[Sonic Defender]

  I stopped 2-3 years ago after I got my Denon D2000...but now I've picked up again and I'm not sure why to be honest. I certainly don't need anymore headphones, I just want more haha! I could live with the Denon's until they completely stop working (they're still my favourite headphones) but part of me wants more as a backup to the Denon's. I'm not necessarily looking for something better, I just want more variety I suppose. I really can't even explain it.

Our brains are hard wired to seek out both pleasure, and novelty. We like audio, we buy gear, we grow bored of it and want to obtain the high of discovery > we buy new gear.

 

[Sophonax]

  I think it is because there is less background noise to compete against and our brain will generally be more relaxed and thus able to focus on the music more. I wonder if our hearing is more acute at any time in the day? It sounds plausible, but I'm not sure if there could be any mechanism to facilitate this? Perhaps if the visual circuits are less active the auditory circuits become more prioritized? Who knows, but yes, like most of you I also enjoy music more at night. As an FYI, I bought a set of DT 880s from you about four or five years ago! Good luck stopping at the 800s, this is a lifelong relapse prone addiction brother.

 
You're probably right about there being less noise and being in a more relaxed state contributing to why music sounds better at night. And yes, I remember the DT880s! Sadly, that was probably one of two or three pairs of DT880s I've had over the years. On a few different occasions I have sold headphones, only to later question my decision and acquire them again.
 
Two pieces of advice I can offer to those in this hobby, which I have learned the hard way over the years:
 

• If you're going to buy, buy used. Most of the people in this hobby seem to treat their gear very well, so you can get like-new equipment for much less than you'd pay for new. If you later decide to sell it, you can likely sell for almost the same price that you paid, less shipping and payment service fees.
• Trust your own decisions. If you buy a piece of gear, listen to it, and decide you don't like it quite enough to keep it, sell it and don't look back. Months or years later, you may find yourself questioning why you sold them (maybe you don't even remember why you sold them), but if you trust that your original decision-making process that led you to sell was sound, it can help prevent you from making repeat purchases.

 
These two observations have prevented me from spending even more ridiculous amounts of money on this hobby than I already have!

 

[Sonic Defender]

@Sophonax, great advice, and advice that I live by. There are times when you get stuck buying new more often. I am now into my Bluetooth phase and as it is a less populated part of the hobby (for now only I promise you) I find the availability of used gear pretty shallow. Just today I purchased the Definitive Technology Symphony 1, and a few weeks before that the ATH WS99BT, B&O H7, and XTZ Divine all new, but not by choice. I sold some gear to make this happen and had to put out about $300 extra out of pocket, but being free of cables was well worth the investment. I doubt I will ever bother with wired headphones again.
 
So I find if you must buy new, sell as quickly as you can tolerate doing (if you want to sell at all of course). The newer the gear is, the less likely you are to compete against retailers discounting and lots of used units being out there. Those DT 880s were well loved and then sold to somebody in the US if I remember correctly. The DT 880 remains one of the best cost to performance headphones I have had.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Most of us feel that we earned our stuff and have no sympathy for others who have no ability to spend. In many ways that is what America is about, sacrifice for school and work hard, climb the hill and at some point enjoy the gifts. Still it seems to go against the grain to be grateful for what we have.

Bigger, better, faster, more pretty and more expensive is our life motto. So how hard is it to turn it around? Some would ask how we became so firm in our core values. Anyone who has made a success knows the attitude and effort it took. We are truly entitled to have "stuff". The word entitled gets a bad view at times, still it should read unjustly entitled, as most who have worked for the gear have it coming. IMO

There comes a time though when 100 pairs of headphones is not enough. The wisdom here is to be grateful.




Grateful people are happy people and those who are not, are not.





I liked the post about the single endgame Sennheiser HD800s. In many ways that is what this thread is about. Realizing that many have purchased straight through their endgame perfect set-up and didn't notice it as they had this consumer thirst powering them along.

To simply walk off into the sunset with one perfect ( or close to perfect ) set-up is romantic!
 
 
 
 


The side-steps are everywhere but almost never offer that elusive gain.
 
There is a bewildering quality when we switch to a tube amp and the euphoric warmth washes away a sterilized signature. We think we found it, only to miss details and clarity which we start to look for after the new toy phenomenon wears out.

It's like we go to a Head-Fi meet looking for this epic find. We want a new found love to be found. We want to purchase and have all those warm emotions which go along with it. This quest goes beyond our better logic and smears our critical listening. Manufacturers can make a variety of sidesteps for us to fool ourselves with. Knowing this stuff is the first step to keeping things real.

At the end of the day owning a rig that blows up your skirt is just perception, and gratefulness.
 

Spoiler: I need to read what I write!

I'm buying a cheap pair of used IEMs on Monday.

 

[Playstation]

I think you know when. But it has to do with preference, application, a variation of amp and source. For me it was clear when I asked myself why do I need a $500+ setup for playing video games. I tried several cans. But for my scenario it isn't necessary to strive to reach audio nirvana because of my application. Also. Would I even like what an audiophile likes? At first my search seemed complex because I wasn't sure what I was looking for. After reading a MadLustEnvy thread. I discovered I was looking for something that sounded "fun". For now, I am content with my M Audio Q40, Fiio E17 setup. I'm not into modding, if I were. I'd adjust the comfort of the Q40s because they are uncomfortable.

 

[Sonic Defender]

I used to judge those (including myself) who loved to buy stuff rather harshly. Now I realize that the majority of us are just addicted to consumption. Like I said, evolution has designed us to be the perfect consumer. It is actually adaptive to be wired to seek out pleasure and novelty, it all ties into survival. So expecting us to somehow just up and reject our biology/socialization is unrealistic. We can do it, but it isn't easy. No wonder we love this hobby, look at the constant rewards for novelty seeking. People even write about the experience of packaging, even take unboxing videos. Very telling if you ask me. Well off I go to Amazon to order some pads for my headphones. Sad I know.

