[tonykaz]

Hello J&J , 
 
I Imported and Retailed High-End Audio ( back in the 1980s )  , you were my best customer , my children went to school on your purchases , thank you … but you are quite right about the little tube amp and the HD 600s , probably nothing will ever out-perform that pairing ( maybe by a little bit but not worth buying a ton more stuff ) . 
 
The next break-thru will come from the DACs , i.e. when the super designs come down to consumer price points .   The big powerful Audeze is a musical roller coaster that does thrill sooooo if you need thrills an LCD-2 or 3 might move your needle or might not ( they're quite heavy on the head ) .   
 
Ebay will find happy homes for your past purchases ( or should I say "investments" ) , freeing up enough $$$ to pay for that next … 
 
You're in NYC , hmm , surrounded with temptations , I understand !
 
Tony in Michigan 

 

[ricksome]

Jason:
 
Enjoying your column every week.  Klipschorn in continuous production since 1946 with improvements along the way. Etymotic 4s & 4p in production for many years. Not sure how many? There are always exceptions to product life cycles.

 

[gikigill]

For decades marketing and western consumerism has been driven by fear. Fear can take many forms:

In the car industry fear over road safety is heavily marketed. In America SUV's are marketed on a bigger equals safer image even though statistically SUVs roll more than other vehicle types and thus potentially more dangerous to occupants.

In the modern smartphone industry it is the fear of being left behind, even though your one-to-two year old device works perfectly fine in most practical usage applications.

My 6-years young Sennheiser HD600 remains my best audio purchase and that will probably never change.

 
One of the best and most accurate posts on headfi. I say that as an SUV,smartphone and Sennheiser owner.
 
The SUV even has a disclaimer on the sunshade itself that its more prone to rolling over than normal cars.
 
Fear of not being safe enough, not having the fastest and the latest, fear on missing out on the next high of retail therapy.
 
BBC The Century of the Self is a fantastic doco on the same.

 

[nihilill]

In the modern smartphone industry it is the fear of being left behind, even though your one-to-two year old device works perfectly fine in most practical usage applications.

 

Hah I'm still using a Galaxy S3 and I'll not be upgrading till someone else makes a shockproof, crushproof, waterproof case. Why do I need that? Peace of mind and the fact that I ride a motorcycle and could conceivably fall on my phone.

 

[Kiwikat]

 
Hah I'm still using a Galaxy S3 and I'll not be upgrading till someone else makes a shockproof, crushproof, waterproof case. Why do I need that? Peace of mind and the fact that I ride a motorcycle and could conceivably fall on my phone.

 
My S3 literally dropped into a toilet and it wasn't affected by the water at all.  I was very surprised that it came out alive.  Perhaps a little Schiity, but still alive. 

 
Just got it rooted and all of the bloatware removed and she's running at least as well as she was on day 1.  Really solid phone.
 
On an on-topic note, I was totally shocked by how good Magni and Modi are.  I really do think they were at least 3/4 as good as my gen 1 Lyr and Bifrost stack were, for a small fraction of the price.  Mjolnir and Gungnir are a massive step up (duh).

 

[Mach-X]

 
Hah I'm still using a Galaxy S3 and I'll not be upgrading till someone else makes a shockproof, crushproof, waterproof case. Why do I need that? Peace of mind and the fact that I ride a motorcycle and could conceivably fall on my phone.

Have you looked into the Xperia Z from Sony? Completely encased in gorilla glass and waterproof as seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SaRydpYAlA

 

[valiant66]

  Jason:
 
Enjoying your column every week.  Klipschorn in continuous production since 1946 with improvements along the way. Etymotic 4s & 4p in production for many years. Not sure how many? There are always exceptions to product life cycles.

 
Mmm. Like my LS3/5A's. In production from 1975 until at least 2005 - that's 30 years!
 
After being the mainstay speakers in my rig until replaced by Totem Mani-2 Signatures, they now sit proudly on my computer desk on custom stands and continue to make sweet music while peering over the tops of my monitors. And I think I heard that there's a v2 currently in production revised for new drivers since they stopped making the originals.
 
I'm sure I've got other things that were part of such a long history of continuous production, but I can't offhand think of what they might be. Swiss Army pocket knife, maybe?
 
I know I've got gear that still works after all this time - Quad 405 for instance - but no other gear of any kind that's still being made or was made for that long.

 

[gikigill]

The Beyer DT48 is still around.

 

[disastermouse]

Hah I'm still using a Galaxy S3 and I'll not be upgrading till someone else makes a shockproof, crushproof, waterproof case. Why do I need that? Peace of mind and the fact that I ride a motorcycle and could conceivably fall on my phone.

