[madwolfa]

  Don't understand watches, compared to headphones.  Spend $500 on Sennheiser or HiFiMan etc., and you get a headphone that SOUNDS significantly BETTER than a $50 headphone. The same $500 on a watch does NOT tell time better, at all.  I'm not offended if people choose to buy expensive items, I'm just kind of baffled. 

 
To each his own. Some people buy $500 shoes, bags or fishing rods. And similarly baffled by $500 headphones.

 

[Matro5]

 
Don't understand watches, compared to headphones.  Spend $500 on Sennheiser or HiFiMan etc., and you get a headphone that SOUNDS significantly BETTER than a $50 headphone. The same $500 on a watch does NOT tell time better, at all.  I'm not offended if people choose to buy expensive items, I'm just kind of baffled. 

 
Don't be baffled. "Because it tells time better" is almost never a justification for buying a more expensive watch. 
 
Coincidentally, you know who does a great job explaining this phenomenon? Schiit, on the FAQ for the Ragnarok. Substitute "10 dollar timex" for "40-cent op-amp" and "Shinola, Patek Philippe" for "Corvette, Viper" and you'll see what I mean. 
 
Q: Ah. Well. But it’s outrageous, you see! You’re ripping people off! You could do this a lot cheaper if you just used 40-cent op-amps and 10-cent regulators in a plastic chassis. How can making something like this possibly be fair? 
A: Corvette. Viper.
 
Q: Corvette Viper what?
A: You can get around town just as well in a 10-year-old Civic as a Corvette or Viper.
 
Q: I fail to see the connection here!
A: You can rail against people buying expensive cars all you want, you can show them all the charts and graphs that they won’t get there any faster in their Corvette or Viper or Porsche or Mercedes or Bentley or what-have-you, you can regurgitate all the Consumer Reports stuff you want showing how high-end cars just cost a lot more money to buy and repair and maintain and insure and that in the end they don’t do a damn thing for the owner’s ego or attractiveness to the opposite sex. And you know what? They’ll still want the Corvette, Mercedes, Porsche, whatever. Same with audio. Bottom line, there’s great stuff available very inexpensively, and there are options that cost a lot more.

 

[Billheiser]

Still baffled.  Corvette or Viper ARE much much better performers than a cheap car.  They're more expensive for good reasons, and they drive way better and faster.  The price difference gets you a whole new level of performance.  But the Patek Phillipe still keeps the same time as a timex; there is no performance difference.

 

[MachBot]

 
Still baffled.  Corvette or Viper ARE much much better performers than a cheap car.  They're more expensive for good reasons, and they drive way better and faster.  The price difference gets you a whole new level of performance.  But the Patek Phillipe still keeps the same time as a timex; there is no performance difference.

A cheap gshock might keep time better than a Patek Philippe.
 
imo it's a status symbol and sort of an investment piece for those limited run watches, but those investment pieces obviously won't get to see the light of the day very often.
 
Then again, I don't own high end mechanical watches, so what do i know. 

 

 

[Billheiser]

   
To each his own. Some people buy $500 shoes, bags or fishing rods. And similarly baffled by $500 headphones.

To each his own, I agree.  $500 shoes and bags would be additional things I don't understand.  I'm still stuck on performance; I would tell a headphone doubter "listen to this" and they would likely understand/experience, oh, it IS better!

 

[Billheiser]

 
This is how I look at it you only live once or only once as far as I currently know and after paying taxes rent mortgage kids education some times you just have to pay yourself from a good movie to a great vacation to high end gears buy the best you can afford because you're worth it and deserve it......

OK, it's just that on the watches, buying expensive seems to have no positive correlation to buying the best.
 
To keep this related to Schiit products - I like them because of their actual real quality and resulting quality sound.  If they use "prestigious" parts (for instance), I like it because of results, not because of the name brands.

 

[Matro5]

 
Still baffled.  Corvette or Viper ARE much much better performers than a cheap car.  They're more expensive for good reasons, and they drive way better and faster.  The price difference gets you a whole new level of performance.  But the Patek Phillipe still keeps the same time as a timex; there is no performance difference.

 
There's still no reason to be baffled unless you insist on PERFORMANCE being the only criteria on which to make a purchase decision. Clearly, that's not the case.  
 
Again, "it keeps time well" is simply not how people justify expensive watches.
 
"How well it keeps time" is simply one feature of a watch. A thousand other things - complications, movement, exclusivity, how it's made, where it's made, beauty, prestige, the simple pride of ownership - factor into how people decide whether or not to spend more than $10 on it.
 
You'll notice a lot of those things factor into why a person might buy a Ferrari over a Corvette even if the Corvette is faster on the track. 
 
If that's still confusing, it's only because you're unable to see that people value things differently than you do and you're attributing objective superiority onto your own subjective preferences. That's what you value - "performance" and driving "way better and faster" but, even to the extent that they are measurable, those are not objectively good reasons to spend money on a car. They're only good reasons to people who value them. Not everyone values performance first. 
 
