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Any old fart head-fi'ers still around?
Dec 22, 2010 at 8:57 AM Post #46 of 828


jahjahbinks said:
Recently I started to search for a good PMP for my car so I came back here and started a new thread. Then I saw my profile that has "joined date: November 2002", which was a long time ago. 



Just wondering, any old members still hopping around here?
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That's pretty funny... same "joined date" here :wink:

Still around, mostly in the DIY forum, keeping an eye on the music one too.
 
Dec 22, 2010 at 9:35 AM Post #47 of 828
I've been a hi fi nut since well before hi fi! I started with a papier mache horn windup gramophone playing shellac 78's. It's interesting that in the 30's Sir Thomas Beecham said that such a setup provided reproduction that was good enough to satisfy anyone. I sometimes look at my Clip+ with OK2 earbuds used with Slicksound tips and and sounding superb, and wonder what happened to the world!
 
Oldtimer.
 
Dec 22, 2010 at 4:46 PM Post #49 of 828


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You could bask in their light and keep your hands warm with the flamewars
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And weren't there some really good ones??? I remember Pink Floyd going nuts....Ah the good ol days.
Nac...
 
 
Dec 22, 2010 at 8:21 PM Post #51 of 828
Older members need to stop complaining about younger generations. First and foremost, it is your generation that is responsible for the current generation of children. Secondly, this kind of attitude leads to the "lack of community" older members are complaining about. Finally, the sourness that is rampant on head-fi when someone doesn't like your gear exists across all age demographics it seems. The older crowd are more likely to blame it on "youngsters". I've seen only a few people blame it on "old ears". The attitude of "well I've been into this longer so sod off" is one that exists everywhere, even here. Senior members need to appreciate, while they may be more 'seasoned' listeners with better gear, they started in more or less the same place everyone else is - a love for music and a thirst for something better.
 
 
There's still a community, but people are divided by their seemingly defensive stance to anyone with gear that differs from their own - you see this all the time between cable believers and non-believers. I've had several offers (some of which I have taken up) to "come round and take a listen" from several head-fiers. To put it in contrast, I was looking at a used highish-end laptop (for 700 or so) recently, and asked if I could come around to see if the spdif works and run some programs on it to see if the specs are adequate. The response was, in short "no, buy it and then try it or go away
 
Every era has good and bad times, but many people choose to remember those which deviate from the norm. In this case, probably the good times. Everyone looks at hitler and sees a fascit genocidal maniac. Very few see one of the greatest leaders who brought Germany right out of recession. NO ONE even dares to think of maybe the times he spent with his dog and his wife - because he's Hitler. Everyone here is going to remember flame wars, arguments. No one is going to remember that time that they recommended someone a pair of headphones that they enjoyed for years because it just seems insignificant by comparison. No one, certainly, is going to care about the smaller meets that happen between members who both share a passion.
 
Younger audiophiles have the problem of being just that - younger audiophiles. The highly impressionable nature of youth that is doctored by something other than "true quality" because of the places industrialisation has taken us. I have a number of friends through a local forum who are into the hobby, hell even listen to the same music I do. Everyone else (bar for my very best friends) laughs when I say "So I recently upgraded my headphones and amp and it was $1000 all up", and just as hard, or thinks it weird when I tell them I listen to ambient music. The older members are less likely to experience the defeat of "hey I bought these new headphones and they're really great, have a listen!", which is met with "These sound like crap I prefer my ", because that's just the way things roll - because the youth is essentially the target demographic. Some older people might think it odd someone spends a thousand or more on a tube amp, but odds are just as likely that they might think back to when they had a valve radio back in older times. The use of join dates as a kind of e-cred is borderline irritating, when it has no correlation to anything. There are people with join dates in 2010 who have better gear than I do, and have probably been into the hobby longer than I have. On the other side, you have long time lurkers who only recently became active members.
 
The age divide is not going to go away. The younger generation is not going to "Grow into" a more mature body. For the most part, since they're into their 20s, they already are mature. They are different people in a way - times have changed.
 
The key problem, as I see it, is that people are afraid to dislike a piece of kit, and equally have someone dislike something they own. Many people ask questions like "what amp do I need to get to enjoy my headphones?" and end up spending many times more than would be required to just get another pair of headphones more to their taste. In the end, they may end up thinking "audiophiles are delusional", and no longer seek an audio nirvana, because they couldn't find something they enjoyed. This is the worst thing about head-fi IMO. This is due, in part to the nature of the community here - all members, new and old - where, if you post any opinion, no matter how justified that goes against the accolades, general appreciation or whatever of a particular headphone, you are ostracised. Perhaps most famously is the people who love the K701 and dislike the HD650. The HD650 crowd in particular responsible for mud-slinging things like "plastic", "doesn't sound like real music" under the assumption that they, by some kind of osmosis or epiphany, have an objective stance on audio without referring to measurements, figures or basic knowledge relating to headphones. Why? Well, this is purely speculation on my part, but the reputation of the K701 as the "HD650 killer" was around for a little while. Of course, that quickly changed. Not that it matters how someone sees these headphones - what matters is firstly how they present their argument against the other, and secondly how they receive it.
 
 
 
Head-fi needs to relax. That's everyone. A local place I go to is completely relaxed and everything is much more tight-knit than head-fi. Interestingly, the forum in question has people of a wide variety of tastes in headphones, and they never argue. The main demographic, however stops mostly at the upper echelon of mid-fi. That's not necessarily a bad thing but the general atmosphere and acceptance of difference is, by contrast a joke here at head-fi. Everyone is tense, and constantly looking for approval of masses, when all that really matters is the music. Things are far more relaxed where I live, particularly in meet situations. The internet, is of course, vastly different, but it would be nice to see head-fi be more like the local forum, or the head-fiers I meet in real life who aren't afraid to have someone say "this is not to my taste".
 
I'm interested to see how this post is received, given the above and my personal readiness to say "I do not like this" which is met with some rather comical results.
 
Dec 22, 2010 at 11:01 PM Post #52 of 828
MrGreen, I think this thread had to do with amount of time as a head-fier specifically, and not the actual age of people, as you seem to have taken it.
 
Dec 23, 2010 at 1:58 AM Post #53 of 828


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skylab said:
MrGreen, I think this thread had to do with amount of time as a head-fier specifically, and not the actual age of people, as you seem to have taken it.
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Yeah, this. But it was a good read.
 
I disagree with you, there are some great members that have been around since the dawn of time that aren't uptight asses, and there are some mudslingers too. I tend to avoid the main boards as they are very frenzied and fanatic, so things might be different there.
 
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