[chadbang]

Redshifter, like you, I think every video upgrade I've made has in some way first depended on how 2001 looks. God how I love that movie. I saw in 14 times IN THE THEATER. I was having a minor tantrum, having recently just bought my first dvd (and of course 2001 was my first disc), that I could not find a widescreen television here in Bangkok. I did a search on the web and they are all over England so I began to whine about Thailand not importing them, then I found out that widescreen tvs are even a rarity is the US! What's going on at home? Where are the widescreens and why aren't they in the US yets? A 28" widescreen can be had for a little as $425 dollars in Britain, and I'm surprise - given how dvd's are becoming a standard in US households - that widescreen tvs haven't followed them in. What gives, guys? Start making a fuss?

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Love is just an artificial burst of biochemicals in our bloodstream (endorphins). After several such "bursts", we begin to associate them together. Ultra-simplification, but you see where I'm going...

Personally, I derive more love from actual music than from discussion and/or ownership of the actual equipment, but I do not think the discussion need necessarily be mutually exclusive. Similar to the analogy I just made above -- how many people actually let the above statement alter their feelings about love? I suspect none. I suspect more people immediately found a point about which to argue as to the technical merits of my statements -- but that doesn't mean that they are any less capable of feeling love, just because they are more inclined to discuss the technical side. SeewhutI'msayin'?

 

[joelongwood]

Quote:

I am hopelessly lost. Anybody else?

I'm not hopelessly lost, Beagle..........I'm hopelessly addicted......not only to headphones and amps, but to learning about them and communicating with the wonderful people on this site. My greatest addiction, however, is the music. I bought my first record when I was 10.......a 45 rpm of Elvis, "Too Much/BW All Shook Up" And I still have it! I can honestly say, that even though I've been interested in high-fidelity for over 30 years now, I have never enjoyed listening to music more than this past year, when I discovered HeadWize by chance. I have learned to appreciate a greater variety of music and have also learned to enjoy the different musical presentations afforded by different headphones. I immerse myself in the experience........and each headphone provides a new listening experience. From the KSC-35s to the HP-1s, I use all of them and enjoy them all at different times. I believe (hope) I've gotten beyond listening to the equipment and have begun to focus on the entire experience. I've realized, finally, that there is no "perfect" sound..........so why not just enjoy what you have?

Oh, and BTW, I'll be speaking to my attorney regarding your unauthorized use of my quote that started this thread.

 

[Odin]

We all have to go through the turmoil of growing up. Sure that in our childhood everything was simple and perfect, we weren't as demanding as we are now, a cup of ice-cream could have satisfied us, but now? We are humans, we are molded by our society and we have to lose our innocence and simplicity of our childhood, we have to evolve and get into the complicated world and it's inevitable. The more we know, the more we want to know, that's just natural.

"The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them." - J.D. Salinger

 

[Vertigo-1]

I know exactly where I'm headed, and I definitely don't feel confused or mislead. I'm by far like neil ever since the day I ran into Headwize. At first, there was definitely a stage of confusion and money plunking, because I was like a kid in a candy store...I just had to try out everything, and see what tasted the best to me. Now that I've reached the peak of what I could possibly afford to taste, it's time to settle down and enjoy what I've bought. And to do that, I need lotsa CDs. Which is exactly where most of my money and time has been going lately. I believe good equipment tends to lead to more music...and more music in turn justifies good equipment.

I understand quite well the idea about enjoying the music vs. enjoying the equipment. But I think we'd all be lying to ourselves if part of the joy we get when we get a new piece of equipment didn't come from how well something was built, or how nice it looks. Or heck, even just how much it costed. I admit fully that part of my joy comes from the visuals and aesthetics of a product.

Quote:

I don't know what great equipment is. I only know what good music and sound are, for my tastes. If the equipment brings that, I guess I'm happy. But the equipment is now constantly interfering with my musical pleasure and enjoyment. I "get" the point of the music when I'm in the car; I often "miss" it when I'm using "great equipment". So this brings me back to the kid with the record player.

