Well, one of my friends is on here already and has an HD650, HD595, q-Jays and makes his own amps and stuff. I mainly got into headphones after he let me try on his HD595's a few years ago.
 
Another friend has HD555's, and my roommate/friend here has a Turtle Beach HPA headset and Shure SE310's. I guess I've got a few people who understand headphones and whatnot and aren't appalled by how much it costs.
 
I remember when I first got my SR80's, my friends kept telling me how it was too expensive and how I wasted my money... lol. My parents also think anything over $40 or so for headphones it too much, which is weird since my dad really likes higher end speakers. It's going to be hard trying to tell them I'm going to buy $250 headphones and a $200 dac/amp. I will have to tell them it cost less than it actually did. 

Shouldn't this thread be in the member's lounge?

What's this "friends" you speak of?
 
Anyway.  None share the this obsession/addiction, as far as I know.  But they all got other hobbies as sink holes....

None whatsoever. Most of them use stock buds or skullcandies.

hell, some of YOU GUYS probably think I'M crazy my friends think my gear sounds mad and my dinner parties seem to go off pretty well (speakers too). but things are a bit bad when your own housemates resort to texting you because youve always got IEMs in. i've converted a few, sold my SE530 to one, an LOD and AMB mini^3 to another, my mother wants my UM3X badly because I lent them to her for a bus trip once (bad mistake) she loves her modded recabled KSC75 and occasionally asks to borrow my D10 for 'meditation' plugged into her laptop because their were workmen next door. (shes in her 60's too) so at least I dont have to look too far for presents to give.
 
most of my friends think it sounds great, but do tend to thiunk i'm crazy, so I stopped telling people the price of things a while ago now since my problem got worse. at least they recognize its my job, but some things do tend to make eyes glaze over. like when I tried to explain the importance of clean power supply to my mate a while ago when he came over while I was working on a jung regulator and asked what the LED was for.

My friends can generally discern the differences between their ibuds or other cheap headphones and my HD650, but it doesn't really change their opinion on head-fi. They think it's a complete waste of money, and they just want to listen to the music, they don't care much about the "sound." I don't agree that it's a waste, but I understand many people don't care about sound signatures and such. 
 
That said, I've successfully prevented them from buying Skullcandy or replacement ibuds, in favor of slightly better options...

I only have one other audiophile friend. The rest are sheep and follow the popularity trend.

well none of them.
for example, with my recent tf10 acquisition, thay saw it at the local mac dealer and the price is the usual 500$++. and they say, What how can you spend so much on such a small thing as a headphone. Of course i dint tell them about the amazon blowup.
Then i make them listen to it side by side with their stock ipod crapbuds 
 
then they were like What kind of sound vooodoo is this im hearing.
 
after that, they always go to me for headphone advise. i aredy got one to spend 100$ on a pair of headphones, and im in the process of influencing another to get a set of ie8.
not bad eh 

BTW do girlfriends count?
cos my girl dont understand half im telling her about good sound and good headphones but she supports me
so there

Quote:

qusp said:

 my mother wants my UM3X badly because I lent them to her for a bus trip once (bad mistake) she loves her modded recabled KSC75 and occasionally asks to borrow my D10 for 'meditation' plugged into her laptop because their were workmen next door. (shes in her 60's too) so at least I dont have to look too far for presents to give.
 
 

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lol you got a cool mom.
my mom dont even know what an ipod is

Quote:

astro said:

Aka the ones who don't think you're nuts
 
For me, I'd say it's about a third. Certain really good recordings help out with that.

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If there not interested I don't let them near my equipement.  There loss really, especially as some claim to love music.

My girlfriend says that we're a bunch of retards. But i've two friends that understand me.

My friends are almost all musicians, or people with at least a basic understanding of music, so it isn't that hard for them to understand the benefits of a better rig. Half of them are geeks as well, whether it be photography, computers or music.

Quote:

furstrated said:

lol you got a cool mom.
my mom dont even know what an ipod is

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yeah I would have to agree there. hopefully my hearing stays that good to her age and it runs in the family. it must be pretty good if she can still appreciate the sound of my IEMs enough to want to drive them with a better dac/amp. think i'm gonna build her a gamma1 with diamond buffer for her Bday. shes still working from home as a graphic designer (digital) primarily in print, but does some ebooks too; so yeah shes pretty clued in and she could use a nice optical/usb dac

i only have one or two but we hardly contact :<
 
the rest either think i'm crazy or just doesn't appreciate it.
the furthest i tried to convert them was the denon earpiece