Wmcmanus
President treasurer secretary and sole member of the Cayman Islands Head-Fi Club.
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2002
- Posts
- 11,830
- Likes
- 27
*** Long post warning. ***
It's kind of funny at the end, but don't skip ahead... here goes:
I think everything sucks except what I have.
No, not really. But I think there's a certain element of this kind of thinking, generally speaking, no matter what the subject matter is (and audio gear is certainly no exception).
Essentially, we all vote with our dollars. When you buy something, assuming that you're a rational person, the utility that you derive from that purchase is said to exceed that which you could have derived from the next best alternative use of those dollars.
As such, there tends to be a strong pre-attachment to most purchases that most people make. This is especially true for 'big ticket' items (relative to one's income and/or wealth). If it made your wallet "hurt" then you're more likely to get attached to it than if it cost you peanuts.
Likewise, this emotional/psychological attachment tends to be extremely strong with respect to luxury goods (i.e., those that you are most likely to feel a need to "justify" in your mind). Thus, for example, the typical person is more likely to be strongly attached to his/her $20k headphone system (headphones, amp and source) than he/she would be to his/her $20k car (which is a 'necessity' and not nearly as exotic or "high end" as other cars that are available). For the same money spent, we tend to get a bigger "kick" out of the item we "needed" less and thus was purchased more for ego satisfaction than true need satisfaction.
But wait, we're talking about the "worst" high end gear we've ever heard. Ahh, true, but as it turns out, the converse of all of this is true as well. That is, the more something costs and the more "hyped up" it gets by those who love it (insert your least favorite pair of headphones, or speakers, or amp here), the more inclined you will be to judge it harshly when it fails to meet your perception of great sound. In other words, it's the "Why would someone spend so much money for that?" reaction that I'm talking about.
Thus, for example, the R10s and HE90s, tend to be easy targets. Both are extremely high priced and extremely well thought of (generally speaking) by hundreds of Head-Fi'ers who have been blown away by them. So... if, for whatever reason and on the basis of whatever performance metric you deem most important, your audition of such headphones leaves you less than fully satisfied, the R10 or HE90 will suddenly become the "most over rated" or "worst high end" headphone you've ever heard. In other words, expectation plays a big role here - not just price/performance expectations, but also expectations based on the "hype" that you've read on Head-Fi about whatever product.
Mind you, by "you" I'm referring to the all-inclusive you (including myself). In other words, if someone were to hand me their favorite pair of headphones at a Head-Fi meet, and excitedly say, "Hey! You've got to hear these! Check out that amazing bass. I want your opinion..." What the heck can I possibly say? "They suck! That bass sounds over-bloated and totally unrealistic!" Why would I ruin someone's buzz like that? To their ears and for their musical tastes and preferences, these headphones sound amazing! Good for them, I say! While I'm not afraid to give my honest opinion, I don't see any need to throw arrows at a happy man.
So getting around to my point, I find these kinds of threads to be pretty much useless; not only useless (as I've observed elsewhere in the "most over-rated" or "most under-rated" types threads), but potentially "harmful" to the frail egos of those who have spent an unusually large amount of their disposable income on a treasured pair of headphones, or speakers, or amp, only to find that others think they totally suck.
The G08, GS1000, and Edition 9, as examples, have all taken their lumps in this thread. Don't get me wrong, I don't think any of this was intentional or mean spirited. I don't think that anyone, in offering their honest opinions, was attempting to "discredit" these or any other "high end" products. Instead, I think they were saying, "You know... I just don't get it... the G08, GS1000, or Edition 9 simply doesn't do it for me... maybe I'm missing something, but I don't get it..."
So in that context, this kind of thread really isn't "harmful" at all, and hopefully nobody here at Head-Fi will have invested so much of themselves on an emotional level into any particular item(s) of audio gear that they will take someone else's opinion as an insult... because that would just be silly!
So having said all of that, I wanted to quote one particular line from this thread and then pose some follow up questions:
Quote:
Are you out of your #@%ing mind?!?!?
Do you know your a#% from a hole in the ground?
Do you not know the most amazing sounding audio gear in the world when you hear it?
What's wrong with you, man?!?!?!
Did your mama drop you on your head or something?
Or was it just a poor room setup and played at a volume that was way too loud, as is usually the case for MBL demos at the big shows?
No, I'm not emotionally attached to that $90k (plus) that I've burned on MBL gear (not counting cables). Not me! Heck, I even got great deals on that gear!
*** End of long post, and of the long set up to get to the rather lame punch line... MBL is just another easy target, like the R10 and HE90... or so I keep telling myself. For the record, I really was only joking. That's why I made the questions as absurd as I possibly could, such that nobody could possibly take me seriously. Because I couldn't possibly be serious, could I? He he... no, I'm not. Just joking. True story. ***
It's kind of funny at the end, but don't skip ahead... here goes:
I think everything sucks except what I have.
