I know this is meant as a joke, but I have to say, it’s incredibly hard to get proper audio equipment without paying idiot tax like crazy.
I want neither China crap, nor overengineered German CD shavers (those really exist, BTW), but just decent audio. If you look for reviews, everything under 2000€ is utter garbage, apparently, and you should be sterilized for even thinking about spending less than that. Or you go on Amazon and even a brick wall will have stellar reviews, because it sounds really awesome and even has Bluetooth!
Extremely frustrating. No middle ground.
Once I reported a listing, because it was initially selling something like hair clips, got great reviews, and then somehow changed everything to a BBQ Grill whilst keeping all the old reviews.
The listing was still up a couple of months later. Half five star reviews about some random product, half bad reviews about how the grill would randomly collapse or something.
I often see products with multiple different model options (for example, monitors) but most of the reviews are about the old models, essentially boosting their review count on day one with reviews from the past.
It is such a blessing to have unrefined taste. My brother is an audiophile and has fallen into this hole. I can’t tell the difference. I got cheap bookshelf speaks for the TV and that’s good enough for me as an upgrade from the TV built in speaker. My 15 year old PC Logitech speakers are doing great. Anker earphones had good enough reviews from soundguys.com. I listen to my brother’s speakers with his lossless music and it really makes no difference to me. It has been great for my wallet. I mostly listen to podcasts anyway.
I hear ya. I’ve got enough expensive hobbies as is, so I’m glad I dodged that one. I listen to YouTube music on Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro, I’ve got cheap Creative Pebble Pro PC speakers and it’s PERFECTLY FINE to my ears. Sure, I could spend 500 bucks on headphones and another 500 on speakers, but they just don’t give me that ‘wow’ factor to where it seems like a good investment. I’ve tried them; it wasn’t for me.
I’m also not the guy you should take to a fancy restaurant. A Domino’s pizza tastes just fine to me, so a five star Michelin restaurant would just be completely wasted on me. I’ve got exquisite taste and refinement in other areas, but I’m wholly a basic bitch in these two.
Nothing wrong with Creative. My first vinyl releases early 2000, Audigy soundcard with the breakout box and Creative Cambridge 5.1 PC speakers.
I could say a lot on this, as I’ve been in the whole premium audio/audiophile thing for a little while (I don’t buy the hype, I just want something that sounds good but doesn’t break the bank).
What I want to mention is that cd shavers have a purpose, but it’s not necessarily good for audio/audio quality. To put it simply, if a disc is unbalanced and wobbles in the reader/player, it’s prone to errors. With audio, most of these errors are correctable, and at most generate artifacts in the sound (like ticks or pops), but with faster readers, usually with data storage (like 48x or 52x cd/dvd readers) those errors can cause some significant issues where the disc needs to be re-read. The wobble of the disc due to balance issues can be a significant factor at high speeds.
Shaving a disc, which is really just trimming excess material until the disc is circularly uniform, can reduce errors and increase access speeds.
While all of this is possible, in practice, it doesn’t really matter all that much.
I will finish by saying: you won’t notice if a CD/DVD/BluRay is in balance, but you will definitely notice if it’s significantly out of balance.
https://www.rtings.com/headphones
I have used this site to buy monitors and displays. They are generally pretty objective and provide thorough data and they often document their methodology.
You can get good quality headphones for not that much money. Linsoul KZ ZS10s are surprisingly good for only $40. Grados SR-80s and Hifiman HE400s are both audiophile quality for a bit over $100.
I have hifiman Sundara and KZ ZS10. Both excellent and great value.
Kz is durable as hell, I’m using them for 4 years already and they are good as new
Moondrop Chu is a $20 earphone that has audiophile-tier sound according to many audiophile reviewers. Don’t bother with the built-in microphone though.
You might find some DankPods videos on YouTube helpful. He does a lot of silly videos about e-junk, but he is also a musician who, in some videos, points out good and affordable headphones. Sorry I can’t recall off the top of head what those are, though.
What’s a CD shaver?
One of these things, apparently.
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/07/improve-cd-sound-by-shaving/
This is so stupid, CDs have error correction codes. Special redundancy that fixes reading errors up to some level. If your reader is so junky that it gets uncorrectable errors, no amount of “trapping the light in the CD” is gonna change that. And even if you get some incorrect bit the player will probably try to guess it and unless your ear is some kind of specialty ultrafast tuning equipment you won’t hear the difference.
https://youtu.be/f-QxLAxwxkM?si=N9ltCiSSxgGkkdTR
Glad you asked.
Yep, it’s a big problem in audio and other subjective areas, because you have no way of knowing what the anonymous reviewer’s point of reference is, and most professional reviewers’ reference points are not suitable. It’s worse too, because purchaser-reviewers self-select into their category, so you expect most people to be satisfied with the subjective aspects of a product they’ve purchased, even though most people would not be satisfied with a random cheap product. This is all not helped by the fact that, in audio when differences are so minute, virtually no-one is conducting blind reviews so confirmation bias probably accounts for huge amounts of the final score. Sure, any professional reviewer is going to be able to identify a bum product that costs thousands, but I bet most of them will rate an identical product more highly if they’re told it costs 10x as much and comes from a fancier brand.
