[yangian]

Some things require lots of investments on he R+D departments, it is not always about the product as much as it is about the technological advancement.

Technology should bring down the cost. Just as PC industry. This is especially true for electronic products. Audio gears belong to this category. Now audio industry has a pathological market!

 

[Dobrescu George]

Technology should bring down the cost. Just as PC industry. This is especially true for electronic products. Audio gears belong to this category. Now audio industry has a pathological market!

I've seen a trend for 300$ and 600$ headphones to improve their sound greatly compared to their older counterparts, if they keep this up, we will be slowly reaching better and better headphones at their prices

Seems like the summit-fi has been growing as well, but as long as the technological improvements keep hitting the mid-end and entry-level as well, we are heading towards a nice future where everyone will have better headphones regardless of their price!

 

[yangian]

I've seen a trend for 300$ and 600$ headphones to improve their sound greatly compared to their older counterparts, if they keep this up, we will be slowly reaching better and better headphones at their prices

Seems like the summit-fi has been growing as well, but as long as the technological improvements keep hitting the mid-end and entry-level as well, we are heading towards a nice future where everyone will have better headphones regardless of their price!

Such terminology is totally misleading! Why we need summit, mid or entry level? Anyone called i7 summit-CPU, i5 mid-CPU and i3 entry level CPU? NO!!
Someone invented such misleading concepts to try to make exorbitant profits!

 

[Dobrescu George]

Such terminology is totally misleading! Why we need summit, mid or entry level? Anyone called i7 summit-CPU, i5 mid-CPU and i3 entry level CPU? NO!!
Someone invented such misleading concepts to try to make exorbitant profits!

Well, I would say that most headphones I heard are placed in 3 categories:

0 - 250 $ - entry level, all have a similar level of detail and resolution, regardless of signature
250 - 400$ - mid
400 - 700$ - high end
Everything above would already be summit fi, the sound becomes further refined and usually has some more resolution.

I will immediately jump on a product and yell that it has an awesome resolution and sound if it has, especially if it is priced better, but so far all the products I tested, even those that were called //wonder products for their price// were pretty much wonderful for their price, but no 100$ or 200$ IEM has the resolution of 500$ - 600$ ones.

I found 600$ headphones, a single pair, but did find it, that has the resolution of a 2000$ and above headphones. Its review is in writing right now, the signature is reminiscient of HD800S and that one really surprised me, sounded waaaaay good. But that would be it when it comes to what companies did at more accesible prices.

I don't blame them though, since this is probably a bit of a niche, they need to have enough to fund proper R&D, so they might be placing higher price tags to have how to propel their research forward.

This is strictly for headphones and IEMs since I tested and am testing many of those. I cannot comment on all DAPs out there since I have tested a few and all impressed me, but the differences were not as big as they are between different headphones. A 250$ DAP like HiFiMAN Megamini is quite good sounding actually, DAPs tend to be really good even at moderate prices.

 

[yangian]

Well, I would say that most headphones I heard are placed in 3 categories:

0 - 250 $ - entry level, all have a similar level of detail and resolution, regardless of signature
250 - 400$ - mid
400 - 700$ - high end
Everything above would already be summit fi, the sound becomes further refined and usually has some more resolution.

I will immediately jump on a product and yell that it has an awesome resolution and sound if it has, especially if it is priced better, but so far all the products I tested, even those that were called //wonder products for their price// were pretty much wonderful for their price, but no 100$ or 200$ IEM has the resolution of 500$ - 600$ ones.

I found 600$ headphones, a single pair, but did find it, that has the resolution of a 2000$ and above headphones. Its review is in writing right now, the signature is reminiscient of HD800S and that one really surprised me, sounded waaaaay good. But that would be it when it comes to what companies did at more accesible prices.

I don't blame them though, since this is probably a bit of a niche, they need to have enough to fund proper R&D, so they might be placing higher price tags to have how to propel their research forward.

This is strictly for headphones and IEMs since I tested and am testing many of those. I cannot comment on all DAPs out there since I have tested a few and all impressed me, but the differences were not as big as they are between different headphones. A 250$ DAP like HiFiMAN Megamini is quite good sounding actually, DAPs tend to be really good even at moderate prices.

Did you purposed ignore my writing??
It's nonsense, misleading, even foolish to distinguish entry, mid, and summit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's more foolish to distinguish them by price!
Someone has made this hobby as woman's fashion cloth!!!