No, not really. But I think there's a certain element of this kind of thinking, generally speaking, no matter what the subject matter is (and audio gear is certainly no exception).
Essentially, we all vote with our dollars. When you buy something, assuming that you're a rational person, the utility that you derive from that purchase is said to exceed that which you could have derived from the next best alternative use of those dollars.
As such, there tends to be a strong pre-attachment to most purchases that most people make. This is especially true for 'big ticket' items (relative to one's income and/or wealth). If it made your wallet "hurt" then you're more likely to get attached to it than if it cost you peanuts.
Likewise, this emotional/psychological attachment tends to be extremely strong with respect to luxury goods (i.e., those that you are most likely to feel a need to "justify" in your mind). Thus, for example, the typical person is more likely to be strongly attached to his/her $20k headphone system (headphones, amp and source) than he/she would be to his/her $20k car (which is a 'necessity' and not nearly as exotic or "high end" as other cars that are available). For the same money spent, we tend to get a bigger "kick" out of the item we "needed" less and thus was purchased more for ego satisfaction than true need satisfaction.
But wait, we're talking about the "worst" high end gear we've ever heard. Ahh, true, but as it turns out, the converse of all of this is true as well. That is, the more something costs and the more "hyped up" it gets by those who love it (insert your least favorite pair of headphones, or speakers, or amp here), the more inclined you will be to judge it harshly when it fails to meet your perception of great sound. In other words, it's the "Why would someone spend so much money for that?" reaction that I'm talking about.
Thus, for example, the R10s and HE90s, tend to be easy targets. Both are extremely high priced and extremely well thought of (generally speaking) by hundreds of Head-Fi'ers who have been blown away by them. So... if, for whatever reason and on the basis of whatever performance metric you deem most important, your audition of such headphones leaves you less than fully satisfied, the R10 or HE90 will suddenly become the "most over rated" or "worst high end" headphone you've ever heard. In other words, expectation plays a big role here - not just price/performance expectations, but also expectations based on the "hype" that you've read on Head-Fi about whatever product.
Mind you, by "you" I'm referring to the all-inclusive you (including myself). In other words, if someone were to hand me their favorite pair of headphones at a Head-Fi meet, and excitedly say, "Hey! You've got to hear these! Check out that amazing bass. I want your opinion..." What the heck can I possibly say? "They suck! That bass sounds over-bloated and totally unrealistic!" Why would I ruin someone's buzz like that? To their ears and for their musical tastes and preferences, these headphones sound amazing! Good for them, I say! While I'm not afraid to give my honest opinion, I don't see any need to throw arrows at a happy man.
So getting around to my point, I find these kinds of threads to be pretty much useless; not only useless (as I've observed elsewhere in the "most over-rated" or "most under-rated" types threads), but potentially "harmful" to the frail egos of those who have spent an unusually large amount of their disposable income on a treasured pair of headphones, or speakers, or amp, only to find that others think they totally suck.
The G08, GS1000, and Edition 9, as examples, have all taken their lumps in this thread. Don't get me wrong, I don't think any of this was intentional or mean spirited. I don't think that anyone, in offering their honest opinions, was attempting to "discredit" these or any other "high end" products. Instead, I think they were saying, "You know... I just don't get it... the G08, GS1000, or Edition 9 simply doesn't do it for me... maybe I'm missing something, but I don't get it..."
So in that context, this kind of thread really isn't "harmful" at all, and hopefully nobody here at Head-Fi will have invested so much of themselves on an emotional level into any particular item(s) of audio gear that they will take someone else's opinion as an insult... because that would just be silly!
So having said all of that, I wanted to quote one particular line from this thread and then pose some follow up questions:
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Faust2D /img/forum/go_quote.gif I really disliked the MBL 9006 amps paired with MBL 101e speakers. I heard them a few times and for that much money the sound was cold and very mechanical, not something I expected from gear of that caliber. |
Are you out of your #@%ing mind?!?!?
Do you know your a#% from a hole in the ground?
Do you not know the most amazing sounding audio gear in the world when you hear it?
What's wrong with you, man?!?!?!
Or was it just a poor room setup and played at a volume that was way too loud, as is usually the case for MBL demos at the big shows?
No, I'm not emotionally attached to that $90k (plus) that I've burned on MBL gear (not counting cables). Not me! Heck, I even got great deals on that gear!
*** End of long post, and of the long set up to get to the rather lame punch line... MBL is just another easy target, like the R10 and HE90... or so I keep telling myself. For the record, I really was only joking. That's why I made the questions as absurd as I possibly could, such that nobody could possibly take me seriously. Because I couldn't possibly be serious, could I? He he... no, I'm not. Just joking. True story. ***