If you're baffled that not everyone thinks the way you do, I don't know what to tell you  

 

[jimmers]

 
Coincidentally, you know who does a great job explaining this phenomenon? Schiit, on the FAQ for the Ragnarok.

Coincidentally also nwavguy 

 

[Koolpep]

 
Don't understand watches, compared to headphones.  Spend $500 on Sennheiser or HiFiMan etc., and you get a headphone that SOUNDS significantly BETTER than a $50 headphone. The same $500 on a watch does NOT tell time better, at all.  I'm not offended if people choose to buy expensive items, I'm just kind of baffled. 

LOL. Watches are jewelry - and engineering masterpieces (as long as we are talking about mechanical watches). There is something very satisfying wearing a machine on your wrist that has hundreds of parts - charges itself and ticks along as long as you keep on "ticking" too. Mechanical watches have a fascination to them, at least for me. A Porsche might be less comfortable in the morning traffic jam, but driving it will make you smile, every single time you drive it. I guarantee. Same is writing with a beautiful pen, it's appreciation of the craftsmanship that went into the product and using something that was made to please the senses and have high usability. Example: I still have the pen that wrote most of my love letters, university exams, signed some important contracts, etc. If I would have used a BIC - well, it would be in the landfill by now. Instead of using a few hundred throw away pens, I used a single expensive pen. It will still never make any sense financially, I would be cheaper off using throw aways but something in me likes having something good, solid, something that lasts, that can be repaired if needed and stays with you for a long time.
 
Luxury is all things that are not "needed". Nobody NEEDS a Bugatti with 1,001 horsepower. No one. But would I WANT one - hell yes. (well actually I would prefer the 918 but that's a different topic).
 
You can apply that to everything:
Houses, Cars, First class flights, watches, clothing, furniture, audio, kitchenware, cutlery and crockery, sports equipment, any kind of hospitality and tourism, simply everything.
 
If you don't understand it, it's not for you. Simple. And that's not meant snobbish. I appreciate luxury for a lot of things, then for some others, it's not for me,  I am a total cheapo in some areas...
 
Then you can make the point that even talking about different headphones, while billions of people won't ever be able to afford even a $50 headphone in their lifetime, is in itself already luxury and we are all spoiled brats.
 
Cheers,
K
 
EDIT: Making it back on TOPIC: Schiit looks great and gives tremendous value for money. Love their stuff and approach a lot.

 

[OddE]

 
Don't understand watches, compared to headphones.  Spend $500 on Sennheiser or HiFiMan etc., and you get a headphone that SOUNDS significantly BETTER than a $50 headphone. The same $500 on a watch does NOT tell time better, at all.  I'm not offended if people choose to buy expensive items, I'm just kind of baffled. 

 
-To some extent, watches are jewelry. An expensive watch does not tell time better -on the contrary, even a great mechanical watch will be orders of magnitude less accurate than a decent quartz- but I enjoy wearing a good watch for all the other, non-tangible reasons - its beauty, the little mechanical marvel inside, etc, etc.
 
Obviously, YMMV.

 

[mordante]

 
Still baffled.  Corvette or Viper ARE much much better performers than a cheap car.  They're more expensive for good reasons, and they drive way better and faster.  The price difference gets you a whole new level of performance.  But the Patek Phillipe still keeps the same time as a timex; there is no performance difference.

 
Corvette and Viper have different specs. Depending on your URS they might be better or worse. If you want a small compact car for you daily groceries. A Viper would impracticable.
 
Do you also wear walmart clothing? They will keep you just as warm as some (more) expensive brands.
 
Or how about jewellery?

 

[Billheiser]

   
Corvette and Viper have different specs. Depending on your URS they might be better or worse. If you want a small compact car for you daily groceries. A Viper would impracticable.
 
Do you also wear walmart clothing? They will keep you just as warm as some (more) expensive brands.
 
Or how about jewellery?

As a matter of fact I do have some Walmart clothing!  And no jewelry, except inexpensive watches that work well and look nice.
 
Yes, on the cars, a small car for usual local use is more practical.  My point being that although impractical, the Viper is objectively superior in essential and important functions of a car.  It "earns" its price because it does cost more to build that body and build that engine to have that speed and power.  I could take the Viper to the grocery store, but the Kia Rio cannot make me laugh with acceleration pleasure.

 

[Billheiser]

My last post on this matter and then back to Schiit.  I think the performance of a headphone, automobile, watch, etc. IS primary.  I understand that people  (including me) take pleasure in appearance, build quality, history of a product, etc.  Although those can be important, I think they are secondary.  Function over form, for me, as I apportion my priorities and budget.
 
A friend of mine bought a BMW.  His wife thought he was silly, and that he wanted it for status or prestige.  But he's a car guy and likes to drive fast.  I think the latter is a good reason to buy the Bimmer; I think the "status" reason would be a poor and insufficient reason.  I understand that people do buy for status reasons, and that's their right.  I just think it's a shame they don't get to experience the whole performance envelope of it.

 

[StanD]

I heard the Schiit is going to make expensive watches and sports cars.

 

[Billheiser]

  I heard the Schiit is going to make expensive watches and sports cars.

I would buy those.  The Timeto and the Fastas.