 

[Playstation]

I don't know about all that. I think it's basically capitalism in a nutshell. Everything is hyped and everything is a racket.

 

[Redcarmoose]

  I used to judge those (including myself) who loved to buy stuff rather harshly. Now I realize that the majority of us are just addicted to consumption. Like I said, evolution has designed us to be the perfect consumer. It is actually adaptive to be wired to seek out pleasure and novelty, it all ties into survival. So expecting us to somehow just up and reject our biology/socialization is unrealistic. We can do it, but it isn't easy. No wonder we love this hobby, look at the constant rewards for novelty seeking. People even write about the experience of packaging, even take unboxing videos. Very telling if you ask me. Well off I go to Amazon to order some pads for my headphones. Sad I know.
 
 

 
 
 
HA, the un-boxing videos. Perfect to bring up. The ultimate example of what we are getting at here. If you watch some of the un-boxing videos they have all the qualities of a grand life experience. Instead of interaction with people you can order an thing on Amazon.com and experience this profound emotion. Again the buyer can have both endorphins and adrenal production. The un-boxing videos have all that description. They show the pre-meditation, the experience of smell and tactile response. There is this feeling of going somewhere as the package is opened. A higher state of vibration is in occurrence as the actual product is now lifted out and viewed for the very first time. The essence of consumerism.
 
Mind you we haven't plugged the stupid headphones even in.

 

[FlyingFungus]

  Our brains are hard wired to seek out both pleasure, and novelty. We like audio, we buy gear, we grow bored of it and want to obtain the high of discovery > we buy new gear.

 
At the end of the day it's true. Right now I'm in the discovery phase as I just picked up a pair of B&W P7's and a Hifiman HE-400 both used from another member lol

 

[Sonic Defender]

I don't know about all that. I think it's basically capitalism in a nutshell. Everything is hyped and everything is a racket.

Nope, capitalism only works as well as it does because of evolution. Believe me, it's all science. Once marketing caught onto cognitive science and psychology advances that really took off in the 70s we began the slow and steady decent into deep capitalism which is where we are now. The reason it works so well is our brain's evolution, there is no escaping it. If you took the most anti-materialistic, nomadic person, reared them from birth in the heart of deep capitalism they would become very much like us here. There is individual variation of course, so some people are not as deeply motivated, but species wise I think the evidence is rather clear.

 

[Playstation]

@Sonic Defender. I'm glad you have it all figured out.

 

[Sonic Defender]

@Sonic Defender. I'm glad you have it all figured out.

So am I. Thanks for the compliment.
 
Edit: I am sorry to have sounded like such an arrogant prick, saying nope like I did was very dismissive and actually not how anybody should conduct themselves. My apology for acting like that. I could, and should have made my arguments without being a dick. I was in a ****ty mood and I guess I decided I didn't need to be polite. My apology again mate, I'll try to be more thoughtful in the future.

 

[DangerClose]

  Nope, capitalism only works as well as it does because of evolution. Believe me, it's all science. Once marketing caught onto cognitive science and psychology advances that really took off in the 70s we began the slow and steady decent into deep capitalism which is where we are now.

 
Capitalism works in big part because people like choices and freedom.  
 
If the world truly had deep capitalism lately, the big banks would have been allowed to fail.  GM would have been allowed to fail.  Instead, they got bailed out.  That's not capitalism. 

 

[Sonic Defender]

   
Capitalism works in big part because people like choices and freedom.  
 
If the world truly had deep capitalism lately, the big banks would have been allowed to fail.  GM would have been allowed to fail.  Instead, they got bailed out.  That's not capitalism. 

Here I go again, this time I will try not to sound like an arrogant prick. Those examples I don't think make your point. If anything, it is because of deep capitalism they occurred. The governments don't want massive job losses because it causes instability. Capitalism loves stability, it thrives on it, it requires it. The money made by years of capitalism and deep capitalism have made those corporations and banks so wealthy and so influential they are just too big to fail. It is precisely because capitalism needs stability that they were propped up.

 

[DangerClose]

  Here I go again, this time I will try not to sound like an arrogant prick. Those examples I don't think make your point. If anything, it is because of deep capitalism they occurred. The governments don't want massive job losses because it causes instability. Capitalism loves stability, it thrives on it, it requires it. The money made by years of capitalism and deep capitalism have made those corporations and banks so wealthy and so influential they are just too big to fail. It is precisely because capitalism needs stability that they were propped up.

 
Capitalism allows people to fail when they deserve to fail.  Capitalism can have its ups and downs, but, as you just said, the government manipulated the market, central banks manipulated the currency, etc.  That's not capitalism.
 
Government and central banks manipulated the market.  And then they manipulated it even more when their prior meddling went terribly bad.  
 
With capitalism, inefficiency is punished.  Risk taking that doesn't work out as hoped is punished.  Instead of the big banks failing, and instead of smaller banks that had been doing a good job then getting more market share, the big banks were bailed out, and they used the bailout money to buy up smaller banks to become even bigger.  That's not capitalism.
 
I agree when you say the government doesn't want this or that.  But that's government manipulation that distorts the market.  That's not capitalism.  
 
It's not so much that capitalism needs stability.  It's that capitalism needs to be able to punish those who cause instability.  
 
Btw, what did government then do about housing?  When the bubble burst, and prices came down, and there's all the people who had sacrificed and waited for prices to come down, the government continued to manipulate the market to drive prices back up, basically saving and rewarding all of the people and banks who made bad choices and took excessive risk.  That's not capitalism.