Do you think wearing full-size headphones in public makes you look like a spaz/geek/weirdo?

[krmathis]

Depends on the headphone I would say.
I can imagine getting quite strange looks if I wear the K1000, 4070 or O2 in public. Slimmer models would blend in more though...

 

[nff]

i have worn a700's out and about. but i like my marshmelows for their isolation.

 

[Nocturnal310]

my HD205 and HD555 are sophisticated looking headphones though.


but nevertheless ...normal people cant understand

 

[martinq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gatto /img/forum/go_quote.gif it definitely gets me stared at, and theres always the idiot 'woah, those are big headphones!' I can't wait for my custom IEMs to get here.

it depends on which ones do you wear. All my cans are full-sized an almost all I use as portable and I do not care about other people.

 

[QQQ]

Yes, wearing full-size and even medium size headphone makes you look spaz/geek/weirdo.

 

[nvkid909]

some people get away with it, others don't. i wouldn't think it looks particularly stupid, just that most people are unaware of anything beyond stock phones, so they are probably just bemused / intrigued as to why some people wear big cans out. but they can see why, as they are obviously headphones, not a dead cat or a wok or something.

but what about electrostatic boxes with cradle for support on the head? there's a line between wearing speakers on both sides of your head & wearing headphones.

 

[F107plus5]

Yup; at my age it doesn't matter what people think anyway.

Shucks; when you're balding with white hair, a big ol' bushy Fu manshu, and a pot belly developing, a few missing teeth and you're dressed like you just wandered outta the swamp, whether the pads are pretty yellow or black on some MS-1s plugged into an old Sony Walkman means very little to the over-all effect.

 

[rjp]

A few days ago, I went to a nearby Costco to get a new set of tires put on my car. Because I figured I'd be there for a while, I brought my Sansa and SR60s. I had the phones around my neck while talking to the guy at the tire counter, and he immediately had questions about the SR60s - he was looking for a new set of cans!

 

[Podtweaker]

Well, since we're talking about how weird or geek or(name your adjective) wearing full-size cans in public may appear, why does Bluetooth get a free pass here ? I can't count the number of times I've seen people walking around having a conversation w/ an invisible person before you realize the phone is in the ear on the other side ! Even if you can see the phone how is this more socially "acceptable". This might come under the heading of how people from different generations view things & how important public image is to you. Maybe some of us become a little less social as we age. I seem to remember how important it was to congregate in large groups of people when I was a teenager, you generally hung w/ your sub-group of friends, but there was quite often a larger group wherever we were. It was all part of "hanging out". I think the "having time to kill" factor does'nt exist to the degree it did when we were young factors heavily into living our adult lives. When I do have some free time I don't really get too concerned w/ my public image that much anymore. What's the saying? Actually there are two that come to mind "Been there, done that" & "It was real, but that was then,this is now".

 

[Devolve]

I wear my SR80s to uni every day. Full size headphones are pretty commonplace here (U of T) so there's not that many looks. Maybe from people wearing stock ipod headphones who probably can't understand why id wear them instead of what they're wearing. I've seen people with bigger though, circumaural Denon and Sonys etc.. Overall, I don't mind it. Now maybe when i get an amp and i'm carrying bricks in my pocket i might get a little more looks.

 

[chilli nimrod]

The more people wear them the less odd it will seem. There was a time when glasses would have looked pretty weird.

 

[Rednamalas1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chilli nimrod /img/forum/go_quote.gif The more people wear them the less odd it will seem. There was a time when glasses would have looked pretty weird.

They were called monocles, and they were BALLLLLIN!!

all jokes aside, as long as they're not open cans, I have no problem seeing them in public - except for perhaps JVC/Victor DX1000 or deep darth beyers - also called "boobies on the side of your head"

 

[frekvens]

yes thats why we have IEM's, but respect to those who can wear sr325i + sized cans outside, since it DO look funny,. (IMO). If I didnt care I would probably wear it, but then I do, and social life is a big part of my life. so to "disturb people with big cans" -.- is IMO not nessesary when we have good IEMs avaible with really good isolation... (suprised by the voting, despite this is a audiophile site...)

 

[yukihiro]

ok, so i used to wear my grado sr80's on campus and on the shuttle to campus. i loved them and didnt care what other people thought.

i recently wore my new sr325i's to campus and felt a little more awkward since they are bigger, flashier, and lose a lot of detail from outside noise (which totally kills the purpose of wearing more expensive headphones)

so, i ordered some cheap-ish iem's to wear to campus and in the library, but i'm still gonna wear the 325i's when i'll be on campus chilling outside for longer periods of time.

however, i still don't think there's anything wrong with wearing full-size headphones in public. as long as they're not overly huge (usually not the case) then it's fine. of course closed headphones make them more practical.

a lot of you say that it's social suicide to wear full-size headphones in public... my guess is that the majority of you are probably still in high school. when you get older, you'll realize that it doesn't matter

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chilli nimrod /img/forum/go_quote.gif The more people wear them the less odd it will seem. There was a time when glasses would have looked pretty weird.

Fair enough!
If more people wear full-size headphones around in public, then after a while fewer eyebrows would be raised.