Head-Fi becoming worse?  

fwiw- this sort of thread comes up constantly.  I've been here since 2002, and I've seen threads like this come and go.  There will be a lot of hand wringing and reminiscing about the good old days, but in my opinion, my guess is that you've changed as much (or more) than the site has, and that's what's affecting your perception, more so than any differences in the quality of the posts. 

Honestly there has been an influx of newcomers lately, I would attribute it to mass Skullcandy/Beats marketing & sales which isn't necessarily a bad thing for headphone popularity however years ago people recommended Beyers 880/990, Sony SAs and other $300+ headphones and now all the recommendations are under $100, M50s, best bassy headphones under $50 and so on. This could drop the 'audiophile-level', no need for amps or DACs etc then again it could take hold and reel in some late bloomers. I really don't respond to 'what headphone' threads anymore and most of the new 2009+ guys do, so in turn you have even more sub $100 headphone suggestions, no need for an amp and so on...

the site changes but i think it's more just people getting bored.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clutz 

fwiw- this sort of thread comes up constantly.  I've been here since 2002, and I've seen threads like this come and go.  There will be a lot of hand wringing and reminiscing about the good old days, but in my opinion, my guess is that you've changed as much (or more) than the site has, and that's what's affecting your perception, more so than any differences in the quality of the posts. 

Agreed, every now and again there is a slight influx, but it more or less is the same as always (besides this ne ineffecient design).

It's probably not any worse then it was years ago. There will always be plenty of newbies asking questions.

On the contrary, it's getting better.

The more newbies there are, the more what _____ should I get threads will pop up. Hopefully we can make the new wiki work for us and get it filled out with all the different options of can, amp, dac, etc so that we can just refer them to the wiki first. That will probably be a ways off though. At least we have plenty of knowledgeable members that can answer these questions for now ... if they  dont all leave over the new format.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spareribs 

On the contrary, it's getting better.

Exactly! A few years ago you didn't have Landis and now you have Landis coming out the wazoo!

I also feel that when I joined people on the forum were much more professional. I felt like an outsider, being so new to Head-Fi, but now I'm nagging my parents, and hopefully I'll be able to buy DX1000's and hopefully a CD rig (I've been saving up for this moment). For my standing (Highschool Freshman), that's great. 

Hm... headfi makes me spend a lot of money ..... I used to not believe in good sound quality on the go... now I have realized about cables such as Lods, tiny tiny portable amplifiers, amazing custom IEMs... oh well, there goes my wallet running off again :)

Oh oops, missed the question - headfi seems to be getting a bit less active as it used to be when I lurked... probably just can't buy enough new things / new things don't come out fast enough (hehe) to constantly give informative reviews :)

I accredit it to the fact that, when you're new, everyone seems so experience and knowledgeable, and they all post in your threads. Then when you become that same old aged guru of headphones, you notice the influx of begging newbies more and more, forgetting that you were, perhaps, one of them not so long ago.

That's how I feel. Except for that whole aged guru thing.

I've sensed that posts, on general, are getting more confrontational and aggressive, especially on certain topics (someone's favourite piece of gear, for example). Haven't seen so much open hostilities between posters in the time I joined this forum, quite saddening.

Too many argumentative threads based on "science".

Not enough "Need to learn Grinding" threads.

I have noticed that it doesn't seem like there are that many interesting threads lately.  Sometimes I scroll through, and there's nothing I want to click on.  Mostly since the new format came in, so maybe people are just adjusting.  Or maybe I'm just cranky :p

I also think there are a lot of beats and under 100$ threads.  There have always been a lot of those, but I'm noticing them more lately.  I might compile a list of beats threads and just paste it into each new one...

edit: also, maybe I should start some interesting threads.  but the last time I tried to do that it went very badly so I'm kind of scared