Golden Ears
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2005
- Posts
- 358
- Likes
- 30
I just see such long "Sigs" listing "endless gear" that likely... just .... well, sits around most of the time unused.
IMHO if you spend a bunch all at once. You might be able to get a single headphone rig that does just about everything.
But so many head-fi'ers buy a set of headphones for rock, another for jazz, another portable set..etc...
Lots may have enough invested to have already bought the headphone of their dreams AND a decent set of speakers and amps. (I'd just sell it all... gather my cash and buy the right thing).
If you never listen to live unamplified music... you'd think you can not choose wisely because you'll never know what to listen for. Tip...
What is remarkable about the human ear is that it has some "instinct" to listen for things.
For instance:
If you only spoke to someone you never met over a very low fidelity speaker (say a cell phone with its awful compression) and then you meet---> IN PERSON... you would find that the person's voice is very much like you expected it to be (without the crummy speaker)- in person.
So having better speakers helps to make the person sound live, and of course as most people are all able to discern perhaps 200- 300 different telephone voices without much difficulty, we , over time can learn to discern between different Pianos, guitars, Microphones, mixing consoles, amplifiers etc...
It just takes time to learn, and to pay attention. But our ear certainly is more sensitive in particular frequency areas as opposed to the frequency extremes. So when auditioning speakers it helps to pay attention to the human voice.. perhaps one you are extremely familiar with (for a teen it might be their mother) for an adult male it might be their wife. The best is if the vocal used falls within the area that is hardest to be correct (the crossover region of the midrange and tweeter) - some voices just skirt those regions and might not be ideal.
And to use a well made recording of that to select your loudspeakers for the area in which your ears are most likely to detect any deviation from real.
Unfortunately most people listen for the highs or the extreme lows when choosing a speaker... which often isn't very satisfying over the long term.
If the speaker passes on the well known human voice test. Then you should next check for the highs and the lows. The high end should be extended well beyond 30kHz preferably an octave past 15- 20kHz so that there is less directional "beaming" at the limits of the speaker driver.
Just don't ever buy a speaker in a noisy environment..... Best Buy, Frys, WALMART, etc. The only reason I recommend the Adam A7 and A7x is because for those who do not live in densely populated higher income areas with high end Hi fi stores- Guitar center has them with cheap financing... and after you have paid off your Adam A7x's you can readily sell them to buy another speaker if you wish. So instead of saving for 2 years (budding little college dorm dwelling head-fiers) .. you get to hear it/own it today.
IMHO if you spend a bunch all at once. You might be able to get a single headphone rig that does just about everything.
But so many head-fi'ers buy a set of headphones for rock, another for jazz, another portable set..etc...
Lots may have enough invested to have already bought the headphone of their dreams AND a decent set of speakers and amps. (I'd just sell it all... gather my cash and buy the right thing).
If you never listen to live unamplified music... you'd think you can not choose wisely because you'll never know what to listen for. Tip...
What is remarkable about the human ear is that it has some "instinct" to listen for things.
For instance:
If you only spoke to someone you never met over a very low fidelity speaker (say a cell phone with its awful compression) and then you meet---> IN PERSON... you would find that the person's voice is very much like you expected it to be (without the crummy speaker)- in person.
So having better speakers helps to make the person sound live, and of course as most people are all able to discern perhaps 200- 300 different telephone voices without much difficulty, we , over time can learn to discern between different Pianos, guitars, Microphones, mixing consoles, amplifiers etc...
It just takes time to learn, and to pay attention. But our ear certainly is more sensitive in particular frequency areas as opposed to the frequency extremes. So when auditioning speakers it helps to pay attention to the human voice.. perhaps one you are extremely familiar with (for a teen it might be their mother) for an adult male it might be their wife. The best is if the vocal used falls within the area that is hardest to be correct (the crossover region of the midrange and tweeter) - some voices just skirt those regions and might not be ideal.
And to use a well made recording of that to select your loudspeakers for the area in which your ears are most likely to detect any deviation from real.
Unfortunately most people listen for the highs or the extreme lows when choosing a speaker... which often isn't very satisfying over the long term.
If the speaker passes on the well known human voice test. Then you should next check for the highs and the lows. The high end should be extended well beyond 30kHz preferably an octave past 15- 20kHz so that there is less directional "beaming" at the limits of the speaker driver.
Just don't ever buy a speaker in a noisy environment..... Best Buy, Frys, WALMART, etc. The only reason I recommend the Adam A7 and A7x is because for those who do not live in densely populated higher income areas with high end Hi fi stores- Guitar center has them with cheap financing... and after you have paid off your Adam A7x's you can readily sell them to buy another speaker if you wish. So instead of saving for 2 years (budding little college dorm dwelling head-fiers) .. you get to hear it/own it today.