[rroseperry]

 
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Finally, a post with integrity, which majority of the reviews here lack.  Especially with big list of sponsors on the right.  But, much respects for keeping this post alive for everyone to read. Thanks for the insightful comments. 

I resurrected it in the hope that it would generate discussion beyond 'Yeah, I agree with everything the OP said' - if nothing has changed in 2+ years, we need to start asking ourselves some hard questions. On a lighter note, I ordered the PX200 II on the basis that they are reputedly a step up from the PX100s the OP was so enamoured with straight from his DAP 

There are two things that seem to have changed in the two years since the original post. 1 There's a much bigger audience/demand for portables. Reading back through the older posts on Head-Fi, the focus seems to have been on putting together a home rig that had the most accurate/pleasing reproduction that you could afford or make.  Now, most threads about portables assume that the portable rig is the poster's main music experience.  It's probably the increased number of smartphones and small, cheaper DAPs that's changed the landscape. The second change, is the shift from DIY to wanting to be able to buy audio nirvana right now.
 
Ok, I'm not completely sure about that last bit, but it does seem like in the older Head-Fi (from reading, I'm a relative noob) there was more exploration and less "Tell me the perfect IEM/DAP/amp for meeeeeee!" in the forums.

 

[estreeter]

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Ok, I'm not completely sure about that last bit, but it does seem like in the older Head-Fi (from reading, I'm a relative noob) there was more exploration and less "Tell me the perfect IEM/DAP/amp for meeeeeee!" in the forums.

 
Fair point, but given some of the posts in 'Full Size Headphones', I suspect that you might be over-estimating the level of understanding of many Head-Fiers - the majority of us did not (IMO) come from any sort of audio background (ie owning a speaker rig, not running a professional studio ....) and the lure of all those shiny little amps is just too much.
 
If I could nominate a pet peeve its folks buying the largest, nastiest set of cans they can find then trying to find the cheapest amp they can lay their hands on to power their 600 ohm monsters. Its my pet peeve because its precisely what I did.
 

 

[violinvirtuoso]

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Ok, I'm not completely sure about that last bit, but it does seem like in the older Head-Fi (from reading, I'm a relative noob) there was more exploration and less "Tell me the perfect IEM/DAP/amp for meeeeeee!" in the forums.

 
I think your last point was a natural result of Head-Fi's increase in popularity. A couple years back, there wasn't nearly this many people on Head-Fi, nor did so many people look at Head-Fi.

 

[rroseperry]

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Ok, I'm not completely sure about that last bit, but it does seem like in the older Head-Fi (from reading, I'm a relative noob) there was more exploration and less "Tell me the perfect IEM/DAP/amp for meeeeeee!" in the forums.

 
I think your last point was a natural result of Head-Fi's increase in popularity. A couple years back, there wasn't nearly this many people on Head-Fi, nor did so many people look at Head-Fi.

Yeah, and that's the natural outcome of so many daps out there with crappy "come with" phones/earbuds.
 
Head-Fi is a great resource. I would never have found my walk-around Fischer Silver Bullets without it. Or even known about customs. But there's a certain amount of ignorance and magical thinking on the site that doesn't (maybe can't) get enough challenge.
 
Which sort of gets to estreeter's excellent point. We buy stuff that's the "best" without understanding how it works within a complete system of audio. But that's because most of us just don't know much. I read a bit about op amps after I got my first PA2V2. It wasn't easy (I close to failed the electronics side of physics in college) but I did get an idea of how they work, so I'm a little skeptical about claims people make.  But if you love music, you do want to get something good to put it in your ears, so when lots of people are writing  "X  is the best Y!11!!!1" it's hard not to try it out.
 

 

[billybob_jcv]

 
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Yeah, and that's the natural outcome of so many daps out there with crappy "come with" phones/earbuds.
 
Head-Fi is a great resource. I would never have found my walk-around Fischer Silver Bullets without it. Or even known about customs. But there's a certain amount of ignorance and magical thinking on the site that doesn't (maybe can't) get enough challenge.
 
Which sort of gets to estreeter's excellent point. We buy stuff that's the "best" without understanding how it works within a complete system of audio. But that's because most of us just don't know much. I read a bit about op amps after I got my first PA2V2. It wasn't easy (I close to failed the electronics side of physics in college) but I did get an idea of how they work, so I'm a little skeptical about claims people make.  But if you love music, you do want to get something good to put it in your ears, so when lots of people are writing  "X  is the best Y!11!!!1" it's hard not to try it out.
 

That's not just head-fi, that's ALL of the audio/video world - and you can probably find analogous behavior in ANY hobby that uses any sort of equipment.  I've read many posts on many forums of all types where people are obsessing over some equipment specification that could not possibly actually have a noticeable affect on the result - but it will still drive their purchase decisions.  It doesn't matter if it's a portable headphone amp, or a home blu-ray player, or a pair of bowling shoes - people are still people.... 

 

[Kubernetes]

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Ok, I'm not completely sure about that last bit, but it does seem like in the older Head-Fi (from reading, I'm a relative noob) there was more exploration and less "Tell me the perfect IEM/DAP/amp for meeeeeee!" in the forums.

