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Do you consider yourself an audiophile?

Are you an audiophile?

  • Yes

    Votes: 32 13.7%

  • No

    Votes: 84 36.1%

  • Audiophiles are deluded bullshitters

    Votes: 117 50.2%
  • Total voters
    233
Enviro said:
Anyone seen these EVEN headphones? They're supposed to account for variations in your sensitivity to different frequencies to provide a better experience. I'm suspicious about this. Could be good for people with real issues, but for general use it seems a bit un-necessary.
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I think these might be on the wrong thread, they sound great for anyone with hearing loss.

I just did the test, the results roughly match the results of my hearing tests at Guys Hospital. They don't have reggae on their genre list, but listening to hip hop for a similar bass response the difference between listening to the music flat and then adjusted to suit my hearing loss the difference is incredible. The sound is so much fuller becasue I'm not missing out the frequencies that I don't hear.

I sort of wish I hadn't just splashed out on some expensive Sennheiser Momentum 2 cans, although they do sound pretty lovely. Might get these one day, thanks for the heads up :thumbs:
 
Athos said:
Not got one, but Google it. My Samsung Galaxy S6 does this; I think the feature is called 'Adapt Sound'.
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Thats great, I didn't know that was a built in feature. I just set it up on my new headphones and it sounds 10 times better already. I really are quite deaf. Thanks :):thumbs:
 
Doctor Carrot said:
Does anyone else find the term 'audiophile' a load of old wank? And people who claim to be one smug, self important tossers? Now there's obviously vast differences between a £15 system from Tesco and one that costs a few grand from a stereo shop, but most of the stuff that audiophiles claim is just bollocks and the scope for bullshit is enormous, bullshit such as this $2700 for 3 feet of cable :D.

I was doing some googling about different bitrates for MP3s and I was amused to see that double blind test after double blind test confirms that the difference between a 192 MP3 and a CD are either so minuscule that it takes several listens of intense concentration to hear them, or they're not heard at all. I also don't doubt there are people who have really finely tuned ears, the sort of people that can name the key you just farted in, but I reckon most people who claim to be audiophiles are deluded bullshitters. The amount of times i've read statements such as "if you're an audiophile, like me you can hear the difference" i'd love to see these people double blind tested and taken down a peg or two.

I think as long as you have a decent set of speakers backed up by loads of independent reviews, I don't think a great deal of difference is going to be heard, if any at all.
Click to expand...

I used to be. Spent some serious money over the years on amps and speakers, turntables, tuners and equalisers. Those were the days when we had a hi fi in the living room.

Now I listen in the computer room, on a pair of Altec Lansing PC speakers. The sound is perfectly acceptable.
 
Doctor Carrot said:
Again, i can agree with most of this but I really don't see the point in ripping to Flac instead of, say, 320k, when they sound identical but the MP3 will take up half the storage space.

I love this guy from the pear site:

whatsnew_background_gen.gif


I bet he's gone balls deep in a few port holes and spaffed on some subwoofers in his time.
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Apart from anything else, some mP3 players won't play flac. I have to transcode flac to MP3.
 
Sasaferrato said:
I used to be. Spent some serious money over the years on amps and speakers, turntables, tuners and equalisers. Those were the days when we had a hi fi in the living room.

Now I listen in the computer room, on a pair of Altec Lansing PC speakers. The sound is perfectly acceptable.
Click to expand...


I get that.

was lucky to grow up in a flat where my dad had invested in a half decent arcam separates system with a rega deck.

add to that his 60s/70s vinyl collection and it really was a great experience.

now, just like you, pretty much every thing I listen to is pipped down the interweb, prob terrible quality. I do have a soundcard and some half decent monitors but nowhere near a decent set-up.

I guess apart from the money side of it, time is also a factor, to appreciate it, you need to make time to sit down and listen properly to get the best out of it, now it is just the musical version of fast food.
 
moody said:
I get that.

was lucky to grow up in a flat where my dad had invested in a half decent arcam separates system with a rega deck.

add to that his 60s/70s vinyl collection and it really was a great experience.

now, just like you, pretty much every thing I listen to is pipped down the interweb, prob terrible quality. I do have a soundcard and some half decent monitors but nowhere near a decent set-up.

I guess apart from the money side of it, time is also a factor, to appreciate it, you need to make time to sit down and listen properly to get the best out of it, now it is just the musical version of fast food.
Click to expand...

That's true, I generally have music playing in the background as I potter about on the PC.

I'm a poor sleeper, in terms of finding it difficult to get off to sleep. I use an Mp3 player, usually with an audio book playing, but, if I'm in bed early, I'll listen to some music first. With Mp3 players, good headphones make the difference. I use these, they are superb.

Atomic Floyd - The New State of Sound (I didn't pay as much as that for them.)
 
Convincing yourself you've not just wasted a grand, by lying you yourself about what you can hear, is perfectly well understood scientifically!
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
6moons audio reviews: Bybee Slipstream XLR Magic Bullet

Quantum Purifiers.

:facepalm:
Click to expand...
"Jack Bybee is a physicist whose work in Quantum Physics led to the development of the Quantum Purifiers for certain military applications, some of which are still classified. Until five years ago, Jack offered versions of these filters to audio and video enthusiasts keen to improve the level of signal purity in their home systems."

Sadly, his website is down.

Perhaps the cables broke.
 
Athos said:
Convincing yourself you've not just wasted a grand, by lying you yourself about what you can hear, is perfectly well understood scientifically!
Click to expand...

But, if it sounds better to you, because you spent a grand on it, isn't that the point? There isn't a objective point, it's all subjective, and if one thinks it sounds better, then it literally does, to the person in question.

I've often thought the same is true for wine, it's well established that if someone spends £20 on a bottle of wine it'll taste better to them than a cheaper bottle. Irrespective of what's in the bottle. If they taste the same wine in a double blind test they probably won't be able to tell the difference between that and a £4 bottle of wine. In effect, they've spent money on the experience, which is 'real' to them.

It's hard though to make the most of this, as I can't spend £5 on a bottle of wine and imagine I've spent £20 on it. And I'm not going to spend £20 on a bottle of wine.
 
mrs quoad said:
"Jack Bybee is a physicist whose work in Quantum Physics led to the development of the Quantum Purifiers for certain military applications, some of which are still classified. Until five years ago, Jack offered versions of these filters to audio and video enthusiasts keen to improve the level of signal purity in their home systems."

Sadly, his website is down.

Perhaps the cables broke.
Click to expand...

I spent almost all of last night reading a monster 100 page discussion / analysis of one his products.

It was car-crash forum reading. Once I started looking, I just couldn't stop.
 
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