[Lunatique]

 
Quote:

I understand your intentions, but part of the head-fi fun that's outside the realm of Sound Science is to try and buy.  For me, true musical passion is by ear, not sine waves or anything that can digitally manipulate the sound, for better or worse.  Headphones/earphones are the easiest to determine if it sounds great, good, or crap.  Those generic adjectives can be replaced with "properly termed, scientifically correct adjectives", but changes with the source quality, recording, and type of music genre, not everyone is going to create a "standard" of that as a baseline for every scenario.

 
I disagree with pretty much everything you wrote above.
 
Looking at your headphone/amp inventory, you obviously derive a ton of pleasure from collecting and playing with audio gear, but for a lot of people, they just want to find the right pair of headphones within their budge that will allow them to listen to the music they love with the utmost fidelity. They don't need a huge collection of amps and headphones. Collecting, buying, selling, and trading audio gear is NOT what they're passionate about, and is merely a necessary process in order to find the headphones they really want to keep.
 
If you care about fidelity and having the ability to assess the quality of music recordings/productions, as well as audio devices, then sound science is crucial. If you use the excuse that you just want to have fun, then even those who use the crappiest headphones, speakers, sources, and listen to the worst recordings, can still have "fun," because now we're taking quality completely out of the equation and only judging this whole subject from the perspective of fun. But are you willing to go back to your most ignorant days of using crappy earbuds, low quality recordings, and grainy low bitrate mp3's? I bet music was totally fun for you back then too, when you were completely ignorant and didn't even know high-end headphones existed? But you discovered head-fi at some point and it changed everything for you, right? It made you realize there's a whole other world that "fun" doesn't cover--a world of quality, fidelity, accuracy, and so on. 
 
Even a modestly priced pair of headphones can be turned into an amazing sounding pair, if you learn how to properly EQ it. So instead of spending more money on amps and headphones and cables, just learn how to create custom EQ curves, and you'd save yourself thousands of dollars easily. There are even automatic EQ plugins like MathAudio's Auto EQ for headphones/speakers: http://mathaudio.com/
 
You can learn about how I EQ headphones in these threads: 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/551426/my-eq-curves-for-lcd-2-hd650-m50-and-007mk2
http://www.head-fi.org/t/546077/my-meticulously-tweaked-eq-settings-for-shure-se535-and-westone-3 )
 
As for the comment about how there's no baseline, and that everything changes, I suggest you read this thread, because I think it'll really help you gain some insight into why your argument isn't valid: http://www.head-fi.org/t/564465/misconception-of-neutral-accurate#post_7634871
 
 
 
 

 
 

 

[mbamg]

 
Quote:

 
 
I disagree with pretty much everything you wrote above.
 
Looking at your headphone/amp inventory, you obviously derive a ton of pleasure from collecting and playing with audio gear, but for a lot of people, they just want to find the right pair of headphones within their budge that will allow them to listen to the music they love with the utmost fidelity. They don't need a huge collection of amps and headphones. Collecting, buying, selling, and trading audio gear is NOT what they're passionate about, and is merely a necessary process in order to find the headphones they really want to keep.
 
If you care about fidelity and having the ability to assess the quality of music recordings/productions, as well as audio devices, then sound science is crucial. If you use the excuse that you just want to have fun, then even those who use the crappiest headphones, speakers, sources, and listen to the worst recordings, can still have "fun," because now we're taking quality completely out of the equation and only judging this whole subject from the perspective of fun. But are you willing to go back to your most ignorant days of using crappy earbuds, low quality recordings, and grainy low bitrate mp3's? I bet music was totally fun for you back then too, when you were completely ignorant and didn't even know high-end headphones existed? But you discovered head-fi at some point and it changed everything for you, right? It made you realize there's a whole other world that "fun" doesn't cover--a world of quality, fidelity, accuracy, and so on. 
 
