[wind016]

 


I agree with the above. It's why many of the original members don't even bother anymore.
 
Far too many folks buy far too many headphones, pay far too much attention to what other people think, lose their traction on what "correct" sound is, and, drowning in a deep pool of various sounds, they forget why they enjoyed music in the first place.  

Well, before head-fi members either settled with a headphone's imperfections or did mods. I guess that's a good thing. I'm getting way too OCD about what I hear

 

[rhythmdevils]

Interesting posts Nikongod and Beagle.  I wonder if the change has to do with the way headphones are suddenly incredibly trendy.  I mean they have always been trendy, but that has increased quickly since the ipod was released and it seems even more so over the last couple years, maybe in part because of brands like Beats and Skullcandy.  I think lately headphones are more of a fashion statement then a tool or piece of equipment.  You're not listening to music, you're wearing headphones.  Which means that there are a lot of people interested in headphones all of a sudden who aren't as interested in sound as previous newcomers. 

 

[Kiwikat]

 
Quote:

Interesting posts Nikongod and Beagle.  I wonder if the change has to do with the way headphones are suddenly incredibly trendy.  I mean they have always been trendy, but that has increased quickly since the ipod was released and it seems even more so over the last couple years, maybe in part because of brands like Beats and Skullcandy.  I think lately headphones are more of a fashion statement then a tool or piece of equipment.  You're not listening to music, you're wearing headphones.  Which means that there are a lot of people interested in headphones all of a sudden who aren't as interested in sound as previous newcomers. 

 
I know they're two different hobbies but many photographers have the same theory about photography.  DSLR's have become so affordable everyone is walking around with one.  Nowadays soccer moms with rebels think they're pro and can shoot weddings for money.  I guess it's similar to the kiddies with their beats calling themselves audiophiles.
 
There are some of us newcomers who are actually interested in sound though!
 

 

[esotericjester]

Quote:

I am still curious to hear a set of M50. Everyone assures me Im in for a laugh, but sometimes you gotta see the train-wreck to believe its crashed.

I have genuinely considered trying to find a cheap used pair just to try to understand where people are coming from when they throw out recommendations for these and make wild hyperbolic statements about how they must compare to higher end headphones that they have never heard.  I am eagerly awaiting the creation of the new M50 subforum.

 
Quote:

 


I agree with the above. It's why many of the original members don't even bother anymore.
 
Far too many folks buy far too many headphones, pay far too much attention to what other people think, lose their traction on what "correct" sound is, and, drowning in a deep pool of various sounds, they forget why they enjoyed music in the first place.  

It's truly disappointing that long time members that have tons of experience and good perspective to share are no longer around.  I think there are still a large number of people here that would like to use this site for real research and actually learn something.  Unfortunately, it seems that they are far outnumbered by those that simply want to ask questions like "what is the best headphone for $137.66 (including tax, but not shipping)."  Then those people recommend those headphones without reservation in every thread they post in.  The fact that so many members here now will give unqualified recommendations for equipment that they have absolutely no experience with no hesitation makes it more difficult to find good information from people that actually have experience with the equipment being discussed.  It is extremely difficult for a new member to tell who's posts/opinions that they can trust.

 
Quote:

Interesting posts Nikongod and Beagle.  I wonder if the change has to do with the way headphones are suddenly incredibly trendy.  I mean they have always been trendy, but that has increased quickly since the ipod was released and it seems even more so over the last couple years, maybe in part because of brands like Beats and Skullcandy.  I think lately headphones are more of a fashion statement then a tool or piece of equipment.  You're not listening to music, you're wearing headphones.  Which means that there are a lot of people interested in headphones all of a sudden who aren't as interested in sound as previous newcomers. 

There is no doubt in my mind that you are correct.  The trendiness of headphones and the tremendous desire for people to label themselves is more than many here can resist.  People desperately want to be able to label themselves as an audiophile.  They want to pay the purchase price for the club more than they want to provide a truly useful contribution.  
 
 
Oh, and to get myself back on track, to the thread starter there is what I consider a surprisingly high percentage of discussion in the headphone forum that focuses entirely on the headphones that will provide the most or best bass.  With that large of a portion of the current membership interested only in that type of sound it makes sense that a disproportionately low amount of focus is on Grados and their sound.  

 

[wind016]

Quote:

It's truly disappointing that long time members that have tons of experience and good perspective to share are no longer around.  I think there are still a large number of people here that would like to use this site for real research and actually learn something.  Unfortunately, it seems that they are far outnumbered by those that simply want to ask questions like "what is the best headphone for $137.66 (including tax, but not shipping)."  Then those people recommend those headphones without reservation in every thread they post in.  The fact that so many members here now will give unqualified recommendations for equipment that they have absolutely no experience with no hesitation makes it more difficult to find good information from people that actually have experience with the equipment being discussed.  It is extremely difficult for a new member to tell who's posts/opinions that they can trust.  
 