I disagree with this. I believe I'm not truly delving into the "soul" of the music, without proper equipment, regardless of whether the soul is good (good recording) or evil (bad recording). In a way, that radio let's you simply view the outter shell of the music, in the same way as if you'd met a nice girl for a first time. She looks pretty, you start digging her...just like you dig that song right off the bat cause of its tunes, or whatever it is that hits you. But then, with a full blown setup, you start truly revealing what that girl's (the recording) soul is like. You get to see if it's good or evil. You understand it more. And ultimately, you appreciate it more.

It's pretty simple, I've observed this myself even. A recording, when played on a radio, let's me hear the music. But I'm totally missing things such as natural physical harmonics, soundstage, the true nature of each instrument (we leave the headphone world and enter the speaker world at this point). Something as simple as the bass is missing even. This is something that is fully present in a live presentation, so to say it's quite acceptable to have those things missing ultimately wouldn't be acceptable to me. These are all things that contribute to what a person would call the soul of the music. You not only hear the music, you feel it. And that, in my opinion, is music for you.

All I've got to say in the end though is, the equipment I've gotten definitely puts a much bigger smile on my face when I listen to music nowdays, than how I felt about music just a year ago.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I'm concentrating on equipment right now and don't even have a collection to speak of

and don't have time to remedy that as exams are coming... Hopefully I will be able to rectify this when exams are over

I am really sort of buying the HiFi *before* the CDs

In the meantime I enjoy Head-Fi more than what little music I have.

<--Look at my post count. Now look at my profile. Now *here's* someone hopelessly lost

 

[M Rael]

In the latest issue of the magazine 'insideHeadphones':

*Interview with Joe Grado

*AKG engineer explains the technology behind the K1000

*'Open-vs-vented',is MacDEF wrong?

*Pictures and report from the latest trade show

*Amp survey


p.s. would you buy it? or are you soooo busy it would detract from your listening time. tellingly, in contrast there are no enthusiast groups devoted to using decrepid record players from the early 60's and playing on them equally decrepid 45's from the same era, because of the magic of that combination. neither are there folks who take AM radios out of their grandaddys ford (along with the 75cent speakers) and make it the showpiece of their home entertainment center. even if they did, they'd sooner or later start comparing the relative qualities of this or that antique AM car radio. and you know where that leads you!

 

[kaiwei]

Hey I love my headphones until I'm rolling in enough dough to justify Wilson WATT/Puppies.

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

*'Open-vs-vented',is MacDEF wrong?

LOL!

 

[redshifter]

chadbang,
i think 16:9 tvs just haven't caught on here in the us yet. remember that in europe and asia there are a lot more audiophiles than in the us (present company excepted, of course). the majority of people in the us, and in fact EVERYONE i work with and know don't give a rat's ass about high fidelty. i mean, a friend actually told me that she will not buy the dvd of "eraserhead"--one of her favorite movies no less--because she believes her almost unviewable copy on vhs (copied off of cable tv) is good enough. her reasoning is the film stock is grainy anyway, so what's the point of getting it on dvd? i tried to explain to her th difference between what a cinematographer does and what the distortion she's seeing on her tape was... and she was like "you're crazy!". people are just clueless about hi-fi, and will argue until they're blue in the face that "they can't see/hear the difference", even though they've never even TRIED.
</rant>
it's also a matter of companies selling what people seem to want: in the us sony generally dumps their crap, while in europe and asia they get the nice stuff. well, what do you expect from a culture that embraces teeny-pop music and thinks budweiser is real beer.

still, there ain't no country in the world like the usa. with what is going on in the middle east right now, where else would they release a movie like "behind enemy lines"?

 

[TerriblySorry]

Sure I love my headphones. But I want to leave them. I want to leave them for Live Music. I want to have a wild, passionate fling with the real McCoy. I want it to last forever. But it won't. Sooner or later, I'll have to come back home. I'll have to put my headphones on. And if I still have the sound of music ringing in my ears, the ticket stub in my pocket, will my headphones care? No. And they won't care because my headphones love me. They do. They really, really do. (Oh all right, my headphones won't care because my headphones don't really have any feelings).

 

[Hirsch]

Actually, this forum has helped me become more focussed, rather than lost.