I’ve ended up crowdsourcing my recommendations from places like reddit where people tend to make tiered recommendation lists so you at least know they have the goal of producing the best products at each price level.
This exact thing happened in the wine world in 1976 during the “Judgment of Paris” wine-tasting event. The top wine critics in the world did a blind taste test of the best French wines and a bunch of unknown California wines. Naturally, everyone, including the critics, thought France would win hands-down. California won, shocking everyone. Before revealing the results, the judges were asked whether they thought the California or French wines had won. They all assumed that the wines they rated the highest were French, claiming they could tell which was which even while blinded. The interesting thing isn’t so much that California wines were good, but rather that the professional judges couldn’t tell the difference in a blind taste test.
Yeah, I’ve seen the same pattern with knives. If you just want a decent kitchen knife, you’ll find tons of people who are absolutely certain, that it’s physically impossible to cut anything unless the blade has been sharpened by a Japanese virgin under moonlight.
I assume, the value for money curve is a sigmoidal, where at a certain, relatively low price you get almost all the value and afterwards it only gets more expensive, but not better. But you never know, when you’ve reached the plateau.
I got a chef’s knife as a gift. I was a bit put out that came from Wilko (a very budget brand) and it turned out to be absolutely excellent. I think it won’t have cost any more than £20. I am astounded that anyone apart from professionals pays more than £100 for a knife, never mind the even more insane prices you can pay
See if you can find used audio equipment.
About 10 years ago, I was looking for a decent 2.1 system. I had a budget of about $1000usd. On a friend’s advice, I went to a used audio shop.
I was able to get an older NAD receiver and nice Boston Acustics speakers for about $750. I found a new Polk sub for $250.
I’ve been using my system almost daily for 10 years now. It’s fantastic and I feel no need to upgrade.
See if you can find a store that sells used audio equipment near you
Lots of middle ground out there.
Marantz, NAD, Cambridge Audio, and others all can put together great semi-audiophole systems. If a shop tries to upsell you on cables etc., judt tell them ‘you’re already covered.’
Meanwhile, small speakers for under $500 have never sounded better.
Or you can step up a notch and by used. I’ve got Rotel and Rega gear, which is way over-value.
It’s hard because a big part of audio is subjective. Not everyone wants flat sounding earphones or headphones. I used to browse head-fi.org. Not sure if it’s still a good source but I found a lot of good reviews for even budget stuff so I was able to get great sounding earphone recommendations for almost any price range.
It took a while but I’ve settled for Etymotic research in the long run. They fit what I like and they are decently affordable. Also I’ve had a pair for 5 years now and they still work which cannot be said for the majority of earphones I own.
Just go ask THX what they recommend for a proper surround sound setup.
/s
KZ earphones are excellent, and I think they’re Chinese. I actually have mine hooked up to a bluetooth headphone amplifier that has an app ans and can do balance output to the KZ with an upgraded cable. All in I probably paid $100.
Yeah bro, i have these too, using then every day, they durable as fuck and sound way way better than even those thrice it’s price, also changing cables is a lifesaver, and their cables is durable as hell too, I’m using the same cable for 4 years already and it’s still good as new
A lot of audiophile gear is overpriced bs. See what audio engineers use for mixing/mastering. Ath, Sennheiser, etc. Good cans will cost you anywhere from $150 to $600 but anything for thousands of dollars is ridiculous.
This is how Arch Linux users look when they tell me they use Arch (they use Arch BTW).
I use NixOS btw
I use Arch btw.
⚫➖🤓➖⚫
👏
I think he’s just cosplaying as carbon dioxide.
Looks like one of the Boys of Silence from BioShock Infinite
The real question is what does his DAC look like?
No unsolicited DAC-pics, please!
no DAC, he streams the digital signal directly to his consciousness.
“I don’t even see the code anymore”
he’s got big DAC energy
I bet he’s got an impressive stack of Schitt
Doesn’t use one. He just move the quill of an extinct species of porcupine through the grooves of a record, and his brain interprets the sound automatically. He’s actually deaf otherwise.
A box with cables going to his headphones and media decivice.
Now I’m curious, what is this?
Assuming this is not entirely a joke, I would guess that those are resonant chambers which are meant to amplify bassier frequencies.
Wow.
And here I am trying to find good earbuds and headphones that don’t have so much freaking bass, so I can hear the rest of the instruments…
Check out studio headphones. They have a “flat” frequency resoponse and they arent neccessarily expensive. (eg. AKG k240)
Yeah I have one pair of Beyerdynamic DT 990, 250 Ohm, as well as a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 770 at work. They sound great. Nice and flat sound. Letting the music decide how it should sound.