 
Um... How long ago are we talking about here? When I found this forum which was around 2007, it was filled with reviews with only positive things to say. I don't know what was up with that. Every headphone looked way too good to be true. Also people back then weren't as willing to front the cash to buy some headphones to do comparisons. Only a few people did that. Now so many people want to make reviews that I'd consider it an evolution. If you are skeptical, you can tell which reviews are inexperienced simply by seeing what equipment they have owned. There were also no bassheads on Head-fi back then. Zero. Now there's a forum for them. At the least, variety and perspectives has increased.
 
Head-fi hasn't changed for the worst IMO Unless you can prove otherwise, I think it has improved.

 

[spaceconvoy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wind016 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Um... How long ago are we talking about here? When I found this forum which was around 2007, it was filled with reviews with only positive things to say. I don't know what was up with that. Every headphone looked way too good to be true. Also people back then weren't as willing to front the cash to buy some headphones to do comparisons. Only a few people did that. Now so many people want to make reviews that I'd consider it an evolution. If you are skeptical, you can tell which reviews are inexperienced simply by seeing what equipment they have owned. There were also no bassheads on Head-fi back then. Zero. Now there's a forum for them. At the least, variety and perspectives has increased.
 
Head-fi hasn't changed for the worst IMO Unless you can prove otherwise, I think it has improved.

Your argument is about quantity - you seem to think head-fi has improved because there are more and varied people/opinions here. However, I believe the quality has gone way down. People seem to think a 'review' means getting sidetracked into babbling on about their life problems and/or philosophy of hi-fi audio, spending most of the time talking about how cool their headphones look, and writing maybe two sentences about the actual sound, usually by praising it in vague terms without any critical evaluation or comparisons to other headphones... Not saying everyone is like this, or there weren't people like this in the past. But the balance seems to have tipped to where they are now the majority. 

 

[rymd]

When I first joined head-fi, all I read was of people griping about the "grado house sound" 
too much of that + the woah retro look and I didn't really have a good impression of grado headphones, even though I still saw a lot of people praising their alessandro sr-125s and whatever

 

[Argyris]

I'm a relative newcomer, so I don't remember a time when Head-Fi wasn't filled with recommendation threads. I actually waited until I had found something I liked before I joined up. I was more interested in being a part of the community and talking to people who shared my passion for audio than in pestering for information. I actually did my research as a lurker. I also came to help people, even if my experience is limited to about half a dozen different headphones. Within that total I've experienced quite a palate of different sonic signatures. Like nikongod said, I was trying to find my sound and, months after that purchase (my third headphone I spent a decent amount of time with), I've finally dialed it in. Grado was one stop on that path and I found what several people here said to be true: at least with the SR225i I found the genre bandwidth to be too small (and, interestingly enough, I didn't much care for rock on them!).
 
Like I said, I haven't really been here for very long so I can't speak to what Head-Fi was in the past, but I have come across what smacked of bitter resentment for newcomers quite a few times on this site. I guess on some level I resent that, but on another level I think I understand it. As I've spent time here I've noticed that some people just don't listen, and you the impression they're more interested in asking the questions and getting people to respond than they are in actually using the information to zero in on something that fits. This isn't just a Head-Fi phenomenon. One of our very best customers owns an aquarium shop and every so often somebody comes in and just asks question after question but never makes a move to buy anything. After a while he loses his patience, and I suppose that's what's happening with the older members. Maybe that's why many of them have given up and gone elsewhere. People who don't want to do anything for themselves and aren't really interested in advice but in a so-called "best headphone for $$$" can wear just about anybody down if there are enough of them.

 

[Digital-Pride]

Quote:

I'm a relative newcomer, so I don't remember a time when Head-Fi wasn't filled with recommendation threads. I actually waited until I had found something I liked before I joined up. I was more interested in being a part of the community and talking to people who shared my passion for audio than in pestering for information. I actually did my research as a lurker. I also came to help people, even if my experience is limited to about half a dozen different headphones. Within that total I've experienced quite a palate of different sonic signatures. Like nikongod said, I was trying to find my sound and, months after that purchase (my third headphone I spent a decent amount of time with), I've finally dialed it in. Grado was one stop on that path and I found what several people here said to be true: at least with the SR225i I found the genre bandwidth to be too small (and, interestingly enough, I didn't much care for rock on them!).
 
