[nikp]

Yes they are worth it IMHO. Of course the word "expensive" goes to a certain limit.

 

[Shubar]

Are expensive anything worth it?

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Are expensive anything worth it?

Experience is priceless. When you're in your 80's and money doesn't matter anymore, all you can remember is the experiences you didn't have and the ones you did.
 
Very best,
 

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

Experience is priceless. When you're in your 80's and money doesn't matter anymore, all you can remember is the experiences you didn't have and the ones you did.
 
Very best,
 

Surrounded like a hoarder in a pit of vacuum tubes and wired headphones, relics from a by-gone era when you once spent your
time on some archaic thing called electronic forums where you actually had to use your fingers to type text.
 
Ahh so much to look forward to..
 

 

[Shubar]

Quote:

Experience is priceless. When you're in your 80's and money doesn't matter anymore, all you can remember is the experiences you didn't have and the ones you did.
 
Very best,
 

"Life is a great experience, and knowledge is power" - Ben
 

 

[Happy Camper]

If you can live with your current rig, and don't feel envious of others, no.

Envy and lust seep into the forums after hearing how much better X is than x from those wanting to experience X. The scale of improvement based on price alone is a slippery road.

Living with a sound, then going back to your reference will point out any differences. If you can determine that difference by putting a price to it, you can then decide if it's worth it. To just say, is $xxx worth it, leaves too much unknown to determine worth.

As a hobbyist that has been incrementally improving my sound for 40 years, I will say that once I got into "Hi End Sound", I wished I would have bought the most I could have afforded each time and not cut corners to save a dollar. You may not be able to finance the entire rig in one go, but you can start with one component and build your way to completion. I have been doing this for the last couple years. I am waiting for DACs to standardize and competition bring down the ridiculous markups a "new and revolutionary" change demands. In other words, most high priced components are set based on what the designer/team thinks they can get. After competition determines the place of the "new and revolutionary" improvements, a value will be placed on it based on the customer.

So there is a value point but every consumer has to experience the options to make their own judgment. For me, there is better than average value based on sound alone but it might take you half your life to determine it.

 

[MegaMushroom]

Quote:

Are expensive anything worth it?

 
Burger King or that nice local restaurant that charges 15 dollars for a fine meal?  A beater with no radio or a brand new BMW?  I'd have to say that yes, expensive things can be worth it.  Granted that we all have our limits of merely expensive and "you've got to be flaking kidding me" expensive.  I have yet to find that limit... 
 
 

 

[Brooko]

Quote:

If you can live with your current rig, and don't feel envious of others, no.

Envy and lust seep into the forums after hearing how much better X is than x from those wanting to experience X. The scale of improvement based on price alone is a slippery road.

Living with a sound, then going back to your reference will point out any differences. If you can determine that difference by putting a price to it, you can then decide if it's worth it. To just say, is $xxx worth it, leaves too much unknown to determine worth.

As a hobbyist that has been incrementally improving my sound for 40 years, I will say that once I got into "Hi End Sound", I wished I would have bought the most I could have afforded each time and not cut corners to save a dollar. You may not be able to finance the entire rig in one go, but you can start with one component and build your way to completion. I have been doing this for the last couple years. I am waiting for DACs to standardize and competition bring down the ridiculous markups a "new and revolutionary" change demands. In other words, most high priced components are set based on what the designer/team thinks they can get. After competition determines the place of the "new and revolutionary" improvements, a value will be placed on it based on the customer.

So there is a value point but every consumer has to experience the options to make their own judgment. For me, there is better than average value based on sound alone but it might take you half your life to determine it.

Great post Happy Camper
 
IMO although it is more expensive getting to your own personal audio nirvana by taking the long road, to me (so far) the journey has been worth the added expense (and really speaking I am still not yet half-way on the journey).  If I hadn't bought, sold and otherwise tried the gear I have sampled so far, I wouldn't have any idea of the sound I really like.  And I learn more about what I like the more I gain experience in my personal audio odyssey.
 
Besides that, each small discovery along the way - whether disappointment, or that defining "aha" moment - then the chance to share your experience with others - that is what has made the journey so much more enjoyable.
 
Even nicer to share the experience with someone close.  I gave my lovely wife a listen on my modded MS1i's tonight, through the newly acquired PortaTube, listening to some Amos Lee - it was warm, smooth, fantastic.  I expected her to hand them back after a few secs - but she listened through the entire track, and the next one.  She handed them back, and told me they sounded really good.  She'll never share my passion for audio - but it was nice to get a glimpse back that she understands.
 
To the OP - the term "expensive" will have different connotations to different people depending on their circumstances.  Is it worth it?  If you have a passion for it - yes.  It heightens my enjoyment of the music - and ultimately that's what it's about.  I'm not an audiophile.  I'm a music lover.  And for me the journey so far has been worth every cent I've spent.

