it is fun to get on Head-fi. People here understand.
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post #11 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:35pm
Yeah, my friends just can't understand how LITTLE I spent on a home theater that can blow the roof off!
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post #12 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:46pm
Sometime i feel alone with my passion, so it's great to get on Head-Fi and discuss with other people.
I think we are "adictive", but nothing wrong for Pleasure, isn't it ?
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post #13 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyingInABlueDream View Post
The funny thing is my Airsoft roommate loves music, and will sit in his room painting Warhammer models (another hobby I don't get) for hours with cheap Skullycandy headphones on. I offer my headphones to him all the time (I have at least 4 pairs within visual distance right now), but it's not of interest to him. I've repeatedly told him that if he spent even $100, he could have drastically better sound. He also tells me that if I spend $200 on a cheap gun, we could both go to an Airsoft field and practice.

In the end the argument is fairly circular. Neither of us gets the others hobbies. To each their own I suppose.
Grab his Airsoft gun and blow his Skullcandy's to dust. Then he'll get the picture.
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post #14 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:54pm
After 20 years, they understand agree and they love it.
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post #15 of 74
1/5/10 at 6:59pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by SgtPepper View Post
Grab his Airsoft gun and blow his Skullcandy's to dust. Then he'll get the picture.
Ha, the question is which gun. AK-47? M-16? Mac-10? SCAR-L? MP-40? He collects Airsoft with the same dedication I buy audio gear with.
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