Non-audiophile reactions to high-end headphones Part II - Page 2

I'm happy I have crazy audiophile friends then.

We just hung out one day and realized we had 5 flagships on display all playing at the same time.

haha beats owners

Well i let my friend try my cheap e10s and he actually liked thrm and got a pair of nuforce ne-600s which really arent all that great... But hey better than apple earphones... Maybe xD then I let him try my former m100s... Didn't get those back for a while lol. Then i had my other friend... A beats user who was complaining about the m100s lacking bass (yes an m100 of all headphones). Lol then i returned them and got q701s instead :P

I've actually had pretty good luck with people reacting to my headphones. Many of them probably still don't see why anyone would focus so much attention on headphones, but I haven't gotten anyone making a ridiculously stupid criticism of them (like all the beats related ones I'm seeing here) yet. One of my friends actually told me that he thought my Westone 3's sounded too colored, although he did think they were good headphones. He's a pretty good pianist, but I was still impressed that he could pick out a distinction like that since he had no good headphones to compare them to. The bug seems to have bitten now, though; he recently got a pair of q701's.

Yea, All my family members think i crazy and wonder Why i just don't go to the dollar store and get some headphone instead. But then they are the same people who think as long it plays sound that it good enough.  Now my oldest bro on the other hand has muiti pairs of headphones, But I do not know which ones he has. But lucky for me ,since I usually sell the headphones instead of starting a collection. They don't get on my case that much.

OMGosh saddening to see thread get derailed and locked... this was so much fun to follow before. 

 

Oh well, got my friend to listen to my HD650s when I upgraded from the HD595.  He had already heard the 595 before and thought they were solid.  But when he listened to the live version of Hotel California (from Hell Freezes Over). His eyes just popped and he was like "WOW!! These are even BETTER! It's a very noticeable difference!!"
 

 

That's why he could pick it out so quickly: because he was comparing to the sound of a live instrument rather than other headphones. That's the problem with Head-Fi; everyone's comparing one (inevitably) coloured headphone with another instead of live instruments.

Yes, or "live" amplified performances. I alway roll my eyes when people pull out an amplified live gig they went to as a benchmark of how music should sound. It's basically "recorded live" - generally with much worse production values and acoustics than a recording studio. As you say, the only way to really judge the realms of a transducer is if you're used to hearing acoustic instruments, unamplified, in real life.

Thanks for the music tip. Quite the interesting band!

I only got positive feedback from my HE-500 (paired with a Fostex HP-P1 on high gain setting which I know it isn't sufficient for the HE-500) when my school friends hear it, I even brought them twice to school (it won't ever happen again).

Since most of them are Muse fans, they listened through my iPod and they immediately got wowed by the HE-500. One even said "These headphones absolutely rocks!" and one who knows a bit about audio told me that he has never experienced bass this tight and this punchy. Also complimented the fact that they were detailed but extremely pleasant to his ears.

Their main criticism though is the weight and size and that very annoying silver cable in which I can live with it (maybe not the cable though).

 

Hey don't lump all of Head-Fi in that category.  There are plenty of us who have references other than different headphones.  To be sure, it's a common problem, but it's not everyone.  For me, aside from the fact that I was a musician myself for years, I've got a couple of classical recordings for which I was present.  I know exactly how they sounded and they provide a nice reference point.

 

To be a little more on topic, I finally got my brother to listen to the new Mad Dog with the Alpha pads and my HE-6.  He liked both and preferred the Mad Dog to the HE-6 even though he felt the HE-6 was a bit more neutral.  He's not a complete "non-audiophile", but doesn't really own anything more than cheapo on-ears himself.  He's now considering getting some nice headphones of his own (DT880, Q701, or HD650).  I won't say that he's caught the bug, but he might care a bit more.

While I was away from my desk, one of the professors in my lab joked to another student if I was a CIA agent upon seeing my Fiio E11 (small black metal box looks suspicious?). Now he and I are planning on fooling the prof into actually thinking I might be CIA by placing random hints around the office.

They're not impressed by anything that doesn't sound like 'beats'.  Unfortunately they're cornering the market with their crap house sound. We can only hope it doesn't pull the large companies down to produce competing products.

 

Fortunately, most people who make headphones aren't total scumbags like Jimmy Iovine.

 

---

I found out a while ago that one of my teachers has Bose QC15s. They were quite nice.

Yeah, I agree beats suck.

 

But, they gave me a STARTING POINT for heading in the direction of 

good sound. If I had heard an HD650 to start off the journey, I wouldn't

have realized how good those HD650's sounded.

 

If a mercedes owner had only driven mercedes since the time they 

started driving, would they appreciate the smoothness of the MB?

let 'em start off with a Ford Festiva.  And other MB drivers shouldn't

ridicule the Festiva drivers for not knowing any better.