 

[swbf2cheater]

Your happiness has no price tag.  You either meet it or you don't, but know that just because it is an expensive set does not mean it will make you happy.  I enjoyed my $30 used Sennheiser HD485 more than 99% of all the other headphones I have ever owned or even heard.  
 
All the clarity in the world means nothing if it doesn't mesh with you.  
 

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

Your happiness has no price tag.  You either meet it or you don't, but know that just because it is an expensive set does not mean it will make you happy.  I enjoyed my $30 used Sennheiser HD485 more than 99% of all the other headphones I have ever owned or even heard.  
 
All the clarity in the world means nothing if it doesn't mesh with you.  
 

So true, I know some music lovers with a Creative labs sound card and a pair of Shure 440's, they're happy, they enjoy the music and they don't have any intention of
upgrading. On the other hand, I know one guy with a Denon D5000, AKG K701 and Sennheiser HD 650, all tied together with a Cambridge Audio DacMagic and
a Violectric V100 and he is still chasing 'his sound'.
 

 

[Redcarmoose]

When you look at the diminishing returns which start quickly in speaker set ups it seems to me that headphones have always been a better bang for your buck. I really have not up graded my headphones all too often after being in constant amazement from each pair of headphones I have owned. Expensive was $100.00 to me in 81. Expensive was $200.00 in 99. Expensive was $450 in 2009. So when you spread it out over the years it is really not that much money if your into it.
 
It seems it is $40.00 for two to go to the movies now. How long does that last 2 hours? 10X to the movies = $400.00 headphones that last. Getting the source and amps to make them shine their best is another story. Today though it seems like there is more information and products out there than ever before. The best money spent is on things you use. The worst money spent is on something you don't use. I really don't care how good a deal is on something or how little or how much it costs in the end, if it is not something you will use a lot it is a bad purchase. 
 
 
 
There is almost no price you can place on your lifestyle. The lifestyle choice is priceless as at times it can not be purchased but only discovered.

 

[Audio-Omega]

Half the fun is getting to your destination.  

 

[Happy Camper]

I'd rather save the money and enjoy the destination sooner/longer.

This and the post above are the fundamental directions of this hobby.

 

[Sort]

It's just desire, and I'm careful with my money, not wasteful on cable tv or expensive cars, but I'm no Buddha. I love music. My basic plan is to be five to ten years late on all headphone tech. Yes, I miss out the cutting edge, right-now tech with the heavy price tag, but it's also not in my life. I've never heard any headphones in the thousand dollar range, and never want to; well, I do when they are no longer 1000 bucks and you can find refurbished or slightly used at half or less.
 
I mean really it was still the new cans that everyone wanted. I'm just comfortably late with a comfortable amount of money still in my pocket.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Now that you guys mention experience, I definitely think that has a lot to do with it. Most of us don't know if this stuff is right for us and probably won't get the chance unless we buy it first.
 
I don't have a roughly $600 headphone setup to relate to, but I do have some flight simulator controls that total up to around that much after what I've spent on them, and the distinctive thing about the flight stick is that it's force-sensing, like an actual F-16. It was just so unlike anything I had used prior (just about every other flight stick works based on how far it's deflected/moved instead of how much pressure/force is applied) that I had to try it. Needless to say, it's not the sort of thing you'll see in a computer store, especially since the force-sensing bit is an aftermarket mod that normally costs more than the stock flight stick and throttle brand new. (I just happened to get a good used deal on them with the mod pre-installed.)
 
What I found is that while it felt great for its intended purpose (simulating the F-16) and space "sims" in general, I just didn't have any precision with it in anything set in WWI or WWII, such that instead of using that expensive stick, I brought out a separate force-feedback stick with far less buttons and switches on the stick itself...but it didn't matter for the aircraft I was flying with it. What did matter was that I could fly on the edge and land hits with more consistency. And that stick only cost me a whopping $31.50 (which is admittedly low given that on eBay, it usually sells for $50-70), though I am still using the throttle and rudder pedals in such cases.
 
I feel like I might undergo a similar feeling with my plans to enter the exotic world of electrostatics as soon as I can afford a Stax Lambda setup (which probably won't come any time soon unless I have a buyer for the aforementioned flight controls), simply because I have no idea what I'm getting into due to the inability to know what the electrostatic sound is like unless I can get my hands on the things...and that means lots of money up-front. (Unless there's a headphone meet coming by Atlanta some time soon that might have some Stax or Koss ESP950s for me to sample.)
 
Heck, even my $84 AD700s seemed like a lot of money spent on headphones at the time, and that's just a drop in the bucket by Head-Fi standards.