[Ra97oR]

If everyone wears JH13 outside and have HD800, K1000 at home. What would a relatively rare hobby get turned into... Every human is made different, that why there is not a single sport, single genre of music, or a single way to enjoy entertainment.

 

[Joelby]

My fiancee has some pretty good ears on her. She suprised me the other day. I bought some K701s off a fellow head-fier. I'm really enjoying them for the details and soundstage. I gave them to her to try, praising them while also explaining why they get flamed so much on head-fi. After listening to a couple of songs, she takes them off and says: "I have to agree with the people on head-fi, they do sound cold." I was like "Honey, you just blew my mind!"

 

[haloxt]

He isn't interested in audio like you? What a bad friend, he is obviously not a friend but an enemy. Encourage him to spend more money on his television. A power conditioner and power cables for crisper picture, interconnects to ensure his blu-ray is sending data flawlessly, upgrade his blu-ray, upgrade his tv, upgrade his tv service, make him OCD like us by constantly telling him all the ways he can improve the picture quality. Then once he's become a nervous wreck and on the verge of mortgaging the house to fund his tv system, propagandize him into believing sound is just as important as picture quality because, why, look at all the super high-end tv's, they don't use built-in speakers, they expect you to have high-end sound systems to go with them. That'll teach him to disagree with you.

 

[barleyguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmhaynes /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think there is a physiological issue here. Some people's brains are just not tuned to "hear" sonic ranges, or at least appreciate it. Thankfully, I'm not one of those, but my wife is. She can barely hear the difference between AM radio and my MS-1i -- and when she CAN hear the difference, it doesn't make a big difference to her -- either is OK to her. The sonic differences make no emotional connection in her brain, whereas I absolutely do make an emotional connection with sounds, music, etc. I think that is why some people don't seem to "care."

X2. I think that's the key right there. When I listen to favorite music through great headphones (or great speakers), I have actually caught myself giggling. Listening to a sad or deep song through great cans can have a deep emotional effect as well. But if the sound is "broken" or even sub par, it doesn't have the same depth of effect on me. But not all people are that way. Some people just listen to the vocals, or the bass, or the backbeat, and don't care about the depth of the presentation. Which is OK, for them.

Also, I'm a techie, and technical achievement is thrilling to me all by itself. I crave to know how things work, and why some things work better than others. I've known people who have told me "I don't want to know how it works, I just want to use it." Some people really feel that way.

 

[tvrboy]

For me, I can only spend money on a few hobbies at once. I totally understand why some people don't want to blow hundreds of dollars on audio. I know that I could be getting way better video than what I have now, but I can't afford to have the best video and best audio. Nor do I have the time to research video and audio. I mean, pick anything in life and you have a hobby..... I ate dinner at mcdonalds tonight, lots of cooking hobbyists would hate me for that. I also drank Snow beer tonight, lots of beer hobbyists would find that unacceptable. Then I ate seafood after the bar .... I'm sure there are seafood connesoirs who can tell me why the clams I ate were terrible.

 

[Metalcastr]

I used to be one of these people. I only changed when I bought my Ur-40's and let them burn in over time. They started out worse than my desktop speakers, now they're better, and that's when I became a believer.

 

[priest]

My wife can identify more subtle differences between headphones than I. But not one pair she has tried on has ever excited her. She just doesn't care. When I get a new pair, she has zero interest in hearing it. The whole headphone obsession is amusingly insane to her. I feel the same way about her soap opera watching.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

I treat video the same way your friend treats audio. I just don't really care about video quality when watching TV or a movie. I don't care if the video is 1080 or 720 or even standard def. I don't care if a movie is VCR, DVD or even high def. I don't care if the contrast is optimal. It all just doesn't ultimately matter in my enjoyment of TV viewing or movie viewing. I do however care about getting a proper aspect ratio. Seeing standard def TV expanded to fill an HD size screen just bugs me.

Any fool with eyes can compare the video quality of two TVs set side by side in a showroom. Freeze a movie scene and compare DVD resolution to Blu-Ray. Compare black levels. Compare color. It's easy to point to and show what the differences are. You can't do that with audio. So it's easier for the great unwashed to get into the betterness and biggerness of better TVs than it is to do the same with better audio.

