[DavidMahler]

Quote:

1. Don't care
2. Wrong forum
 
A fairly innocuous OP, if somewhat pointless... quickly degenerates into the same old crap that's not really worth typing nor reading. I don't want to read about 48kbps mp3s on the high end forum.

here's a thought:
 
You read it once, now you know you don't like the thread, don't ever click it again.  But wait, now that you've posted in the thread which you hate and contributed nothing but criticism you are going to be prompted every time you sign on to head-fi now to see this thread under your recent activity.
 
 By the way, it's not in the wrong forum because my intention was always leading to state of the art components, eg which components is it worth spending the most money on

 

[nikongod]

 
Quote:

1. Don't care
2. Wrong forum
 
A fairly innocuous OP, if somewhat pointless... quickly degenerates into the same old crap that's not really worth typing nor reading. I don't want to read about 48kbps mp3s on the high end forum.

+1
 
This post sums up this thread and the 1200 like it in the various low end forums. 

 

[atothex]

Quote:

 By the way, it's not in the wrong forum because my intention was always leading to state of the art components, eg which components is it worth spending the most money on

You're trying to convince me this thread had a chance for meaningful discussion? Have you been given any new info here that you didn't already know? If I voted for "hearing limitations", would that somehow persuade anyone that hearing aids are key to audio bliss?
 
When I see a thread in the high end forum with no worthwhile discussion of high end audio, then I think it deserves a bit of criticism.
 
Face it: you made this thread because polls give you boners. Get over yourself.

 

[p a t r i c k]

I know that this is a headphone discussion place but I feel something very important has been left out of the list which is room acoustics for those using speakers.
 
The room acoustics make or break hi fi with speakers.
 
With good room acoustics a system which would be thought of as "average" will, imho, easily outperform so-called "hi-end" systems.
 
At hi fi forums you will often see pictures of hugely expensive systems sitting in a room with no acoustic treatment whatsoever.
 
An awful lot of money wasted imho.
 
I now live in quite a small house and so I cannot have a dedicated listening room but in the past I have had dedicated listening rooms and those rooms have been very heavily treated for acoustics by me following a lot of reading I have done in this area. I have found that this brings about a huge transformation in the sound in a room with speakers.

 

[DavidMahler]

 
Quote:

You're trying to convince me this thread had a chance for meaningful discussion? Have you been given any new info here that you didn't already know? If I voted for "hearing limitations", would that somehow persuade anyone that hearing aids are key to audio bliss?
 
When I see a thread in the high end forum with no worthwhile discussion of high end audio, then I think it deserves a bit of criticism.
 
Face it: you made this thread because polls give you boners. Get over yourself.

 
There's no poll here.  One of the main things i notice is that if you are buying an amp from an amp builder they say to me "amp is the most important thing in the chain", someone selling me a source says "garbage in garbage out, most important thing in the chain", someone selling me a headphone says the same thing about their proponent, and then there are those who I feel truly overestimate the worth of a cable.  If you knew me well, which other head-fiers do, but you don't, you would know that the discussion in this thread is very pertinent to me.  If you don't think it contributes anything then don't comment because you have turned the thread into the garbage which it is now.  If I have ever done anything which offends you personally either avoid my threads/posts or PM me with any form of resolution to your reason to thread-crap.  

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

You could be a figment of my imagination.

Or you a figment of my imagination and once I stop thinking of you...you cease to exist.

 

 

[rosgr63]

David to rescue the thread I would add specific hi end gear which make up the list.
 
So my list would be:
 
 
1. Recording quality

 

2. A person's hearing

 

3. Quality of the transducers:Grado GS1000

 

4. Amplifier:Balancing Act

 

5. Source:Weiss

 

6. Cables and interconnects, with emphasis to the HP cables:Nordost,Oyaide,RAL

 

7. Clean Power:Isotek

 

[DavidMahler]

Quote:

David to rescue the thread I would add specific hi end gear which make up the list.
 
So my list would be:
 
 
1. Recording quality

 

2. A person's hearing

 

3. Quality of the transducers:Grado GS1000

 

4. Amplifier:Balancing Act

 

5. Source:Weiss

 

6. Cables and interconnects, with emphasis to the HP cables:Nordost,Oyaide,RAL

 

7. Clean Power:Isotek

thanks for the rescue!
 

 

[khaos974]

1. The Recording Itself because a bad mastering can never be corrected, likewise a victim of the loudness war will never sound good, it is assumed to have the greatest importance because of the great disparity in quality with the recording, especially if you don't limit yourself to classical and jazz.
2. Headphones / Speakers because good speakers + bad (source+amp) sound way better than the reverse, again a great rage of speakers.
3. Room Acoustics when using speakers, as important as the speakers themselves, irrelevant with headphones. But if your room has no major problems, the transducers are a bit more important than the room.

 

1. Amplifier/Preamp because it has to be synergistic with the speaker ie. capacity to deal with difficult loads if the speaker has a  tricky impedance curve, has to have enough power to avoid clipping.
2. Source most digital sources have a reasonable playback quality (digital only, more important with analog).
3. Amplifier/Preamp less important than the source if already synergistic with transducers, eg. active speakers amps less important than the source since the amps capacities are matched with the transducers.

 

1. Power supply and all power related variables as long as you don't have malfunctioning equipment, it's ok.
2. Cables and all interconnects involved as long as you don't have malfunctioning equipment, it's ok.

 

1. A person's own hearing limitations, actually the most important element, but the less relevant of this list as you'll never experience another person's hearing, you can train to experience more of the music though.

 

 

[DavidMahler]

Do you think it would be agreed that once dealing with all high end components, the Headphones/speakers play the biggest roll in sound change?

 

[rosgr63]

    Quote:

Do you think it would be agreed that once dealing with all high end components, the Headphones/speakers play the biggest roll in sound change?

For me yes.

 

[p a t r i c k]

Quote:

1. Room Acoustics when using speakers, as important as the speakers themselves, irrelevant with headphones. But if your room has no major problems, the transducers are a bit more important than the room.

 

I'm delighted to see room acoustics get a mention but I will say that unfortunately the average room in a house or flat (apartment) is a disaster area for listening to music.
 
It is not possible to listen to music with speakers in the average household room above a pretty basic level of fidelity unless that room has its inherent problems resolved.
 
It is very good indeed to read F. Alton Everest "Master Handbook of Acoustics". For anyone who wishes to obtain good sound in the domestic room then this is the first port of call.
 
To get good sound with speakers first you must have a dedicated room for acoustic treatment. If you do not have this then do not spend a lot of money on Hi Fi equipment because it is just money down the drain.
 
You won't see this mentioned in the hi fi press because it might stop the gravy train of people spending great sums of money on equipment which they can't accommodate acoustically.

 

[Audiogalore]

In this order as follow:
 
1) Transducer (headphone/speaker)
 
2) Recording
 
3) Source
 
4) interconnect (balanced vs SE)
 
5) Amp
 
6) Power supply/clean power

 

[nikongod]

 
Quote:

Do you think it would be agreed that once dealing with all high end components, the Headphones/speakers play the biggest roll in sound change?

What does high end mean?

 

[majkel]

From the top: amp, acoustics, transducers, source, recordings, power supply, cables. Hearing makes no sense here I skipped hearing as my order is done considering I hear well and others going to follow do hear well, too.