[denl82]

Like others have said, I think it's wrong to make a (false) generalization about whole genres being inherently low-fi. That said, I think your inquiry devles into the whole philosophy of "music."

My answer to why people don't upgrade and some do is this:
I believe people listen to music because of the sonic message it conveys, the ideas it gives you in your mind. For example, one can be in a class room, tapping his pen away, while later at home, he's listening to his classical on a k1000. Even though the k1000 is pretty up there, while his pen-tapping is as far from hi-fi as possible, he is still just as happy(for the sake of argument) with both. Why? We as humans have a need to be mentally supplemented with the "message" of music, not the bells and whistles of it(=soundstage, clean bass).

What makes a person dance to pop music: Well delineated basslines? Or groovy basslines?

I for one concluded in my other thread "$40 can go a longgggg way..." that while my dt770 is a technically competent headphone, the music gets bogged down by the bells and whistles, while my $40 koss r80 is incapable of such "sonic mastery"; hence, I found r80 can to be more fun in the end, because what I got was the music's idea in one piece, instead of all the details and stuff. Maybe this is why a lot of people don't upgrade or demand producers to give them hi'er-fi'er tracks to vibe to, because they're already getting what they want!

 

[Esidarap]

I find it funny that you categorize pop music as less complex than rock music. I see it as exactly the opposite. Actually my whole experience is opposite from what you say. I used to listen 90% to rock and 10% to pop and never did I feel the need to get more out of the music, I didn't feel that there was any more in there to hear but when I later started getting more into the pop side of things I felt like I was missing something.

To this day when I listen to rock(classic/metal/punk whatever) I don't feel like I need my good headphones to fully enjoy it because what's in the recording is very straight forward. With pop music it's very different, there are all kinds of bells swirling around in the background, several types of percussion instruments coming from different directions, cool randoms sound effects haloing around your head, backup singers hidden in the corners of the recording... etc. There's alot thrown into pop recordings that I just don't experience with low-fi gear. While with rock it's for the most part (I didn't say always, don't kill me) guitar #1, guitar #2, bass, drum, singer and not much more thrown in.

Back to the question though, I feel there's an audiophile in everyone who truly loves music... these people have other priorities though and high-end audio gear isn't high enough on their list to spend money on it. I'm basing this on the response audiophiles always get after letting a friend listen to their stuff then telling them the price.. it's always the price that's the deal breaker! YOU PAID HOW MUCH?!

 

[ThirtySixBelow]

For me it was just ignorance. I didn't know it could get any better. I had a pair of Sennheiser HD212s which I got because I heard Senn was where it was at. I picked them up at circuit city 2 years ago for $60. I took them home and was amazed how much better it sounded than the standard issue headphones. I really never thought about it. Listening to them for a while I didn't know how it could get any better since these just absolutely blew the 5 dollar headphones out of the water. I found this forum about a month ago and saw everyone praising the k81djs. I bought those for 60 dollars also and got another wow moment. Now I'm stuck in the how can it get any better moment again. Some people just don't really care. My dad listens to the radio at volume 1 and that's fine with him. It's hard to convince someone like that that a 400 watt subwoofer system is necissary for my electronic music. It takes either hearing a pair of good headphones, or hearing people rave about how good something is that is cheap enough for you to be willing to take the plunge to even realize there is something better. That's what it took for me. It's hard to convince someone like me who doesn't know any better that those $600 cans are really that much better than my $60 cans without letting me hear them or giving me $600.

 

[Nugget]

I moved to New York, and living in a 500ft2 apartment with my wife forced me to give up my prized 5.1 gaming setup. For gaming purposes I picked up the DT770/80s...and then something weird happened. I noticed that music, which hadn't been my thing for awhile, sounded awfully good.

Since then, I've invested in dozens more albums, re-ripped my collection to audophile standards, replaced my ghetto soundcard, picked up a tube amp. And I barely game anymore, partly because law school and married life leaves little time, but mostly because I'd rather spend a spare hour relaxing with Cash, Reinhardt, or Phish. I've got the bug, and I love it.

 

[wower]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebascrub If you ever met me in person, you'd know in about 10 seconds flat that I detest hip-hop/pop/rap/techno/dance/etc. I listen to rock, and rock alone.

So basically you're saying you dislike more music that you like? I think that's a pitful existance myself but to each his own. I'll defend to the death your right to say it! I echo others in agreeing that there's lots of sub-par rock music around and that sweeping genernalizitions about genres is unhealthy at best.

On many music surveys I have eschewed the "genre" checkboxes and simply filled in the "other" colunm by writing "Good Music." In my opinion, we are in a musical renaissance. Everywhere I turn there is music worth buying.

This leads to why I got in to hifi; I had a strong feeling I wasn't hearing the whole sonic picture. It was like looking at a beautiful painting down a tunnel and through dirty glass. I also value being able to sit down and listen to music when I want too. The fact is, Radiohead is not always aviliable to play in my livingroom on demand. I didn't see many concerts when I was younger (with the exception of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival) and now I make do - and enjoy emmensely - the local indie band gigs.

 

[kramer5150]

For the love of music... and the enjoyment that comes from hearing everything.

