[Silentpug387]

My campus (University of Chicago) has always been anti-social so it was common to see a lot of kids walking around listning to their mp3 players. But they always had small, $20 and under circuit city-esque type headphones.

A year ago i told my friends in high school that i spent $230 on a pair of headphones and they said i was crazy. I tried to explain how it didn't make sense to spend 300 something bucks on a ipod, and not be able to HEAR the music. They wouldn't listen.

But over the last two weeks on my college campus I have noticed a dramatic decrease in the traditional white ipod earbuds and a huge increase in higher end headphones. Today, for example, I saw a slew of large silver sony and aiwa headphones, three or four kids with grado sr80's, and a kid riding the bus with a pair of sr325i's. Never before today had i even heard the word grado mentioned at my college. I sat down at lunch, and one of my classmates was talking about how she just bought a pair of Sony vdr-7000, and a kid talking about how she should have gotten sennheisers or grados.

As a logical progression from the ipod craze over the last few years, i think high-end headphones becoming the "next cool thing" in music hardware.

When i see Paris Hilton in some magazine shopping in beverly hills with a pair of k1000's i'll know i was right.

 

[PeeeMeS]

I have indeed seen a little "boom" on my college campus

Of course, my K1000s are still a little too extreme for them

A step at a time

 

[skudmunky]

Well, I'm slowly corrupting my freinds.

 

[standard235]

My friends are like... why would you spend $50 on lose little tiny earbuds.


I'm like, Hey, they're IEM's and I like my music. I use them a lot and I like having the best. Seen my bike?


They just don't understand. But please, continue letting mommy and daddy buy you stupid ass stuff for your iTrend... I mean iPoo... iPod...

 

[Rayman2k2]

U of Chicago eh? I got rejected from there this year

eh, in hindsight, really not a place for me. I need a more "social" place with competition (I seem to perform well with competition). Now I am looking forward to Case Western Reserve (got in), Carnegie Mellon (waiting to hear), and Haverford (waiting to here). But enough of that...


When my friend and I told other kids that we dropped 300 for the Shure E4's, they were all like "stupidest decision ever".

Now, they are envious. No one has listened to them, but they all compliment and tell both my friend and I how luck we are...

 

[lan]

Hmm? What school or area are you in that you see so many Grados? HF-U?

I never see that many high end phones walking the streets of NYC. Although I did see some huge headphones on a girl. I'm inspired to wear my bigones.

 

[Kirosia]

Quote:

As a logical progression from the ipod craze over the last few years, i think high-end headphones becoming the "next cool thing" in music hardware.

Nah. Regular people aren't that crazy.

Besides, that would annoy all the "I'm special and better than others cause I use high-end phones" peeps. I can imagine them going back to crud stock just to be "different".

 

[Bob Mahoy]

Sorry to say this, but the only boom I'm seeing is in triports...though it seems to have stopped now. Nothing besides that you can't get at target though.

 

[JMBrown]

This must be a fairly isolated phenomenon, cause I see more and more of those iconic little white buds everyday.

Seems as though most people would rather advertise that they own an iPod than actually enjoy the music coming out of it.

 

[7even]

We still have mainly stock ipod earbuds here. I'll blame that on rising tuition costs

 

[Magnum22]

Yeah here at rutgers i've seen one pair of grado's, one pair of senns, and tons of sonys, triports, and QC2s. Just today someone noticed my porta pro's and told me "if you really want nice headphones, you should check out the quiet comfort 2. Amazing!"

For months i've been askin my friends to count how many ipods they see on the bus and then count how many feet are tappin or heads are bobbin. There's a huge disparity. My experience: maybe one of every twenty kids with an mp3 player is enjoying his or her music. not an exaggeration.

 

[ScubaSteve87]

hmm my friends here I spend 900 and just laugh and say im crazy. If anything it prob encourges them to buy crappy headphones

 

[rhythmicmoose]

I guess you guys are more on top of things in Chicago. Over here it seems like people are moving away from the iBuds, but still don't know where to go. iBuds still outnumber everything else, but I see some MDR-EX71's or occasionally full sized Sony cans. I've actually noticed a lot of PX100's and PX200's recently. The only real high-end stuff I've seen is a pair of DT250's (once) and some silver Grados (I see the kid walking around in them every other day).

 

[smeggy]

Bleh, I figure that if my co-workers are happy listening to crappy headphones, who am I to interfere.

 

[s3r]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy Bleh, I figure that if my co-workers are happy listening to crappy headphones, who am I to interfere.

So true. A lot of the data entry clerks where I work wear headphones to keep from going insane, and they're all horrid.

I haven't seen any increase in nice headphones... but I do say there's a good chance they'll become more popular soon. If only the major retailers (Best Buy etc.) would start carrying cans worth buying, people might actually have some good sound quality without going out of their way, like we do.

I know that my Zen Xtra and KSC75s keep my feet tapping, though. I can't not move.