Beagle
His body's not a canvas, and he wasn't raised by apes.
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2001
- Posts
- 9,206
- Likes
- 3,498
I can never get over my shock at the prices charged for pieces of plastic. Take, for example, the Beyerdynamic headphones.
Remove the pads, and tap your fingernail against the plastic housing that holds the drivers. Man, does it ever sound cheap, hollow and resonant. It makes me wonder why headphones have gone downhill drastically since the late 70's, when we have access to the cutting edge of technology and innovation. Check out the construction on some of those older model Koss and Audio-Technica phones. The headband frame is metal, the driver housings use real screws to attach to the air chambers. And most of these sold for less than $100. Nowadays we have junk that's just thrown together and the prices are upwards of $200 and $300.
Some of the wooden models from Grado and Sony are a big improvement but are certainly not worth the asking prices. It's time for someone to step in and make some serious improvements by going back and reviewing what we used to have and the solid construction and design principles that used to be the norm.
Can't just single out headphones. Cars are the same. Used to be solidy built, now you have a fender bender at 5 MPH and your car is a write-off. Or you get rear-ended by a modern pick-up truck and your trunk is now in the back seat, and the truck only has a scratch on the bumper. The insurance companies and car manufacturers just love this. Or those modern townhouses made out of balsa wood that take only a week to put up an entire block and everything falls apart after two years.
I realise that things have to be less heavy and bulky to be economical and to be comfortable, but this continuous use of cheap plastic for everything is just a cop-out and a 'profit before anything else' attitude.
There are losts of less resonant materials that can be moulded instead of cheap hard honky nasal plastic. Someone should put on their thinking cap and look at speaker design and come up with a nice way to house these nice sounding drivers in a manner so that they are not affected by resonance. Sennheiser takes pride in the carbon fibre design of the HD600 but the carbon fibre is on the headband and bails while the driver area is still molded cheap plastic!!. At least Grado has found a way to make a great sounding cheap headphone by listening and selecting proper materials (a softer plastic, not the brittle crap found on others).
We, as a headphone community, need to put pressure on the manufacturers to stop thinking about themselves and their profits and start paying attention to the needs of their customers. I say we should start making some noise. I think it's time for us to say we are sick and tired of it and we are not going to take it anymore. The headphone manufacturers and designers need to hear our plea.
I'd be interested in your thoughts on this and how we should go about this.
Remove the pads, and tap your fingernail against the plastic housing that holds the drivers. Man, does it ever sound cheap, hollow and resonant. It makes me wonder why headphones have gone downhill drastically since the late 70's, when we have access to the cutting edge of technology and innovation. Check out the construction on some of those older model Koss and Audio-Technica phones. The headband frame is metal, the driver housings use real screws to attach to the air chambers. And most of these sold for less than $100. Nowadays we have junk that's just thrown together and the prices are upwards of $200 and $300.
Some of the wooden models from Grado and Sony are a big improvement but are certainly not worth the asking prices. It's time for someone to step in and make some serious improvements by going back and reviewing what we used to have and the solid construction and design principles that used to be the norm.
Can't just single out headphones. Cars are the same. Used to be solidy built, now you have a fender bender at 5 MPH and your car is a write-off. Or you get rear-ended by a modern pick-up truck and your trunk is now in the back seat, and the truck only has a scratch on the bumper. The insurance companies and car manufacturers just love this. Or those modern townhouses made out of balsa wood that take only a week to put up an entire block and everything falls apart after two years.
I realise that things have to be less heavy and bulky to be economical and to be comfortable, but this continuous use of cheap plastic for everything is just a cop-out and a 'profit before anything else' attitude.
There are losts of less resonant materials that can be moulded instead of cheap hard honky nasal plastic. Someone should put on their thinking cap and look at speaker design and come up with a nice way to house these nice sounding drivers in a manner so that they are not affected by resonance. Sennheiser takes pride in the carbon fibre design of the HD600 but the carbon fibre is on the headband and bails while the driver area is still molded cheap plastic!!. At least Grado has found a way to make a great sounding cheap headphone by listening and selecting proper materials (a softer plastic, not the brittle crap found on others).
We, as a headphone community, need to put pressure on the manufacturers to stop thinking about themselves and their profits and start paying attention to the needs of their customers. I say we should start making some noise. I think it's time for us to say we are sick and tired of it and we are not going to take it anymore. The headphone manufacturers and designers need to hear our plea.
I'd be interested in your thoughts on this and how we should go about this.