Any piece of audio equipment is a tool to an end: the enjoyment of music. If the equipment becomes the endpoint, rather than the means to get there, then a person is indeed lost. Why bother with good equipment if you're not enjoying the music?

However, there are many ways to enjoy music. I use a headphone system at work. I can sit here and type this post, instead of being productive, and listen to music at the same time

I do work better with music playing...but I don't want to disturb others.

I live in a condo, multi-unit. I sometime like to listen to music at 3 am. This would make others in the building unhappy, if I used my speakers. So, another headphone system.

I've been transferring LP to CD. I need to hear exactly how the wav file sounds before burning. Computer speakers, even good ones, won't give me the resolution that I need. Headphone system 3.

I've also found that headphones as monitors make it much easier to set up a turntable (see my post in "cheap turntables" thread in source forum for latest madness). Using headphones, I can set up and arm/cartridge in a fraction of the time it would take with speakers, as room acoustics are not getting in the way. I also suspect that the final setup is more accurate (pretty much as close to dead on as I can get without an oscilloscope).

For general use, I much prefer my speaker setup. That will probably always be my preference, but there are many situations where that particular playback method is just not available, or wrong for what I want to do. Audio equipment, be it headphones, speakers, turntables, whatever, are just tools. Good tools help you to your goal better than poor tools, as a rule. However, if you pay too much attention to the tool, and too little attention to what you're using the tool to do, then you can indeed get lost...but that's not just a headphone problem. Audiophiles have been falling into that particular trap for years.

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

I disagree with this. I believe I'm not truly delving into the "soul" of the music, without proper equipment, regardless of whether the soul is good (good recording) or evil (bad recording). In a way, that radio let's you simply view the outter shell of the music, in the same way as if you'd met a nice girl for a first time. She looks pretty, you start digging her...just like you dig that song right off the bat cause of its tunes, or whatever it is that hits you. But then, with a full blown setup, you start truly revealing what that girl's (the recording) soul is like. You get to see if it's good or evil

I disagree with this. If it's a good tune you can tell that by listening in the car. That's actually the best way to determine if there's a song there. A higher resolution playback just provides details regarding the songs production. The production is not the soul. It is what the artist heard in his/her head. They heard a sound, like Brian Wilson with Pet Sounds, not a soundstage, imaging and depth.

It's like saying you can't decide if something tastes good until you've determined what the ingredients are. I can make an analogy between songs and people (girls), but not in that manner. People don't usually grow on me. Some are all production and no substance, bad arrangements, too much pre-programming. Some have muddy personality, thin upper midrange, tubby bottom end, nothing in the highs (rolled off).

 

[johnnylexus]

this has been an extremely interesting thread to me. I am very new here and I have already been sucked in to acquiring some of the coolest gear I have ever known. But more than that, my love for music has been re-born. It is so wonderful. I am listening to Copland Conducts Copland on SACD which, two months ago, I wouldn't have given a rat's butt about (or known about).

Here's my fear...

That I don't get sucked into REALLY SERIOUS audiophile stuff. In a way it's kinda insane to pay $1200 for a headphone amp smaller than a shoe box. But it's something altogether different to get pulled into the seductive lure of mega-buck speakers / amps / etc.

I spent about an hour drooling over the stuff on Audiogon and AudioReview (dream systems) last night. Thank God I live in a townhouse and could never play those systems how they're supposed to be played.

p.s.
when I first bought my Lexus about 9 months ago I spent every night in a Lexus forum sorta like this one. I had to get 19" wheels, low profile tires, a torque converter, new exhaust, etc ad nauseum. I spent thousands of dollars on aftermarket stuff to try to satiate my appetite for having the best looking / performing Lexus. then I started to sicken of it. I started to notice how a lot of the people on the site were also into heavy drinking, drugs, sex and violence. there was no community. it was shallow and meaningless. this forum, on the other hand, is brimming with life, humor, intelligence, insight, and a little irreverence thrown in for fun. i'm very glad I found this place. long live the music.

 

[shivohum]

Quote:

In a way it's kinda insane to pay $1200 for a headphone amp smaller than a shoe box. But it's something altogether different to get pulled into the seductive lure of mega-buck speakers / amps / etc.

And why would that be?