This is going to sound crazy but I high-sided on my SV 1000 going at least 60 mph back in 2011 and my iPhone 4 came out without a scratch. I was wearing it on a belt holster.

My right radial epicondyle was shattered and my left clavicle was broken. Three months off work, plates in both breaks, $2000 worth of damage to the bike....phone came out without a single scratch.

 

[Mysteri0]

Just posting to subscribe.. Thanks for the great story so far Jason.

 

[mcteague]

Just bought an Asgard 2 and the FAQ, in the manual, has this:
 
I hear hum through the headphones, what do I do?
You may have a ground loop. To fix a ground loop, try a
GFCI outlet or a ground loop isolator.
 
Mine did hum like crazy before putting a plug adapter on the end of the 3 prong AC cord. So, what was fixed with the new transformers? Or, is this a different hum than the early units displayed?
 
Tim

 

[Mark-sf]

  Just bought an Asgard 2 and the FAQ, in the manual, has this:
 
I hear hum through the headphones, what do I do?
You may have a ground loop. To fix a ground loop, try a
GFCI outlet or a ground loop isolator.
 
Mine did hum like crazy before putting a plug adapter on the end of the 3 prong AC cord. So, what was fixed with the new transformers? Or, is this a different hum than the early units displayed?
 
Tim

The hum in the original units was a mechanical one that you would hear without headphones. The hum you solved with the adapter was an electrical one that is audible through the headphones and is not related.

 

[kstuart]

 

   
Yvon Choinard of Patagonia (clothing company, not the geographic location, though the former is named after the latter) has said some similar things, comparing corporate plans for continual growth forever to what happens to your body when there's unchecked cell growth.

 
This is a great analogy. Continuous, unnatural growth = business cancer. This is why we have 143 variations of one brand of chips, 83 variations on one brand of sodas, 58 variations of one brand of toothpaste. This is why we have robot shills (and paid shills) flogging the next device-of-the-moment. This is why we have crazy celeb/entertainment tie-ins to launch/relaunch/revive/rebrand the same thing we've been buying for years. This is why we have endless sales and promotions and points and loyalty rewards and stacked rewards and double bonus points and and and and and...all the crazy things that have infected marketing that annoy and infuriate people.
 
Is it any wonder that, in a recent study, when consumers were faced with the choice of buying an Apple laptop or a PC laptop of equivalent price, 9 out of 10 went the Mac route, with the majority citing the key decision point being "choosing a Mac is easy, they have a small one and a bigger one, but digging through the hundreds of PC options is wayyy too much work." (Please take off your Apple hater hat for this one--this is about simplicity versus complexity, not a comparison of OS/pricing ideologies.)

The most corrupting force is the existence of Advertising.
 
The main purpose of Advertising is to convince people to buy a product that is worse than another one - because it is the only way that a worse product can win out in the marketplace.   For example, we know that sales increase when you have a TV ad with ketchup dripping over a bikini model.
 
The same BS model is used to sell the concept of Advertising itself - "companies will be able to tell people about the benefits of their product".  But they almost never do that.   Instead an Ad is a cute unrelated story, followed by logo of the product.
 
IF Advertising were outlawed (as fraud), then 1) products would be evaluated solely by word of mouth (as works fine for Schiit), 2) journalists would be free to investigate corporations, instead of being muzzled by ad dollars, 3) media would be consumed by subscription only - the HBO model - which would improve the quality of media.
 
This would be a significant boost to overall product quality, information quality, and the overall economy due to widespread cost savings.
 
... oh wait a minute, corporations are people, and dollars are free speech, so I guess it can never happen...

 

[HalSF]

Don Draper would like to have a word with you.

 

[gikigill]

 
The most corrupting force is the existence of Advertising.
 
The main purpose of Advertising is to convince people to buy a product that is worse than another one - because it is the only way that a worse product can win out in the marketplace.   For example, we know that sales increase when you have a TV ad with ketchup dripping over a bikini model.
 
The same BS model is used to sell the concept of Advertising itself - "companies will be able to tell people about the benefits of their product".  But they almost never do that.   Instead an Ad is a cute unrelated story, followed by logo of the product.
 
IF Advertising were outlawed (as fraud), then 1) products would be evaluated solely by word of mouth (as works fine for Schiit), 2) journalists would be free to investigate corporations, instead of being muzzled by ad dollars, 3) media would be consumed by subscription only - the HBO model - which would improve the quality of media.
 
This would be a significant boost to overall product quality, information quality, and the overall economy due to widespread cost savings.
 
... oh wait a minute, corporations are people, and dollars are free speech, so I guess it can never happen...

 
 
The USSC has itself deemed that truth is not necessary, either in Advertising or News Media.