headphone magazine?

Sep 4, 2005 at 4:30 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 6

JSimpson

New Head-Fier
Joined
Aug 13, 2005
Posts
27
Likes
0
hi, i enjoy reading magazines and i was wondering if anyone knows of any good headphone-oriented magazines out there. i've gone though the magazines at giant and found nothing. i assume that since headphones are basically a niche market a good headphone mag would be hard to find. any suggestions?
 
Sep 5, 2005 at 6:02 PM Post #3 of 6
There are no magazines that I know of that focus specifically on headphones.

However, there are lots of high-fidelity magazines out there. Stereophile, for example, which is a magazine I subscribe to, contained a review of the Ray Samuels Emmeline SR-71, a popular headphone amplifier. There have been other such reviews in the past. I'm sure that Stereophile will do a report/review of the revamped (and ultra-cool) Beyerdynamic line.

A few things to stress about hi-fi mags though:

1. They think everything they review is the best of its kind in the market
2. They use sneaky journalism in order to keep their ad revenues high.
3. Sam Tellig and Roy Hall have a very bad relationship, and they whine back and forward to each other in the letters section and Tellig's own section of the magazine, which becomes awfully tiring.
4. They really only focus on the ultra cheap and the ultra expensive products. Not much of the middle -- it's either the Epos E3s (300 dollars) or some 37,000 dollar speaker (like the "eyeballs" reviewed in this month's issue). There may be a lot of snob appeal in the magazine to your tastes.


All these things aside, the writers of Stereophile are professional, and their articles are fun reads. I always read their music reviews, their interviews with musicians and engineers, and even the letters are sometimes a blast to read. Well worth the small subscription fee, in my opinion.

If you want to just focus on headphones, well, probably only about 3% of the hi-fi market is focusing on the headphone users, so there is no profitable market for the writers and editors. Although, a "portable and headphone" section in Stereophile could be nice...
 
Sep 5, 2005 at 6:14 PM Post #4 of 6
As far as I know, the number of short wave listeners has declined considerably, yet at least one short wave magazine survives; i.e., "Monitoring Times". I therefore think that, were someone to start a headphone specific magazine or newsletter, it would do well, especially since there are >30,000 Head-Fi members, and lots and lots of other headphone users out there. I hope that someone makes the effort to publish such a magazine. I'd certainly subscribe. I think that just announcing the availablility of such a magazine or newsletter on Head-F, would assure its substantial circulation.
 
Sep 5, 2005 at 7:10 PM Post #5 of 6
I doubt there’d be much interest unless it was free and even then- why? Since everything is available in real time and free on the internet.

The problem with print media nowadays is as soon as it’s printed it’s outdated. I can surf the web and find out what’s happening today not reading a newsletter about what was current last week.


The only printed item I’d like to buy would be a real nice (professional quality) Calendar of Headphones and Headphone Amps. Just beautiful shots of the gear. And maybe mention some famous occurrences in the history of headphones like they do on other calendars.

Personally I think this could sell. If Head-Fi \ Jude (in his free time) could make one it’d be great. Like what’s Jude do between midnight and 5 am? Sleep?


Mitch
 
Sep 6, 2005 at 2:05 AM Post #6 of 6
Perhaps you're right, although I still enjoy leafing through magazines and newsletters. I'd bet that there are still plenty of people like me.


Quote:

Originally Posted by braillediver
I doubt there’d be much interest unless it was free and even then- why? Since everything is available in real time and free on the internet.

The problem with print media nowadays is as soon as it’s printed it’s outdated. I can surf the web and find out what’s happening today not reading a newsletter about what was current last week.


The only printed item I’d like to buy would be a real nice (professional quality) Calendar of Headphones and Headphone Amps. Just beautiful shots of the gear. And maybe mention some famous occurrences in the history of headphones like they do on other calendars.

Personally I think this could sell. If Head-Fi \ Jude (in his free time) could make one it’d be great. Like what’s Jude do between midnight and 5 am? Sleep?


Mitch



 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top