 

[mcshaggy2]

Today when I walked out of my dorm, I was wearing my DT880s and listening to my iPod. When I hit play and heard the sounds of Sigur Ros beaming into my cranium, I felt my spine tingle. Thats what I spent my money on, beautiful music sounding beautiful. I could never get the same effect from bad buds.

In my opinion its somewhat psychological, to feel like the music youre listening to and the means by which you listen is better than most other people's, you feel better than them... I almost feel obligated to let people know what theyre missing, but that would probably not be the best way to make new friends. "Hey! My headphones are way better than yours and I listen to better music! Wanna try?"

Thats my take on it, anyway.

 

[AgentVX]

Well I'm in the thread starter's shoes as well, 18-25 and detesting a lot of non-rock/metal genres but let's not get into that

A few months ago I got a set of 2.1 speakers for my PC...TDK Tremor S60s. Not high-end by any definition, but it was leaps and bounds ahead of what I'd been listening to music from, earbuds and cheap speakers inclusive. My first reaction was actually something like, "Now THAT's what cymbals are supposed to sound like!"

So here I am now educating myself on Head-Fi, with a pair of Audio Technica AD5s sitting on the desk. My first pair of decent cans.

Btw, no need to apologise about my wallet...I intend to run far far away from this place once I change to a pair of headphones that I'm completely satisfied with...possibly Grado SR-60s (don't want to hear opinions to the contrary!!! lalalalalalala)

 

[sebascrub]

It is interesting to see how we all kind of revolve around the same concept as to how we first discovered that there was a high end world: serendipity. For me, as well as others before, it is all about the luck of hearing.

With that said, is the enjoyment of music by an audiophile greater or less than a non-audiophile? Although I always say that the music comes first, I've enjoyed my music much more nowadays than before, when it just used to be background music. Now, I'll actually lay in bed doing nothing else. I don't know if I would've done that before as readily. And this is where different genres come into play...do different genres lend themselves better to active listening, or passive listening?

 

[sebascrub]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcshaggy2 Today when I walked out of my dorm, I was wearing my DT880s and listening to my iPod. When I hit play and heard the sounds of Sigur Ros beaming into my cranium, I felt my spine tingle. Thats what I spent my money on, beautiful music sounding beautiful. I could never get the same effect from bad buds. In my opinion its somewhat psychological, to feel like the music youre listening to and the means by which you listen is better than most other people's, you feel better than them... I almost feel obligated to let people know what theyre missing, but that would probably not be the best way to make new friends. "Hey! My headphones are way better than yours and I listen to better music! Wanna try?" Thats my take on it, anyway.

I agree... I could never walk to class without my etys. It helps me wake up in the morning when its -15C and walk all the way to a boring class. The thing that strikes me the most is when people are talking to each other still wearing their earbuds and listening to music, especially on campus. Either they aren't listening to the person or the music, and given that they are in conversation with the other person, they aren't listening to the music. This seems to be a trend, IMO. Non-audiophiles have a greater tendency to hear music, but maybe not listen to music. I think that high end equipment facilitates listening to music much more; it makes it enjoyable and realistic. Same happens at a club...people hear the music and groove to the beat, but maybe they aren't listening. Or maybe they are, and I'm just narrow minded

...though I don't mind being called that...there is so much rock music to discover, I'm perfectly and completely happy with my tastes.

 

[thespacepope]

I'm in that age group and most of what I listen to is rap. I didn't care much about sound quality and thought the stock Sony earbuds were the greatest headphones ever. Well, they broke and I bought crappy earbuds. Like most purchases in my life, I love the research a lot more than actually buying the product. One thing leads to another and I'm posting on a website about headphones. I'm actually looking at things like Frequency Response and Impedance. All because my Sonys broke.

 

[panda]

music was music to me and it never occured to me to get more fidelity out of it. it was through watching movies that i got interested in more clarity as i couldn't understand a lot of what the frig people were saying in conversations in films that irritated the crap out of me to the point of walking into an audio store to demo some different gear.

 

[obobskivich]

I fit in that age group as well, really was just looking to get a pair of headphones comfortable enough for extended listening so I could get away from loudspeakers, ended up discovering, well, many things since joining head-fi

I think the "discover high end audio" statement, at least for me, is answered thusly: it let me fall in love with music a second time, and theres not many things in life you get to do that with

 

[Pyriel0]

I just wanted good headphones for my playing pc games and ended up with AD700's. I had to bend the supports pretty bad to make them fit me ok and then a year later(now) I looked at them at thought "why not get nice headphones that actually fit?" Then I found my lovely K701's. While reading about them, I found out I needed an amp. Thought while I was buying crap I might as well get a dac lol. I just ordered a pair of ultrasone now for a fun headphone. Hopefully the cycle stops there for a long time.

It was all pc gaming's fault. Just like the college drop out rate and people dropping dead from WoW! joking

 

[Taikero]

I discovered it because of noisy coworkers. Before, I'd never spent more than $25 on a pair of headphones. Some sounded better, some worse, but none really made me go "wow".

I bought some Super.fi 5 EBs, and I was very happy with them, but still not blown away (Except by how much bass such little things could produce). I think the real epiphany came about two weeks after I bought my Image X10. A big smile crossed my face and I realized I was truly enjoying my music.

Thank you noisy coworkers.