My biggest headphone disappointment?
Well........I've been listening to headphones for just a tad over 15 years now and have owned a LOT of cheap (noname brand, even) headphones.
I guess that overall, I'd have to say that it's not any particular model or manufacturer that disappoints me as much as it is the entire headphone market.....and the audio and electronics market as well, for that matter.
On one end of the scale, you have headphones that cost like $12 and SOUND like they should cost $2. On the other end of the scale, you have headphones that cost hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of dollars and merely sound as good as ALL headphones should by the year 2006.
A big part of the disappointment for me is that it shouldn't cost hundreds of dollars to get acceptable sound quality out of a piece of equipment that's been around for well over 50 years. If a pair of $20 headphones can sound almost satisfactory, shouldn't a pair of $300 headphones sound absolutely SUPERB?
Another frustration, as I outlined before, the electronics industry is generally content with producing LCD garbage that simply isn't capable of reproducing music to the full capacity of even some cheaper headphones. Choosing a playback device for your music of choice should be a no brainer by this point in time. It shouldn't even be an issue. But because the masses tend to accpet junk, electronics manufacturers have no incentive to push bounderies and are actually quite content to reserve good sound quality for the niche market known as "audiophilia". Why waste money producing good equipment if most people won't notice...right?
So...you've got your $300 headphones and now you've got to spend another $500 (at least) to use them to their full potential. I guess what I'm saying is a great deal of my frustration and disappointment comes from the fact that it's a business. And just like any other business, they cut corners, save money where they can and are perfectly content to exploit those who look for a higher standard for every red cent they can milk out of them.
I'm not knocking my fellow audiophiles (although it may sound that way). We don't have much choice in the matter. We either pay what they are asking for decent equipment or we settle for garbage. But it does bother me that anyone has to pay $300 (or perhaps substantially more) for mass produced plastic....even if it is cut from a somewhat more refined and more carefully designed cloth. $300 should buy you pretty close to the best headphones money can buy and sadly, I don't think it does in most cases.
And let's face it....a lot of people probably buy expensive headphones to use with something like an Ipod. I guess the Ipod is probably substantially better than yesterday's Walkman in terms of fidelity and overall sound quality but it also probably doesn't put out enough power for half of the more high end headphones. And Ipods are NOT cheap! Here we have a ($400) device that is INTENDED to be used EXCLUSIVELY with headphones and you very well might have to spend hundreds of additional dollars for extra equipment in order to use it with a decent set of 'phones, rather than those junky "buds" it comes with. What is wrong with this picture? Shouldn't a $400 device that is intended to be used with headphones already sound (better than) fantastic and be usable with almost any headphone? Why is sound quality an afterthought on devices that have no other function than to reproduce sound? Who spends $20,000 on an engine, another $20,000 on the rest of the car and yet another $20,000 on the keys? OK...there are some people who do take autophilia to these extremes but even a $20,000 car seves it's intended purpose admirably......and in some cases, actually goes above and beyond the call of duty.
I guess I'm just not cut out to be an audiophile...even though I have all the symptoms. I buy the cheap stuff and wonder why it sounds cheap. I inspect the expensive stuff (because I can't afford to buy it) and wonder why it's so expensive. Yeah...it sounds good but at the price, you'd think the year was 1975 and you were looking at the best stuff money could buy.
Anyway...that's what I find disappointing......
