Non-audiophile reactions to high-end headphones - Page 4  

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiralStatic 

Quote:

Originally Posted by hudamanium 

The only way to expand the Head-Fi market is more knowledgable consumers.

 

 

Also, I usually get the NEEDZ MOAR BASSSSS!!! response. Then the person who said that listens to The Beats' bass, which makes the song sound like the artist recorded it while a Magnitude 8.0 earthquake was happening, and they say, "OMFG these are the best!!!!" 

According to several Chinese audiophiles,

A new audiophile craves bass;

An established audiophile craves treble;

A really serious audiophile craves mid-range.

So basically everybody is a potential audiophile. The key is to get them past the "massive bass" stage. I got myself past that by buying a pair of Koss UR-20. That's right.

Not high-end headphones but:

Gave my friend my old PortaPro headphones and the next day he came back and flipped shit. He was so impressed, must have been used to iPod earbuds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3602 

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiralStatic 

Quote:

Originally Posted by hudamanium 

The only way to expand the Head-Fi market is more knowledgable consumers.

 

 

Also, I usually get the NEEDZ MOAR BASSSSS!!! response. Then the person who said that listens to The Beats' bass, which makes the song sound like the artist recorded it while a Magnitude 8.0 earthquake was happening, and they say, "OMFG these are the best!!!!" 

 

According to several Chinese audiophiles,

 

A new audiophile craves bass;

An established audiophile craves treble;

A really serious audiophile craves mid-range.

 

So basically everybody is a potential audiophile. The key is to get them past the "massive bass" stage. I got myself past that by buying a pair of Koss UR-20. That's right.

Hah, that's like the upgrade path I took with headphones. I went from XB700 > V6 > K271. I was actually trying to phase out bass-lust though.

I hate how blind people are to quality. They all bashed me for having headphones that enter my ear, or that I spend a lot of money on my headphones. IEMs are definetly harder to get people to try and accept because they fit akward at first and SEAL IS IMPORTANT. Which people don't understand. With a lot of convicing, I manged to get a couple of my friends listen to my DBA-02s, they were supprised. Yet my friend still thinks his Skullcandies have better bass(Which is fact have more bass but it is murky and mids and highs only Crackle). But It still put a smile on my face that they accepted it.

After appealing to them with the sound quality, I told them about a lot of sub 100$ headphones that are really nice but I lose them there.

I actually don't mind people who like bass.... I love bass, depending on what I'm listening to. 

However, its when people judge quality by the amount of bass something has, not the quality. Kinda how people go hey man take a listen to my Beats, they have so much bass so they must be great headphones....

As for knowledgeable consumers... I know its completely unrealistic. But its just something that bugs me about American consumerism overall. I don't mind if people like spending money, hell if I had more money I'd be spending it too. But when people are paying hundreds and thousands of dollars for products that can be bought for a quarter of the price, it really bugs me. 

An L.O.L reaction from my friend who likes bass ...and especially mainstream headphones (Skullcandy , BOSE , Beats by DRE)

"OMFG these are the most horrible sounding headphones i've ever listened to , my apple earphones are better than these and those sound like tweeters"

and I'm like the hell you're talking about. I dunno if it's crab mentality or what.

BTW the IEM that I let him hear was my Ortofon EQ-5 (note that it was actually burnt in)

People just look at nothing but the pricetag unless it's a particular pop culture must-have item, "will this output sound? yes? and it comes with my ipod? ok, I'll take this".

It's the same way with alot of things, happens with computers too. You can always get a better PC that isn't proprietary, isn't filled with bloatware out of the box, isn't in a race to the bottom quality wise, that will last many more years with a custom build PC, but most people won't do the research on their purchase of something that much of their daily life revolves around. Instead they end up opting for buying the $300 walmart special every 1-2 years that's severely crippled, then complain why it's slow.. why it won't run world of warcraft, why it's power supply blew up after only owning it for a year, etc.

For myself, if it's something I use everyday and for many hours, it makes sense to spend a few hours doing the research to make sure I do it right, because those few hours spent will make the thousands of hours using the equipment that much better. Pretty much a no brainer to me, but this kind of mindset is extremely rare for some reason.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3602 

 

According to several Chinese audiophiles,

 

A new audiophile craves bass;

An established audiophile craves treble;

A really serious audiophile craves mid-range.

 

So basically everybody is a potential audiophile. The key is to get them past the "massive bass" stage. I got myself past that by buying a pair of Koss UR-20. That's right.

I skipped the bass stage, so when I bought an IE8 after the AD700, I didn't like it and bought a CK100. I sold that an I'm still looking for a smoooooth mid iem. Found the RE262 but I don't have a portable amp for it so my search continues.

As for my friends, the IE6 really impresses. No slouch with bass, relatively clear and detailed. Just like the M50 impresses. I don't really let my friends try open phones on the rare occasion that I have them out with me (going to a park, mostly nature-ish places) because I know what they'll say eventually.

Hey, I just wish my Coppers have more treble (much better than Golds already) and EW9's have more bass. Alas, you cannot always get what you desire.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3602 

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiralStatic 

Quote:

Originally Posted by hudamanium 

The only way to expand the Head-Fi market is more knowledgable consumers.

 

 

Also, I usually get the NEEDZ MOAR BASSSSS!!! response. Then the person who said that listens to The Beats' bass, which makes the song sound like the artist recorded it while a Magnitude 8.0 earthquake was happening, and they say, "OMFG these are the best!!!!" 

 

According to several Chinese audiophiles,

 

A new audiophile craves bass;

An established audiophile craves treble;

A really serious audiophile craves mid-range.

 

So basically everybody is a potential audiophile. The key is to get them past the "massive bass" stage. I got myself past that by buying a pair of Koss UR-20. That's right.

Haha, sounds about right with me. I am right at the second stage, starting to go into the third stage with my SE425.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3602 

According to several Chinese audiophiles,

 

A new audiophile craves bass;

An established audiophile craves treble;

A really serious audiophile craves mid-range.

 

So basically everybody is a potential audiophile. The key is to get them past the "massive bass" stage. I got myself past that by buying a pair of Koss UR-20. That's right.

I'm in transition between stages two and three as well. Usually it's something like a DT880 or K701 or SR225i that seems to serve as a gateway to the uber bigbux cans.

Friend always bugged me about carrying my m50s in my backpack with me everywhere I go. She said they were giant and make me or anyone look like a complete dork and she'd never use them. So the other day in class I decided to take them out, listen, and just ignore her for some lulz. About 15 minutes later she finally agreed to try them, but then couldn't decide on a song to listen to, so she spent a good 10 minutes browsing my zune. After finally finding a satisfactory song (apparently out of my 6k songs only 20 or so are "good"), I didn't get the m50s back till the period was over. 

Though the only sound characteristic she mentioned was how well they isolated. I thought that was kinda odd, but I guess she'd probably never heard full sized cans before so that would be the biggest change. Of course later in the day when I was complaining about gas being $1.21/L she told me I should go sell my headphones and use that to pay for gas...

All I want to say here is that, people beleive that booming bass=good, even for many of us. I mean, just look at how many "basshead" threads are on this website!

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3602 

According to several Chinese audiophiles,

 

A new audiophile craves bass;

An established audiophile craves treble;

A really serious audiophile craves mid-range.

 

LOLOLOL, you make it sound like a wise sage citing an idiom.

But ehh, I'm the reverse. I started loving mid-range (e.g.: CrossRoads MylarOne X3), then treble (UM1, DT880), and now I'm beginning to appreciate bass (IE8).

Oh no I'm becoming a plebian!!