Everything wrong with the r/headphones subreddit in one post

lo, mid, high, and summit-fi are all tiers of sound quality. What was once summit-fi or hi-fi way back when isn't the same classification now. An M50 is not really considered mid-fi anymore, just like the DT880 is not considered hi-fi. We have some rarities, like the HD6x0 series that keep their classification because no one does what they do, but, like I said, they're a rarity.

 

Some of those new flagships are worse than the old tier, though.

 

I dunno. I've noticed high-end purchases tend to be quite positively rated unlike the reddit post in question (although yes this particular post is controversial), albeit not quite as high as something like a DT770 or ATH-M50 post.

I hate making generalizations but I feel like the reddit community is more collegiate, has less discretionary income, and makes decisions based on budget/bang-for-the-buck rather than absolute performance. I know when I was in college I didn't really have large surpluses of cash to be able to throw at HD 800s or SR-007s at any point in time. In that time I could easily see myself in mid-fi purgatory, purchasing "deal" products piecemeal with no goal of absolute performance in mind.

Hell, four-figure purchases still stress me out today.

Even in the age of HD580/DT880/K701 there were statement products like the MDR-R10, HE90, SR-Omega and another tier for random crap like the K1000, MDR-CD3000, ATH-L3000, etc (arguably some of which the foremost three are better than).

But yes the general price creep is very real when we have $3000+ products that are merely "high-end" and no longer statement products, and respectable mid-high-end like the HD 6X0 increased in price over the past decade or so.

 

That sub hurts my brain.

Separately, I fear the obsession with lo/mid/hi in many places is more about e-peen and less about "fidelity". The label replaces the experience, instead of allowing better explanation. Its fine to use lo/mid/hi/summit/auto-erotic as gradations of performance within a topic, but the attachment of "-fi" at the end is misleading. Koss is a perfect example. Low fidelity is a label for actual garbage, anything that reproduces sound that is notably not faithful to the original recording. For a normal person, listening to KSC35/75 makes them say "oh, holy shit, headphones can do that?" The follow-up should be "yes, they can, and its gets better," not "LOL lo-fi!!"

*NOTE: I understand that something like the HD800 is literally of higher fidelity than the [any other headphone], but it does not make lesser performers low fidelity.

 

Talking price point tiers is kinda pointless as long as there's so many headphones that perform well above AND below their respective tiers... And some tiers would have nothing to show, like the $600-1,000, by most accounts it's no man's land unless one is shopping used as you said (everything is cheaper used tho).

That's the sign of a really immature market, a mature market has decent products at almost every price bracket and it's much harder to make a bad choice.

 

The term "fidelity" is BS anyway. If "fidelity" was actually something that every manufacturer aimed for, then everything would sound like the HD600 FR-wise, but that's not the case, is it?

 

I totally agree - I just used price to reflect the idea of there being a range of price to performance flagship model headphones in the $600-1000 area that aren't the manufacturers top end models anymore. And I considered used prices inconsequential since HD800 (non S) stock is going to run out soon, LCD-2.2 pre fazors aren't sold anymore and the HE-6 are also discontinued although it seems like stock is taking a while to deplete with those. TH900s are sub 1K too and won't be available other than used with the new model for that and the same for the T1s with the Gen 2 out. I agree with what the poster above said that some of the old flagships are probably better than the new ones but the point stands there is a tier that's above mid-fi (because all of these are former flagships and still sound amazing) and below what would be considered summit-fi right now. These headphones, like the $300 sweet spot, at least for me, represent another sweet spot where price to performance is amazing in comparison to the stuff that resides above it i.e. I've elected to go with HD800, T1, LCD-2, HE-6 all previous generation rather than spending egregious amounts of money on HE-Ks, LCD-4s, Ether versions etc. I mean I got the LCD-2s and T1s for $600 and the HD800s and HE-6 for $850 which represents an absolute steal for what you're getting.

 

you guys should really educate yourself, hueheuhue

 

Cringe....

 

what is reddit anyway, a beauty pageant for people who think they know something and want people to vote on it?

Every time I thought I found something of value on reddit, it turned out to be either off base or missing key info.

It defies logic as to why anyone would spend time there, truly a time waster as much as effing cat videos.

 

It's starting to invade the headphones discord as well. There was a whole argument about how amplifiers don't make a difference, and you can't use blind tests as proof of differences you heard if someone else did the tests (or something similarly stupid.) :/

We're not actually sure why that guy keeps coming on our discord chat, but oh well.

 

Modern 'like' phishing culture has basically ruined forums for one thing. It creates an ecosystem where what sounds good is more important than what's true.

(this is me begging for likes btw)

 

reddit is basically just a streamlined forum, organized by activity and votes, instead of time of last post.

Its a much better system than the typical forum with the amount of users it has. Noise/shitposts get downvoted, and the better quality posts get upvoted, and thus have more visibility. If reddit were a normal forum, the random noise on it would make HF look completely calm and quiet by comparison.

generally, its a younger crowd, and thats also a reason why /r/headphones has a higher % of people with entry/mid-fi gear. I frequent it pretty often, but one thing that does get me on that sub is the amount of people that believe that all dacs are the same .

 

Wow I get to use the unwatch thread button

 

sorry for answering your question i guess

 

should have said thanks, sorry and now back to sleep.

 

Luckily SBAF is more about the trophy points.

 

How much younger does it trend? I've never found the popularity system more efficient or easier to navigate than a traditional forum, but at 34 maybe I'm just old and set in my ways. Never took to Slashdot, or Digg, much less Reddit...

They all seemed like a fad or stuck with too many issues compared to message boards that have been around 10-20 years and can easily be searched etc. Dunno, I think I'm definitely becoming an old fart...

 

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All there is to know about hearing is known and unchangeable! All people hear the same! You are all suckers wasting money because of expectation bias!