[joelpearce]

All of this assumes that people buy really high end gear because of the quality.
 
These are, like Uncle Erik pointed out, status symbols.  Just like really fancy cars and giant mansions, you don't buy them because you're getting bang for your buck, you get them because you want to feel like you are part of a special club when you put them on.
 
Which is why I don't own anything worth over $300.  I've chosen to join the DIY ortho club for my feeling of belonging and status--it's much cheaper.

 

[ACDOAN]

+1 with the status symbols.
 
I normally wait for  few months or years to buy the NIB discontinued (NOS) for about 1/2 price. In that case I have the cake and eat it too. Of course, my limited is 1K but I am happy with my HD600/650 and I do not mind to get the HD800 as NOS with substantial discount once their replacement coming out sometimes.
 
 

 

[mibutenma]

Quote:

Anticipating counterarguments, rooms are not that important. Sure, you can spend hours with a SPL meter and glue foam/fabric traps all over the room and get anal about things. But a typical placement in a triangle with your listening seat is usually fine. I adjusted the distance apart, toe-in and distance from wall with my speakers and they sound pretty good. I'm sure a dedicated listening room would be better, but a little work has them sounding better than the HD-800.

 

I have the same experience. Just measure the speakers to couch, made a triangle, toed them in, the usual placement practices.No magical super audio made room like some say you have to have for speakers.
And the speakers blow headphones away in everything soundwise. And the speakers are cheaper then a T1,HD 800,ED 8 etc...
 
 
 
 

 

[wind016]

Quote:

+1 with the status symbols.
 

Really? I'm not sure about status symbol because I'm one broke mofo.
 

 

[deadlylover]

Quote:

Really? I'm not sure about status symbol because I'm one broke mofo.

 
Word brother.
 
My music is too embarrassing for speakers, so I'm stuck with headphones. I got the O2's because I liked how they sounded, and unfortunately, they were bloody expensive.

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

My music is too embarrassing for speakers, so I'm stuck with headphones.

I eventually plan to move to the middle of nowhere to solve that problem.  Until then I'm stuck with headphones too, and I'll probably be able to afford a top flight Stax rig long before I'll be able to afford a decent plot of land that's almost in the middle of nowhere but close enough to commute to a good job.
 
If you blast some Mahler or Bach during the daylight hours you won't have to put up with strange stares from your neighbors.  Anime OP/EDs and vocaloids?  Expect people to avoid you.  Death metal?  Expect people to call the cops.

 

[wind016]

 
Quote:

I eventually plan to move to the middle of nowhere to solve that problem.  Until then I'm stuck with headphones too, and I'll probably be able to afford a top flight Stax rig long before I'll be able to afford a decent plot of land that's almost in the middle of nowhere but close enough to commute to a good job.
 
If you blast some Mahler or Bach during the daylight hours you won't have to put up with strange stares from your neighbors.  Anime OP/EDs and vocaloids?  Expect people to avoid you.  Death metal?  Expect people to call the cops.

or play Asian music? Expect unsolicited e-mails regarding math problems and then get robbed the next morning.
 

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

or play Asian music? Expect unsolicited e-mails regarding math problems and then get robbed the next morning.

Lulz.  Part of me really wants to say you're joking, but the cynic in me says, "Yeah, I can see that."
 
Honestly though, I look scary enough as it is so nobody would probably hassle me about weird anime music, but Emortus might make people some people call the cops, some Candlemass might make others call the men in white, and $DEITY knows what wrath Lords of Acid might bring down.  I find that last one especially ironic given the pretty much 90% of American popular music since Elvis has basically been about sex anyway...
 
Back on topic.  Its all downhill after the KSC-75.  If you don't need isolation you'd do well to buy a pair and never visit this cursed place again.  If you get obsessed like use you'll be spending hundreds or thousands of dollars for the equivalent of taking a second off your quarter mile time.

 

[ACDOAN]

 
Quote:

Really? I'm not sure about status symbol because I'm one broke mofo.
 

 You are not alone, Are you ? I am not surprised at all  since the GDP is at all time low, unemployment is at all time high and the debt to China is around 900 billions, give and take a few billions discrepancy by estimation. You and I and the country are broke.
 
 
 
 

 

[RexAeterna]

lot of pc gear depending how high-end you go can have very good resale value especially selling parts individually. since also lot of people don't know much about hardware theres usually people ripping other people off and making more what they actually paid for the parts or computer all together completely built. if you know the hardware and say go with high-end or step below the top dog within a year you still can roll in some good profit margins especially with gpus and people wanting to crossfire and sli.


anyways besides my off topic rant, for audio gear it depends. how much you willing to spend. going used or new. what knowledge you know of the equipment you want. living condition and so on and so on,ect. it basically come down to you basically and a little help with common sense and keeping an open mind doesn't hurt to have either

 

[9pintube]

Quote:

Quote:
I have the same experience. Just measure the speakers to couch, made a triangle, toed them in, the usual placement practices.No magical super audio made room like some say you have to have for speakers.
And the speakers blow headphones away in everything sound wise. And the speakers are cheaper then a T1,HD 800,ED 8 etc...
 

