[Welly Wu]

This is a special year for Head-Fi with next month's first national Head-Fi.Org meeting. I can see a lot of new members, also known as new blood money, coming onboard as a result. I can also see that our hobby is getting its due propers by the major players in our big brother industry (i.e., traditional high fidelity manufacturers and magazines). I wonder what kind of bigwigs will be attending and what kind of interests they will represent. The national meet will do everything to publicize our hobby and personalities; so long as the show goes off without a hitch, it will do only good things for us. Also, I wonder how much money will be donated to Head-Fi.Org as a result. Hopefully, a few thousand dollars because Jude needs it.

Where do you see our audiophile headphone hobby going by the end of this year? Just this year alone.

 

[purk]

I hope our community continue to grow (Thanks Jude!). In term of products, I hope the manufacturers offer the product at a lower price. Amp has been getting very expensive recently and I also wish on more release of higher end cans. Of course, I want the Senn to bring the Baby O back.

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by purk Of course, I want the Senn to bring the Baby O back.

Pretty much everyone on this forum also wants that.

 

[squall2072]

Well with a new grado on the horizon its looking good.

The new AKG phones seem to be getting a good reception overall, I'm personally hoping for a new senn flagship model or as I've said many a time the come back of the HP-1000's, so I wouldn't have to pay the insane prices!

A circumaural Grado would be nice....

Bring the Hp-1000's back!

 

[michaelconnor]

I'd like to see Head-Fi's vast communal knowledge compiled and organized for newcomers and technical reference. Otherwise, I think this hobby will have trouble growing beyond those of us with the patience to learn everything from searching the forums.

Hence...(in due time, of course):

 

[Zanth]

I'm really rooting for more professional exposure by the big print mags. Headphones are categorized as accessories. If Stereophile would get off their rumps and make a full fledged Headphone category wherein they review a piece of kit each month, I guarantee they will get a nice influx of new subscriptions. There are plenty people on this board that are headphones only and thus, only sources and cables really appeal to those members. That means 30%+ of Stereophile content is useless. The music reviews still stand, the editorials etc...but one won't care about that new preamp, amp or speakers.

With this meet, and Stereophile participating, I'm REALLY hoping they understand that this site, and the members that make up its population are not going anywhere and if sites like that MASSIVE Chinese site are any indication, the headphone craze is not a North American-centric deal. If they haven't noticed, Head-fi is the most active audio site on the web (maybe now only the most active English speaking one?) regardless...headphones...they're a big deal, start showing us some respect!

Once they do this, TAS will follow and maybe others too and once they do, the manufacturers will as well. How about some Sonus Fabers? Some Martin Logans? Wilson? Coincidents? Yeah baby, let's get busy!

 

[warubozu]

I'm with Zanth on this one. Hopefully more exposure to the world of headphones by major audio publications like Stereophile. More reviews of headphone related gear in those major publications. Also hoping the change in perception by many outside of Head-Fi that headphones are only good for plugging into portable equipment, that headphones can provide much more than that.

 

[Jahn]

it says something that we're turning folks away from the national meet, and that room is huge - folks from the fall meet remember the size of one of the ballrooms - this one is going to combine all three and yet we already have folks on the waiting list!

sheer numbers aside, i think the type of questions we'll be asking at the Q&A will open some eyes of the panel members and the industry folks not on the panel - who knows, maybe this is our chance to stand up and be recognized as a legit market on the audio landscape!

 

[a1rocketpilot]

I really hope the National Meet does bring some much needed attention in the rest of the hifi world. All of the hifi magazine's I've read through barely have anything about headphone audio in them. Though it looks like I won't be able to attend this meet, lest a miracle happen, this sounds like just about the best thing to happen to headphones. Thanks to a few good companies like Grado, Ray Samuels Audio, Singlepower, and the distributors like Headroom, TTVJ, Meier Audio, and others, we are starting to make our voice heard. This is the opportunity to spread the seed as far as we can.

 

[HiWire]

Not really sure... I think there is still more mainstream interest in portable headphones rather than the monstrosities in amplitude and earspeakers that the high-end dudes favor.

I doubt the portable amping thing will ever grow beyond a niche market, but it should force manufacturers of portable sources to improve their output quality... or not. See numerous articles about iPod related hearing damage

I'm still waiting for my portable SACD. Is there such a thing as mini-HDMI? That would be cool for a portable multi-channel source.

 

[senny-ftw]

Well I've got a job lined up starting June when my final uni exams finish, so it'll be expendable income time once again

Darth Beyers and a serious amp to do 600s + 650s justice. I want a tube amp that has nice glowing tubes on display.

Oh and re-buying everything I have on iTunes on CD...

 

[seacard]

I'm really intrigued by this topic. I wonder if headphones become more mainstream, this will become more like a speaker board. One thing you see here more than most other audiophile site is people defending their purchased product to death. Also, there is almost nobody that hoards speakers and buys everything that comes out. Obviously, with speakers, it's too expensive to even try, and there are so many choices out there. With headphones, there are so few top of the line choices, that it is still affordable to buy them all. I'm always shocked to see that one person has the HE90, HE60, and the Omega IIs, and the R-10, and the L3000, and the Qualia and... In the speaker world, almost nobody does that just for slightly different sound signatures.

 

[granodemostasa]

the surgon general will declare headphonephilia an addiction and will send the Feds out to hunt us down and shut down all the dealers. A new underground headphone industry will then emerge, with "sorry about your wallet" as the keyword. The Ways and Means committee will then declare it a financial burden on it's victims. there will then be a debate about the point at which people go from innocent ipod use to full out RS-1 abuse.
seriously, there are two concerns.
1. that higher end headphones will become more wide spread with the spreading of MP3 players.
2. more people learn about headphones.
3. that the high end audio people in speakerworld take headphones seriously

 

[rickcr42]

..under water if the weather keeps going the way it is

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiWire N I'm still waiting for my portable SACD.

I wouldn't hold your breath man. I'm not going to make a blanket statement and declare it will never happen, but if it hasn't already I wouldn't think it ever will. At best you may find portable Blue Ray or HD-DVD player that hopefully will be backwards compatible with SACD. But for now...SACD is going to die off quickly with Blue Ray's already being released.