shipsupt
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Posts
- 1,695
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- 60
Head-Fiers... bunch of crackheads.
Obviously I couldn't wait for my fix!
Head-Fiers... bunch of crackheads.
Excuse me, as I need to drive to the pet store and punch a baby kitten right now.
OK, I'm going to throw in a dissenting voice, or at least offer a topic for conversation. It was nice to see all the beautiful gear and nice people having a good time at the show. However, I have noticed our hobby going increasingly down the sorry path of high-end audio. I watched with dismay as TAS (especially) and Stereophile (and others) corrupted what was once a fun hobby, turning it into a more-is-always-better $-swamp in which it became "normal" to see $100,000 turntables and half-million dollar speakers. I'm sorry, but that is absurd. Even moderately priced equipment got dragged along to ever higher pricing or fell by the wayside. Snake Oil made many people rich, and even people who knew better (e.g., some designers who were trained as electrical engineers) either went along or kept quiet. Harry Pearson could kill a product--sometimes even a small company--with one bad review. What I'm getting at is, I don't want to see this happen to our hobby. It was largely because of these factors that I turned to head-fi audio and away from high end. I love this sensible and more affordable alternative. Let's be careful with our hobby. OK?
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Doc B's headphones were display only, I believe they're still a work in progress. They did look really cool though.
Fair enough observation/opinion of the hobby and the industry, but how does this relate to the meet? I saw lots of alternatives to high cost at the meet. More importantly I was able to listen to gear so I could make up my own mind with my own ears vs. buying into marketing hype or FOTM. Seems to me that meets are exactly what's needed to avoid the potential pit falls you describe!
'The best money can buy' is usually not where I wind up. First because it usually isn't, and second because that's all a matter of opinion that I may not necessarily share.
Yep... It's hard not to be swayed by FOTM or marketing, or general hype. But keeping an open mind and really listening for yourself is the way to avoid those traps. And yes, the Meet is a great way of separating fact from fiction (or reality from fantasy).
'Value' is the ideal that keeps things sane for me. 'The best money can buy' is ususlly not where I wind up. First because it usually isn't, and second because that's all a matter of opinion that I may not necessarily share.
"Best" is such a loaded word- especially around here. It's almost like asking "what is the best pair of shoes?"
That's a croc, in my opinion...
^^ Hey Bigrock... Mr. Karth was making a pun re. Mkubota1's 'shoe' reference.
http://www.crocs.com/home/homepage,default,pg.html