But it’s harder to find earbuds that aren’t bass-heavy, in my experience. I’m currently using a pair of Jaybird Vista 2. They are both pretty comfortable and provide good sound, which is rare for me (I have very open ears that buds easily slip out of.)
I have a pair of DT 770 Pros @ 250 Ohms. Does open vs closed make much of a difference?
Not much, but some. Can’t say worse or better without extensive tests, but my gut feeling says it’s just… different.
Less ambience comes through, into the closed phones.
The sound that plays from the open ones probably sounds more true, because the sound echoed back out from the ears and head just escapes out.
Meanwhile the closed ones might sound a little more “rich” because there would be a slight echo/reverb from the closed phones, as well as closing off most ambient sounds.
Hard to describe these things, unfortunately. But I hope this helps.
If you are in a place with lots of ambient noise, closed ones are definitely recommended. Otherwise it’s probably okay with open ones. I have the open ones at home.
It does help - thanks for the detailed reply.
I went from working in an office where closed were basically a requirement (to not be rude AND to block out distractions) to working from home. I love these headphones but was wondering if now that I’m in a more controlled environment I should switch to open. Sounds like it’s probably not worth the extra expense.
Yes open and closed have a big difference. Typically in the world of studio headphones you’d use open back for critical listening, and closed back for recording (so the sound in the headphones doesn’t bleed back into the microphones).
You’ve used these two models or you’re just speaking generally?
Reddit has good resources for that, there used to be a user that had a website to help choose but I can’t find it
The user you’re thinking of is probably LifelongCaboose who also has a blog somewhere with audio equipment reviews.
In my experience: Find something that gives you fine control over equalizer settings, or can be hacked to accomplish this.
The pair of Jaybird Vista 2 that I have has good sound at flat EQ, and Jaybird also supply an app to change the EQ.
Campfire Holocene
This image came from a post on Reddit. The user who posted it (on Reddit) said they’re headphones with a 60Hz Helmholtz Resonator. In other words: more bass
I’m curious to know what it sounded like, but I’m definitely not interested in boosting my bass consumption lol.
So like, he made the thing for it to resonate more the sound you get when you are blowing slightly in a coke bottle to give you an idea. But just constantly
Oh. So a 60 Hz constant hum? Like a low-pitched tinnitus?
I think I know what that sounds like. My fridge has a low, 50-Hz hum that resonates at a specific point by my bedroom mirror but nowhere else in the house. It’s very odd. But also pretty annoying when walking by it.
Looks like a stand user…
With the power of my「WORLD’S END RHAPSODY」I’ll show the true quality of music to all the lowlifes using airpods! As they hear the crystal clear sound, they’ll become free of their shackles and expand their mind to a new dimension of entertainment!
Steve Jobs’s younger brother, Odd.
Steve Globs
Is that pronounced like jlobs?
Was that the Apple Jesus before he died?
My first impression was the US knockoff of John Oliver
Hey guys! The Steve Jobs your looking at here is the owner of the website: www.pud.com where you can see al lthe fun mods the guy did to a headphone to make it sound different. The following text is from mister Pud here explaining what this headphone is:
A "Helmholtz resonator"is that thing when you blow on a Coke bottle and it plays a low pitch.
The pitch can be tuned by adjusting its dimensions. Ol’Thumby (The headset on the photo -Kyoyeou) has a resonator tuned to 60hz (Bass territory -Kyoyeou) with the “neck” radius of 50mm (same as the driver I’m using).
If you’re interested in trying something like this yourself, there are Helmholtz resonator calculators online, or ask ChatGPT to help you calculate. Here’s the calculator I used: www.omnicalculator.com/physics/helmholtz-resonator
I would be afraid of wearing any high-end headphones in public, as they can be stolen so easily off of one’s head.
thats why you put some dangly duct tape on
Not that easy if it has a cable.
But also pretty much all of us have phones that cost more than high-end headphones, just as easy to pick out of your hands.
Honestly if I was wearing a HD700 an Audeze headphone (why would you do that) I think there is more chances your neighboor with his airpod max will have their stollen first
I can’t imagine living in such a horrible society and thinking like that all the time
I suppose it’s normal for third world countries though
try Oakland for example.
Isn’t that the US?
Still a developing country where people need guns in order to feel safe in their own homes.
“Third world” is such an ugly Americanism.
It described the USA. What’s wrong with it?
I think the phrase is “Uno Reverse”
😂
Yes! Is that Steve Jobs? I time I heard about him, he had died! But I see he is growing some of that hair back! Good for him!
I think that’s James richeson, a performance artist on instagram
Not only are audiophiles walking around hallucinating audio quality, but now they’re also making me feel like I’m fucking hallucinating when I have to look at them.
Yeah fuck me for enjoying music, right?
It’s a joke my guy…
