Headphone recommendations on Head-Fi - a suggestion ..
Sep 3, 2009 at 1:50 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 31

estreeter

Headphoneus Supremus
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Hi All,

One of the things that stands out on Head-Fi is that the same information is often repeated, virtually word for word, when someone asks the board to recommend a headphone.

While a megathread detailing every recommendation ever made is probably over the top, what do folk think of this idea:

- a subforum called 'Recommendations'

- each thread is a sticky with the brand and model of the headphones, and a brief description e.g. 'ATH-AD900 - fullsize,open cans'

- each post is simply a rating out of 10 (optional ratings for comfort/sound etc) and a brief description of what you liked/disliked about the phones, with links to things like 'Appreciation' threads for those with the time to wade through them. Suggestions re sources/amps that work well with each phone would really save some of us time wading through old posts.

- the only other threads in the sub-forum have titles like 'Bass Monster', 'Great Jazz Cans', 'Metal Cans', 'Best Portables' and so on, with a simple list of headphone models, each of which is a link to the main thread covering opinions on those phones.

I know there are stickies here which attempt to correlate a lot of that info, but it would seem that every new (and some not so new) Head-Fier starts a new thread along the lines of 'Gee, I really like Model A, but can anyone suggest another model that has more *bass* ?'. No amount of stickies will stop this, but being able to respond with a link to the sub-forum might minimise the need for the old hands to regurgitate the same info repeatedly. Categorising phones would probably be the most contentious part, and there will always be folk with very specialised requirements (HD800 from an iPhone ..), but it might just save everyone a few keystrokes.
beerchug.gif


Just a suggestion - I shall now don my flame-proof suit and tin hat.
o2smile.gif


estreeter
 
Sep 3, 2009 at 2:34 AM Post #2 of 31
I like the idea, but can we expand on it and crowdsource the opinions...maybe a poll on each sticky that everyone can vote on so you end up with an aggregate of opinions in a qualitative manner. Maybe to supplement, you could have some text below the poll that state the general opinion on the particular headphone?
 
Sep 3, 2009 at 2:39 AM Post #3 of 31
Yeah, I admit that the mechanics need some work, and it wont be perfect, but the way Amazon ask you for a rating when you are reviewing a product, then use that to give an overall score, seems like a start. You'll always get one or two who just want to give everything '1' (or '10' ..). but that sort of tomfoolery is normally averaged out if you have enough responses in your poll.
 
Sep 3, 2009 at 2:57 AM Post #6 of 31
Quote:

Originally Posted by nickosha /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I think just making a recommendations subforum would be good idea. Then the main forum can be left to headphone discussion, reviews, news, comparison, etc.


Works for me !
jecklinsmile.gif
 
Sep 3, 2009 at 3:01 AM Post #8 of 31
Put recommendations in their own subforumand people who actually have a clue will simply never go there and itll turn into a self feeding self contained world of inexperienced users giving help to people with even less experience until they "graduate" up into the forums proper.

Those of us who've been here a while tire to various degrees of the repeated stuff in terms of thread topics that comes from people who haven't got the wit, effort or inclination to bother doing anything beyond the very most basic search and who certainly don't want to have to read through lots of stuff for themselves in a practice which would resemble in some ways education. They want spoon fed fast answers which will give miracle cure to their $50 AWESOMEZ BASS EPIC GAMING MASSIVE PORTABLE NO AMP NO DAC listening needs. And with any luck, this new proposed forum would send all of its potential users away with a set of PX100 and hope they don't turn out have gone to ebay and bought crappy fake ones and come back and complain that the advice they were given was crap.

I cannot emphasise enough how I think this proposed dedicated forum would be a dreadful idea.
 
Sep 3, 2009 at 3:30 AM Post #9 of 31
Quote:

Originally Posted by Duggeh /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Put recommendations in their own subforum and people who actually have a clue will simply never go there and itll turn into a self feeding self contained world of inexperienced users giving help to people with even less experience until they "graduate" up into the forums proper.


And this would differ from the current situation in what way exactly ? The thrust of your argument seems to be that:

1. as an experienced conoisseur of headphones, *I* cant be bothered answering every request for a pair of cheap cans that will make someone's world a better place, esp when they have made no effort to research the best cans for their needs.

2. this will inevitably mean that people who have less experience than myself will be doling out useless recommendations.

duggeh, what I am suggesting is that *your* invaluable advice about a given pair of cans would go into a thread, once and once only, and remain there in perpetuity. Granted, that thread wouldnt be titled "duggeh's golden thoughts on the HD800", and said dweebs may well cast their vote on your beloved headphones, but such is life.

And, hey, the last thing we want on Head-Fi is the blind leading the blind in an orgy of fanboyism and misinformation .... heaven forbid.
darthsmile.gif
 
Sep 3, 2009 at 9:31 AM Post #10 of 31
You've missed the point entirely. But you seem to have a prefernce for reading anything negative as condescending or eliteist.
 
Sep 3, 2009 at 9:43 AM Post #11 of 31
How about this:

Recommendations Subforum

Full-sized Cans

+ Open
+ Closed
+ High-end


Portable Headphones

+ Open
+ Closed
+ Active Noise Cancelling


Earbuds and IEM's

+ Earbuds
+ In-Ear Monitors


Amp/DAC Section

+ Amplifiers
- Full-sized/Desktop
- Portable
+ DAC's


That's my take anyways. Some reactions would be nice.
 
Sep 3, 2009 at 10:09 AM Post #12 of 31
don't forget a sub tab for price ranges
wink.gif


while it is a nice idea, I don't think it will work. The same threads will keep popping up. btw, there is already a thread in the sticky list containing headphones in the different price ranges and with a short description.


...
I've been playing with the idea to write a program for these recommendations, something like a find-out-which-flower-you-are-looking-at-description-tree. not that I think it would help, but for the fun of it
smile.gif
 
Sep 3, 2009 at 10:35 AM Post #14 of 31
nothing special, I can find my way around various languages but mostly the basics. it'll probably just be a php thing.
but if I get in the mood I may use Unity (c# based) for some 3d clouds etc
smile.gif

it will need connection to an easy to access database, I think the php/mysql will always be useful so it's a good place to start.
 
Sep 3, 2009 at 1:20 PM Post #15 of 31
I like the idea, and I like the way they do it over on headrooms site where they give a brief description of the qualitative specs of each headphone (I'm talking about in the balanced phones section). Maybe we could make a list of some of the more popular cans in each category and give a brief description of their sound signature and poll the description.
 

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