[mnagali]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ffdpmaggot /img/forum/go_quote.gif I remember a time when I went with the cheapest buds I could find, and can not believe I did it. There are even headphones selling for a dollar apiece now. How do people tolerate this?

the same reason you bought and tolerated them before, because they were cheap and you didn't know better. after all, all that matters is that sound is coming out right?

I couldn't help but make a friend of mine audition my old sennheisers for a week when I saw her using some old tattered earbuds, which themselves were a cheap replacement pair, below the quality of the original iBuds. She still thinks I'm crazy for what I've spent, but her world has atleast certainly opened up to desire sound better than iBuds

 

[CANiSLAYu]

Why do people buy a Kia when they can buy a BMW, right?

Maybe people can't afford it, or just don't care enough to justify the difference, or any other number of reasons?

 

[brendon]

I bought an HD650 for my dad since I knew he loves music. However much to my chagrin he instead preferred his puny laptop speakers over the HD650 !

He told me that he prefers to use either earphones or speakers and he can enjoy music even with cheap gear with no problems.

Now he makes amplifiers for a living and so he has access to some decent speakers and he knows what good sound is. But even then he can enjoy music with even $1 earbuds.

Unfortunately in my anger I decided to take the HD650s for myself and now I cant use cheap earphones anymore.

 

[ffdpmaggot]

and this brings me to another question, why would one want a pair of regular earbuds? They don't block out the sound of the outside word, and "waste" sound with ports on the back

 

[kunalraiker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif You've heard the old saw about how a luxury once tasted becomes a necessity, haven't you? And not all of them are that bad, either. I'd take Apple's iBuds over a Triport or K-701.

Please give the k701's some respect, they deserve way better.

 

[kunalraiker]

OP- frankly people don't give a crap about mine and your headphones, they don't care whether you shelled a grand on those custom IEMs, I respect that as its their money, they can do anything with it, so can you and you've decided to get aural bliss

 

[ffdpmaggot]

kunalraiker, I'm just asking how people can go on in their lives, seeing new and different earbuds for more money without thinking "hey, that would make my music sound way better!"

 

[kunalraiker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ffdpmaggot /img/forum/go_quote.gif kunalraiker, I'm just asking how people can go on in their lives, seeing new and different earbuds for more money without thinking "hey, that would make my music sound way better!"

The people you are referring to, got other priorities, music from earbuds is for listening that is all, most of them don't even care about the sound enhancements in their mp3 player, leave alone the ear buds.

 

[lonereaction]

They would pay $20 for stylish earphones that have "XTRA BASS" though. Hur hur!
I remember back in 2006 I was still using stock sony earbuds. They hurt after 30mins of use..

 

[Spyro]

They truly don't know any better.

None of them have stereos or buy cd's.
The radio offers piss-poor compressed audio.
98% use 128 bitrates from I-Tunes so pricier earphones don't matter much anyway.

 

[Spareribs]

In my experience, people don't seem to care if i spent lots of money on headphones, etc... This is because everyone splurges on something of thier own fancy. For example some people I know will spend ridiculous amounts on cars, clothes, etc... It does not shock me at all. But I live in an area where there are lots of wealthy people so no one blinks an eye on what I buy even if they don't understand headphones, gear, etc...

 

[EddieE]

I mean first off, let's remember that music is music and it is still enjoyable through a crappy ghetto blaster or ipod white buds. It might be a pale comarrison but you can still bop along to it if you aren't used to anything better. Once you get an idea of how good it gets it's hard to go back of course but most people have never got off the first rung.

The ear needs to be trained somewhat I think.

A friend who is letting me stay at his place at the moment while rennovation work's being done at mine just got an ipod for his birthday and is listening with the stock buds. Naturally I lectured him about getting a decent pair - his music is also ripped off… youtube!!!! The guy is in desperate need of some standards!

So to really make my point I found a few tunes we both had (my collection is almost all LAME VBR with a fair bit of 320 CBR and bits of FLAC here and there) and I played them for him on Foobar2k > Corda Cantate.2 > Sennheiser HD650 …

…remember that his versions are youtube rips to stock ear buds…

…He claimed he couldn't hear the difference!

I persevered with several tracks and eventually he admitted that there was a difference but that it wasn't that big.

I'm going to keep working on him as its clear his ears just aren't adjusted to hear anything with any focus. Music is just music to him, and probably a lot of others.

 

[TheGame21x]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddieE /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm going to keep working on him as its clear his ears just aren't adjusted to hear anything with any focus. Music is just music to him, and probably a lot of others.

I think you hit the nail on the head there.

To a lot of people, music is just pleasant sounding noise that serves a purpose as a decent distraction from time to time. Few people seem to recognize music as an art form and until you do that, you can never truly appreciate the differences afforded by higher quality headphones/IEMs/earbuds and high quality source files (FLAC, 320kbps MP3, etc.).

 

[pi3guy]

I think as audiophiles or just people who appreciate good headphones, we should avoid being snobs and just let some things slide. For example, my roommate recently bought a pair of bose over-ear headphones, and while I died a little inside, I didn't go up to him and tell him his headphones sucked. Sure I could have given him a much better recommendation, but hey, he's happy with them and they don't leak sound, so I just leave it be.

Everyone has different priorities/hobbies and when we act like elitists we forget to respect that.

 

[GarageBoy]

They can't justify a headphone that cost more than their player, like I can't justify a $200 shirt