draydox said:

Hahahaha, it's the exact same with my family. No idea why

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zetsubozu0012 said:

This just goes to show that hi-fi isn't for everyone. Well, either that or a person really ought to get that good (or in your friend's case, excellent) headphones aren't the only thing one ought to be concerned with when pursuing better audio. Honestly, I get why people use 128kBps (sometimes lower) bitrates; the file size is a LOT smaller, and their normal gear isn't good enough to really be able to differentiate low-bitrate lossy from lossless. 
 
Though a more likely, and also more depressing, explanation would be that not everyone cares about "better sounding" music. A lot of the people I know judge music by how loud it is, adding fire to the whole dynamic range compression debate, and how much bass there is. Also, most of the people in my college are partially deaf from exposing themselves to loud noises.
 
Case in point:
 
I let my friend try out my IEM + DAP combo (Philips SHE9800 and a Voodoo Sound-modded i9000 Galaxy S), since he wanted to hear this a capella metal group I've been talking about. It's van Canto, for the curious.
 
Anyway, since always I rip to 320kBps for portable use (FLAC for home listening), I let him listen to Pathfinder and Wishmaster playing out of my phone. I turned it to slightly above my usual listening level, since I knew that he was really into loud music (-24dB instead of -28dB). What surprised me was that he asked if he could turn it up even higher. I showed him how to, and he cranked it all the way up to -4dB. I could actually hear the music playing from two feet away, and he was using a IEMs with a diaphragm of only 14mm. Sure, they're relatively bad at isolating sound, but that was still a bit excessive.
 
Even scarier was the fact that he seemed totally unfazed by blasting his eardrums with that much noise. I started worrying for my IEMs' life when he thankfully took them off after a few seconds of listening. My IEMs are still okay, in case you're wondering.

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streetdragon said:

well he does complain about 320 files being quite large as quoted by him: " ehhh this mp3 320 is so large! its freaking 1/4 the size of porno video!"

and i reply: well thats the price of good music, and of all thing why did you HAVE to compare it to porn? i dun even know or care how big the filesize of a porno is"   -_-" (but now i know its ~40mb based on calculations of his info)


well i guess some people really do not care that much about music quality. the price increase is too steep for the quality increase to them (about $30 and $50 for my other friends) and they still occasionally use the ibuds o.o"



on another note... i brought my hd202 to class one time (before i got the hd558) and he asked me if i could let him hear, i let it run unamped at -8db preamp and 60% volume (im a low level listener) so he asked me to play some dubstep, he told me to crank it up, so i went until 100% he told be to crank it up higher o.o" so i cranked up the preamp till 0db, then +4db, then +8db, then until a whopping +14db. it was the maximum my phone could ever play, and he said: "ah thats better" it was so loud i could hear it too clearly. he listened through the whold 2 minutes withought a hitch. and normally i would presume that eardrums burst much earlier than diaphrams bursting, but no chance to prove that theory yet sadly :/ 

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streetdragon said:

yeah... well got a Beyerdynamic A1 amp,(i suspect, he didn't know the model) and this was the senario: (also please excuse the crude language this is actually how it sounded like)

*contacts me tru fb chat* 
him: Oiiii Solo or HD800??
me: whattaheckwhyareyoucomparingthese2??
him: cause my solo left side softer so i want to replace, dad say get either solo or hd800, owh solo better right? the Sennheiser looks like rubbish
me: *facelaptop* please please please get the HD800 -_-" solo is shet, you know that the hd800 is among the world's best headphones...?
him: are you sure?? the hd800 is rather expensive by the way
me: yes and your beats are exoensive for no reason because they are shetty
him: really ah?? did sennheiser pay you money to advertise for them and the reviewers??
me: goddamiit just get the damn hd800
him: *talks to dad*: pa he said the solos are shet, get the hd800 *dad goes to senneiser.com to place an order
him again: hey you better not be shetting me again ah, they better sound good
me: yes-yes-yes they sound dam good they are not beats forgodsgake -_-"
*1 week later the pair came*
him: yay i got them! they sound pretty good- 
me: good that you like it, you need an amp though to run these properly
*1 more week*
him: hey i got an amp that is RM6000, they sound ok ah
me: what amp did you get?
him: i dunnu
me: what....? -_-"
*1 more week*
him: hey i got a Beyerfynamic amp that cost RM5000!
me: what i thought you got an amp already?? o.o
him: yeah, it was a guitar amp
me: ............... OI WHATTHEHECKYOUDUMMY
*2 more weeks and i met him in real life on outing*
him: hey.... i think the beats sound better lol
me: *takes off glases* ......go die lah you.
gf: hey lol relax, no point getting mad at him
me: lol but... *turns back to him* hey gimmie your phone.*snatches and goes to music player* ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? 128-192
.      KBPS?? *lets him listen to my hd558 on my 320 files in a noisy moving train*
him: wow these sound good- o.o but the hd800 build quality like not good ah, cannot fold, no mic-
me:........
*present day*
him: my hd800 got problem sent back to germany....
me: LOL why
him: hmm the driver left side vibrating when i play metal at max volume
me: lol
_____________________________________________


hmm sorry for the long post and very real to life language usage it just shows the rage and dissapoinment i had.....
cheers

 

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veyrongatti said:

i think an LCD2 would suit him better...... HD800 seems to be a bit clinical for Rock? 

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pinoypogiman said:

I think Grado "Prestige" series headphones are a great way to indulge someone into experiencing something new. plus it aids in the reputation of Grado. as They rely on Fan-based advertisement instead of the false/ mass advertising that.. *cough, Monster* does..
 
hmm. i cant wait to get my Grado's. i wanna know how Sweet the Grado Pill tastes

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xaverian said:

I imagine the pill would be something like this

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iamdacow said:

Then gimme the blue pill
Blue blue blue!!!!!

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streetdragon said:

blue pill - the pill to true sound

red pill - the pill to the celebrity style fantasy

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