mibutenma and Uncle Erik, are correct in the fact that a simple speaker system placed right will give you more bang for for your buck.... But I have to take issue with room improvements such as Tube Traps wall acoustic foam or hangings to help with reflection or absorption of your rooms sound in general..... Once you have them in place and you hear the equipment producing the music from your rig the way it was meant to be heard and you start taking away these room treatments you'll think What happened.....  This also holds true for a dedicated audio room....where everything has it's place and the sound is just right, can't be beat.... Now I realize many don't have the room or the cash and time (YEARS,it took me) in setting up a dedicated audio RM., But these few extras I mentioned, really take your speaker system
 to a whole different level........ Most importantly these room tweaks don't coast all that much for what you get in return for your dollars, (many are or can be DIY)..... IMO this is **** near as important as matching your amps, speakers. and associated equipment, including all cables......   So take baby steps in building your sound room and it will be receptive to just about any equipment change you could make in your yrs. to come.....  PS... I think once you find an amp/amps, speakers, and sources etc.etc. you should be happy and not change to the latest model such as "the new MK 3" model when you were happy with your Mark 1 original model .......This is where "pissing money down the drain" will get you most of the time.....Buy your favorite music, on the source of your choice, instead....JMO.....
 

 

[sphinxvc]

OP, ridiculous is subjective.  
 
But that price/point might start with the free earbuds you received with any MP3 player purchase.  You can't beat free.
 
Aside, I can't believe you were too lazy to correct the spelling on your thread title.  

 

[Chris_Himself]

I notice that past 500 dollars, I don't feel like I'm getting a lot of enjoyment for the money and it mostly becomes pride of ownership at that point. Thats only because I prefer mid-fi stuff because it's easier to sell/buy. I mean if I were to list my Grados, source, amp, I could move it in like a day, but if I were to sell some HD650's at a reasonable price it'd take a few days.
 
Honestly none of it is ridiculous, this is one of those few hobbies where you actually build equity, anything you buy here can be pushed right back whenever you're tight on cash or you want to make some upgrades.
 
At 1k though I think I'd be really happy, I haven't heard anything past that but yes, I've listened to like a 1700 dollar setup (GS-1000 and Mapletree) and even at that point I didn't feel it was that ridiculous. I mean if you go to some of the nicer bars out here, some people spend like 300 dollars on bottle service for someone to pour them 30 dollar vodka.... whats a grand or so on audio?
 
Plus like if you own the same gear for years like I do, whats like 600 bucks spread out over 4 years? It's nothing haha!

 

[porschemad911]

For me, it's at about $500 total, although if you went for a CD separate as source it would bring that figure up a bit (unless you bought used).
 
AKG K501 cost me $160, Little Dot II+ cost me $260 and my new Asus Xonar DS cost me $100. And it sounds absolutely fantastic. I mean really fantastic, I can't believe it for the price! For well-recorded classical guitar tracks especially, the clarity is amazing. I play a little, and you can hear every part of each note, the finger tips brushing the string, the nail adding the accentuation, the strings moving with the vibrato etc.
 
I had a Rega Saturn / Graham Slee Solo / K701 rig a while ago, and while it was better (at 5 times the price it would want to be), it was maybe a 10 - 20% sound quality improvement vs a 400% cost increase.

 

[eugenius]

About $500.

That's the point where you can start finding good used speakers that offer many things headphones don't, like a good bass response and soundstage. If you go DIY, you can lower that. Go up to $1,000 and some (but not all) used speakers better pretty much any headphones. By around $2,000, you are solidly in the realm of diminishing returns and headed for the land of status symbols.

Anticipating counterarguments, rooms are not that important. Sure, you can spend hours with a SPL meter and glue foam/fabric traps all over the room and get anal about things. But a typical placement in a triangle with your listening seat is usually fine. I adjusted the distance apart, toe-in and distance from wall with my speakers and they sound pretty good. I'm sure a dedicated listening room would be better, but a little work has them sounding better than the HD-800.

Someone is bound to say that speaker amps are more expensive, too. Bull. A used quality receiver for $100-$400 gets the job done nicely with probably 90% of the non-exotic dynamic speakers out there. When you have a driver 1 cm off your ear, you need a well-constructed amp with little noise, preferably class A. Go six feet out and a touch of hum and a class AB circuit is mostly fine. Also, there are good stereo amps going back nearly 60 years. There's a wealth of used gear. Headphone gear has only taken off in the last five or six years, so there isn't the depth of deeply depreciated - yet good - gear out there. I run my speakers off a 1980s tube amp I found for $700. I paid almost $2,000 for my primary headphone amp. If I could have gotten a great tubed headphone amp from 1985 for $700, I would have. But we're going to have to wait another 20 years for that.

Side note: I'm running ProAc Response 2.5 clones with a Conrad-Johnson MV-52 tube amp. Roughly $1,700, or the cost of a PS-1000 by itself. I've heard the PS-1000 and there's no comparison. I'll keep my setup.

This is the truth.