Even a modestly priced pair of headphones can be turned into an amazing sounding pair, if you learn how to properly EQ it. So instead of spending more money on amps and headphones and cables, just learn how to create custom EQ curves, and you'd save yourself thousands of dollars easily. There are even automatic EQ plugins like MathAudio's Auto EQ for headphones/speakers: http://mathaudio.com/
 
You can learn about how I EQ headphones in these threads: 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/551426/my-eq-curves-for-lcd-2-hd650-m50-and-007mk2
http://www.head-fi.org/t/546077/my-meticulously-tweaked-eq-settings-for-shure-se535-and-westone-3 )
 
As for the comment about how there's no baseline, and that everything changes, I suggest you read this thread, because I think it'll really help you gain some insight into why your argument isn't valid: http://www.head-fi.org/t/564465/misconception-of-neutral-accurate#post_7634871
 

My first pair of stock earbuds broke shortly after I started using my first DAP, so I ended up getting dollar store earbuds that were arguably worse. I hated these earbuds. I think I reached my lowest point when I listened to my friend's Samsung stock earbuds and thought they were amazing. I thought the EX32s that I bought years later was a godsend until they died, and then I found that I bought them for twice the street value. I got the CX300s on sale, and then my foray into portable audio began... in four years I've spent over $250 on <$100 IEMs and I still haven't found a good one for J-pop. Perhaps I should move on to headphones...

 

[alphaphoenix]

Quote:

 
 
I disagree with pretty much everything you wrote above.
 
Looking at your headphone/amp inventory, you obviously derive a ton of pleasure from collecting and playing with audio gear, but for a lot of people, they just want to find the right pair of headphones within their budge that will allow them to listen to the music they love with the utmost fidelity. They don't need a huge collection of amps and headphones. Collecting, buying, selling, and trading audio gear is NOT what they're passionate about, and is merely a necessary process in order to find the headphones they really want to keep.
 
If you care about fidelity and having the ability to assess the quality of music recordings/productions, as well as audio devices, then sound science is crucial. If you use the excuse that you just want to have fun, then even those who use the crappiest headphones, speakers, sources, and listen to the worst recordings, can still have "fun," because now we're taking quality completely out of the equation and only judging this whole subject from the perspective of fun. But are you willing to go back to your most ignorant days of using crappy earbuds, low quality recordings, and grainy low bitrate mp3's? I bet music was totally fun for you back then too, when you were completely ignorant and didn't even know high-end headphones existed? But you discovered head-fi at some point and it changed everything for you, right? It made you realize there's a whole other world that "fun" doesn't cover--a world of quality, fidelity, accuracy, and so on. 
 
Even a modestly priced pair of headphones can be turned into an amazing sounding pair, if you learn how to properly EQ it. So instead of spending more money on amps and headphones and cables, just learn how to create custom EQ curves, and you'd save yourself thousands of dollars easily. There are even automatic EQ plugins like MathAudio's Auto EQ for headphones/speakers: http://mathaudio.com/
 
You can learn about how I EQ headphones in these threads: 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/551426/my-eq-curves-for-lcd-2-hd650-m50-and-007mk2
http://www.head-fi.org/t/546077/my-meticulously-tweaked-eq-settings-for-shure-se535-and-westone-3 )
 
As for the comment about how there's no baseline, and that everything changes, I suggest you read this thread, because I think it'll really help you gain some insight into why your argument isn't valid: http://www.head-fi.org/t/564465/misconception-of-neutral-accurate#post_7634871
 

 
I recall similar responses you made to the ZO thread.  You know how that went.  I don't EQ.  I feel most music today is overkilled with all the digital manipulation.  How many headphones I have and gone through (no, I don't collect them) is irrelevant to my fidelity worth.  Anyhow, I'll make my last post short and sweet as there's obviously two different mind sets butting heads. 
 
I wish you well with your musical creation (if that is one your true passion in life) as well as spreading the word about sound engineering for all its worth.  I just think you're making them in the wrong site as their are more dedicated sites about serious fidelity talk about EQ and frequency measurements, and one that is free from major corporate sponsorship.   Good luck, I think you're the lone wolf with a very small pack on this one.  Later.
 

 

[SecondZephyr]

 
Quote:

I don't think we need to go so far as to enforce a standard system, but I think we could use a wiki or sticky that helps people get a feel for what all these terms mean.

This.
I think a wiki would be nice, though.

 

[Techno Kid]

Man this helped a lot as far as what parts of music sit in each frequency range so now I have a much better idea on how to describe them, thanks for the post.