 

[pdupiano]

I think its just the way we use our senses. Take a look at the average guy, which of our senses do we use the most? If we have even the slightest problem with our eyes, what do we do? We get glasses, we get contacts, now we even get surgery. If your vision gets a little blurry you worry. If your hearing is diminished, more often than not, you dont notice it at all. And the average guy doesn't give a damn until their hearing is gone. As far as we're concerned, as long as we can hear its fine, its not a medical issue, its not a big deal, its just "hey can you speak a little louder?" And then if we begin to really lose our hearing, we get hearing aides. But then again do we care about Sound quality of hearing aides? NO, not one bit, as long as we can hear other people.

Just ask anyone when's the last time they went to an ear specialist about their hearing? And then ask them when's the last time they got their eyes checked? And even when we go through tests for our hearing, we are tested for our ability to "hear something" not how detailed it is. On the other hand, our eyes get tested for clarity, resolution, and whatever else that eye chart test does. Then we get custom fitted instruments (glasses/contacts) so that we can get "perfect vision." Now ... wheres the audiologist that could do that for me.

At the end of the day, our hearing is pretty much at the bottom of the food chain
Our eyes get checked as soon as we notice something weird
Then our sense of touch when we can't feel something (cuz that's usually a big issue)
Then our sense of smell and taste (these go hand in hand) and usually its when we get a cold. Notice that when we get a cold, our hearing is also impaired but we normally dont' complain about it

And then there's our hearing-the sense that we could careless about until its gone.

But yeah unless you've been brought up on classical music, gone through music lessons, and really developed your ears... you're not using your ears to your full potential, and if you've gone to concerts... well you may never get to use them to their full potential.

 

[Laokid18]

People are dumb.

 

[Currawong]

It could be the music as well. I pulled out my old ibuds to try them to remind myself how horrid they are, and was shocked to not feel that way when I tried a single track. That track was Diana Krall singing "Temptation", which pretty much sounds good with any gear. If I was to ask someone how it sounded from the ibuds compared to my HF-2s, I would totally understand why they would wonder why I spend so much money on headphones! Likewise, when I let someone try HD-800s over here, I dialed up a track that was both well recorded and has a huge soundstage so he could get a good impression of what they can do. Don't forget a lot of pop and rock music nowadays is recorded to sound bright so that it sounds good even on cheap headphones. Get out some old jazz and suddenly you'll notice a huge difference between good and bad cans.

 

[Gatto]

lol why do people assume just because they like something that they're right? who cares if your friend doesn't want to spend a ton of money on headphones... most people don't. Most people don't because they don't care, we live in a disposable world where you don't take care of your stuff, you destroy it and replace it.

This thread is pretty much like a fitness forum where somebody starts a thread about why are people are overweight when they don't have to be?

if people were all the same and liked all the same things then world would suck

 

[Edwood]

I'm pretty stingy with the Video budget in my household. I prefer to spend my toy monies on audiophile goodness.

Ironically, my wife likes video better than audio and was more excited by a recent upgrade to a cheap Pioneer Kuro in our household.

 

[Spareribs]

Most people are happy with cheap audio and won't justify a $50 headphone or higher end speaker. It's usually those who have a large collection of jazz/classical music or rock oriented stuff who seem to be interested in slightly better audio componants like a decent pair of speakers at minimum.

My friend who is not an audiophile will buy a good pair of speakers and be happy and he has a large collection of music. The average person does not collect alot of music and will not even buy an after market headphone or even speaker which I can understand if music is not your hobby.

Video quality is more sort of about the bells and whistles of gear and I can see how the average person is more easiily impressed and will spend the money.

 

[TheOtus]

I know too many people like that... But I guess we all are bit alike in some way. Most people spend above average amount of money on something anyway. For example, my parents hear the difference, but they still think that it makes no sense to spend money on good headphones. Also, they don´t even understand buying CD´s. "Radio plays music all the time!" Indeed, like they would play any music I like... Main thing probably is that they don´t hear, or want to hear, the less noticeable things, which are where the good phones come in.