 

[Dobrescu George]

Did you purposed ignore my writing??
It's nonsense, misleading, even foolish to distinguish entry, mid, and summit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's more foolish to distinguish them by price!
Someone has made this hobby as woman's fashion cloth!!!

Sorry, I am not ignoring your writing, those are just observation after spending a few days with many products, and after hearing most of what AVstore Romania has in their showroom.

I don't say that it is a good idea to do this, but it is how it sounds to me after days of testing equipment, it is kinda like they did all of this on purpose.

In all honesty, the more companies appear, the more intricate the competition will be so the cheaper products will sound better. I think that it is going in the good road, but the TOTL and flagships have kinda been expensive in every hobby, smartphones, cars, laptops, TVs, displays.

From an economy point of view, price is not determined by a company but by the meeting point of demand and offer, if the price keeps rising, it means that there is demand...

 

[yangian]

Sorry, I am not ignoring your writing, those are just observation after spending a few days with many products, and after hearing most of what AVstore Romania has in their showroom.

I don't say that it is a good idea to do this, but it is how it sounds to me after days of testing equipment, it is kinda like they did all of this on purpose.

In all honesty, the more companies appear, the more intricate the competition will be so the cheaper products will sound better. I think that it is going in the good road, but the TOTL and flagships have kinda been expensive in every hobby, smartphones, cars, laptops, TVs, displays.

From an economy point of view, price is not determined by a company but by the meeting point of demand and offer, if the price keeps rising, it means that there is demand...

Thanks George! I can agree generally, more expensive, more better. What I/we complained is that the tendency of ridiculous price/quality ratio! That's what I said pathological.
Moreover, I don't think the growth of price is a sign of market demand. On the contrary, one justified reason of expensiveness of audio products is just because there is no many people to use. It's not like PC, Almost every person has at least one. Just because the market of these audio products are limited, so the price cannot go down. However, some manufactures are so much greed and some customers are so much....

 

[TWerk]

This yangian guy knows what's up.

 

[ubs28]

Such terminology is totally misleading! Why we need summit, mid or entry level? Anyone called i7 summit-CPU, i5 mid-CPU and i3 entry level CPU? NO!!
Someone invented such misleading concepts to try to make exorbitant profits!

Intel are not computer manufacturers, they are only suppliers of a component.

Computers are increasing in price. A 15 inch Macbook Pro costed around $2000 while now you are looking at $3000. There are even offerings from other brands of $5000+ nowadays.

Summit-fi is something head-fi invented because I have never heard it anywhere else. For me there is simply only 2 categories, it sounds good according to my ears or it doesn't.

 

[yangian]

Intel are not computer manufacturers, they are only suppliers of a component.

Computers are increasing in price. A 15 inch Macbook Pro costed around 2010 while now you are looking at $3000. There are even offerings from other brands of $5000+ nowadays.

Why do you mention Apples products? Any other pc like Apple? Apple was spoiled by those Apple fans, just as someone here. More over, 3000$ for a computer and 3000$ for a headphone or earphone, which is more crazy?
Also, even Apple did not improve price like the greedy hifiman: from 3000$ to $6000 at once!!!

 

[ubs28]

Why do you mention Apples products? Any other pc like Apple? Apple was spoiled by those Apple fans, just as someone here. More over, 3000$ for a computer and 3000$ for a headphone or earphone, which is more crazy?

Alienware and Dell have more expensive offerings than those of Apple by the way. It is not only Apple.

Also the entire laptop market has become way more expensive. In 2010 a $1000 laptop was really expensive. Nowadays the $1000+ segment is much bigger now as there are way
more offerings in this segment.

 

[TWerk]

Everything is becoming more expensive. Only thing going down is wages relative to that. Wonderful world it is.

 

[yangian]

Alienware and Dell laptops have more expensive offerings than those of Apple by the way.

Also the entire laptop market has become way more expensive. In 2010 a $1000 laptop was really expensive. Nowadays $1000 is normal in the laptop market as there are way more many offerings in this segment.

That's more or less normal due to inflation. But from $3000 to $6000, it's ridiculous crazy!!!
Moreover, what kind of computers ability of nowadays compared to 2010?? And what kind of improvement of a $6000headphones to a $1000 one??

 

[TWerk]

And what kind of improvement of a $6000headphones to a $1000 one??



The fact that it has "hifiman" written on it.

 

[TWerk]

Problem is that people are buying this stuff. They couldn't get too far away with pricing at 6,000 if no one took them up on it.