True, but back when I joined exploration was required because there wasn't a huge base of experience.  Maybe two people had heard a pair of R10s and a handful had Stax rigs.  Nowadays it's easy to just ask "How does x sound compared to y for jazz?" and a dozen people can relate their experience.  Back then it was much more like "Hey what do those Audio-Techicas sound like?" "Buy 'em and tell us!"

 

[rroseperry]

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True, but back when I joined exploration was required because there wasn't a huge base of experience.  Maybe two people had heard a pair of R10s and a handful had Stax rigs.  Nowadays it's easy to just ask "How does x sound compared to y for jazz?" and a dozen people can relate their experience.  Back then it was much more like "Hey what do those Audio-Techicas sound like?" "Buy 'em and tell us!"

That makes a lot of sense. I'm wondering whether the lack of experience and information lead to more of a conversational community. I could be mistaken, but I have the impression that there are people who come, ask their question and bounce out, never to be heard from again.
 
But circling back to the point that revived this thread, do you think there was a more critical approach to equipment back in the beginning or was it simply a different flavor of fanboyism? I'm thinking about the threads where people are recommending gear they've never heard, simply read reviews by someone else. It sounds as though it was more experience-based.

 

[estreeter]

Gotta envy the people who asked a single question and never came back. Seriously.

 

[jamato8]

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Gotta envy the people who asked a single question and never came back. Seriously.

Yes. Out of curiosity, earlier today I looked up when he last posted. It was back in 2009. I guess it was a true goodbye. I thought maybe he went to a home unit and still posted on the big boy stuff but nope, did what I should probably do. lol 

 

[estreeter]

Who are we kidding, Jam - if it wasnt audio it would be something truly wallet-destroying like camera gear.
 
Now that I come to think of it, a lot of Head-Fiers seem to be obsessed with BOTH - that's got to be a one-way trip to bankruptcy

 

[Kubernetes]

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But circling back to the point that revived this thread, do you think there was a more critical approach to equipment back in the beginning or was it simply a different flavor of fanboyism? 

Kinda the same, kinda different.  There were certainly plenty of lurkers and plenty of the "X is the best, period" people.  And yeah there was a lot more hands on, but it's not like it was significantly more open-minded.  This was a Senn, Grado, and Ety fansite for quite a while.  When the first AT cans started being bought and reviewed here, they were really controversial and written off by many even without a listening session (you see, apart from the R10s, real audiophile headphones came from America or ze Germans).
 
It's pretty inevitable that a site that gets this big will lose the original intimacy and energy, but still it's far better as a resource.  Look at Skylab's fantastic and and ginormous reviews and the huge numbers of people still trying out every headphone under the sun.  Pretty awesome, IMO.
 
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Just reread the OP, and I gotta admit I focused so much on the lack of inherent weaknesses in portable hifi portion I kind of glossed over his early complaints about reviewers and the community.  I think he's quite a bit cynical.  Yes people get sucked into it, but it's not like people are here reading or reviewing equipment in bad faith.  Nobody can teach a noob the importance of trusting your own ears or seeking out reviewers who have similar music tastes and headphone tastes--you've just got to figure that out on your own.  
 
Hell, my first pair of cans was the HD600.  Why? Because that's what everyone else was buying and raving about.  Then I got RS-1s.  Why? Same thing!  It wasn't until after that I realized I didn't particularly like either.  Know what I really liked?  My Sony e888 earbuds.  And then I found that other Head-Fiers liked them too and we talked about why we liked them, and after that choosing headphones has been easy.  But it's not like anyone could have told me that at the beginning.  I had to go through the stuff I didn't like to figure out what I do like.

 

[billybob_jcv]

I actually come to head-fi when I want to be involved in audio, but can't stomach the tens of thousands of dollars an entry-level listening room would require.  Spending $1000 on head-fi can get you some kick-@ss gear - but it won't get you out of the HTiB aisle at Best Buy!
 

 

[estreeter]

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Look at Skylab's fantastic and and ginormous reviews and the huge numbers of people still trying out every headphone under the sun.  Pretty awesome, IMO.

Not sure of timelines, but one of the things that the OP identified as 'fuel for the fire' was the large number of reviews of portable kit - like anything, they vary wildly in quality and relevance. In Rob's defence, he didnt feel the need to hook an amp up to every combination under the sun and write a paragraph on each set of impressions - those threads can be entertaining, but inevitably confuse the hell out of some of us.

 

[Kubernetes]

Screw that.  Those big reviews are considerably more helpful than simple single-product reviews or even A-B reviews.  A description like "it's forward in the mids" is significantly more helpful if put in context against other cans, because at least there's a chance you'll have a point of reference.
 
What does the OP want this site to be?  How can you distrust reviewers and still make intelligent purchasing decisions?  We read reviews because we don't want to waste money just buying and trying everything.

 

[jamato8]

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Who are we kidding, Jam - if it wasnt audio it would be something truly wallet-destroying like camera gear.
 
Now that I come to think of it, a lot of Head-Fiers seem to be obsessed with BOTH - that's got to be a one-way trip to bankruptcy

Lol, yeah like camera gear. . . about 40 to 50 thousand invested in that. Well it does good and that is what I am using a lot of here in Micronesia. I made money shooting weddings, PR, and other events and not much on the visual anthropology and natural history but the latter two are what I do now.