Like I said, I haven't really been here for very long so I can't speak to what Head-Fi was in the past, but I have come across what smacked of bitter resentment for newcomers quite a few times on this site. I guess on some level I resent that, but on another level I think I understand it. As I've spent time here I've noticed that some people just don't listen, and you the impression they're more interested in asking the questions and getting people to respond than they are in actually using the information to zero in on something that fits. This isn't just a Head-Fi phenomenon. One of our very best customers owns an aquarium shop and every so often somebody comes in and just asks question after question but never makes a move to buy anything. After a while he loses his patience, and I suppose that's what's happening with the older members. Maybe that's why many of them have given up and gone elsewhere. People who don't want to do anything for themselves and aren't really interested in advice but in a so-called "best headphone for $$$" can wear just about anybody down if there are enough of them.

Well said Argyris!  I was also a bit of a lurker before I joined.  What irks me sometimes is that the information is not hard to find, in fact I would say most questions(namely the "what headphone should I buy") have been answered quite a few times.  In fact, I was able to zero in on my first pair high quality headphones(Shure SRH440) with helpful impression threads that were quite informative, and I did not once have to start one of those threads.  That is not to say that newcomers can't ask questions, asking questions is how one learns anything just not the typical "are the Dre Beats worth it" type of questions that have been answered numerous times.

 

[nikongod]

 
Quote:

Driver control is curious
SR80i
=353]http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=4&graphID[]=353
AKG701
=703]http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=4&graphID[]=703

Can you point me to 1 headphone that actually plays a good square wave based on the head-room test system?

 

[markkr]

I've been around this forum for a long time now, and agree that the site has gone downhill... I miss the old days.
 
I agree with the Grado QC issues, my new RS2i's have a horrific finish... but they sound great! My "uninformed" friends see them, listen to them, and are amazed. Then they ask me how much they cost and start commenting on the poor fit and finish of a $500 headphone. (happens every time)

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

Can you point me to 1 headphone that actually plays a good square wave based on the head-room test system?

=2731&graphID[1]=2251&graphID[2]=&graphID[3]=&graphType=4&buttonSelection=Compare+Headphones]
Well, depending on your definition of good...

 

[Kubernetes]

I'm probably one of the oldest members here (by join date), and I don't think it's gotten worse, per se, but just larger, more diverse, more unwieldy.  There are still tons of good reviews and discussions, but the signal to noise ratio has become something you have to contend with.  It's pretty phenomenal how a thread can be started and buried in the same day--with all this traffic you really have rely on search, because just perusing the forums is not easy.
 
That being said, I'm glad it's bigger and attracting more people.  As someone sad, even bassheads are accepted now, whereas before it was the land of Grado vs. Senn, with maybe some odd duck Beyer fans, the V6 people, and then the odds and ends, like Etys and maybe a couple Stax or R10 rigs.  Now people buy every headphone under the sun and try them out--that's good!  Much better than the early problem where people were unreasonably biased against brands that were not the established audiophile brands.  Sonys were controversial, hell, ATs were extremely controversial and polarizing when people here first started demoing them.  
 
And as someone said, too many reviews back then were uncritically positive, but then not too many people had heard a large enough sampling of headphones to do it well.  Hell, take anyone who is just entering the expensive headphone world and put some Grados on his head.  Hear the superlatives.  Listen as he tells you it's the best thing he's ever heard.  Now ask him to write a review.  Yeah, we have a lot of that now, but at least now we have a lot of people who have heard a lot of headphones.
 
I guess the keys to making this site work for me (still) is to use search and really pay attention to the reviewer you're reading.  What's his headphone history?  Did he like the cans you liked?  Did he hear the same things from cans you've heard?  Just stuff like that helps a ton. 
 
With regard to Grado, doesn't everyone here go through a Grado phase soon after joining?  Yeah, I had the RS-1s.  Fun, but not a keeper.

 

[robm321]

Grado is what it has always been. A unique set of headphones, each series having their own particular sound. 
 
In fact, Grado has many different sound characteristics, from neutral, fast accurate, to airy, colored and warm if you include Joe Grados phones and the PS-1. Headfi tends to be like the stock market. If something gets hot, many will flock to it just because it's mentioned a lot. If something doesn't get mentioned in awhile, some people here seem to panick and wonder if they aren't good anymore and if they are stuck with the "wrong" phone or should void consideration. 
 
Or, if there are several listings of a headphone for sale, there's a panick and you start seeing "why are there so many XXXX for sale?" threads. I think the underlying problem is that there are too many that want validation that they have the "right" or popular headphone. Which means others are dictating what you should like. Even if you are new to the audiophile world, your ears will steer you in the right direction.
 
 

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

Quote:

 

Can you point me to 1 headphone that actually plays a good square wave based on the head-room test system?

I don't know about the test system, but the LCD-2 is famous for its square square wave.
 
LCD2

 
vs
 
HD800
 

vs
 
Grado HP2 (since this is a Grado thread!)