Expensive headphones vs 'normal' people

My 23 year-old son grew up in a house filled with music, and continues to be a constant listener, with cheap iems purchased at Best Buy because they offer an "insurance" plan, which will replace his headphones unlimited times for two years if he breaks them or loses them, both of which he does on a regular basis, though less than he used to. He has told me that he can't see spending 100s+ on 'phones he is just gonna break anyway. I don't disagree. He also mostly listens to rap and edm, which I think does reduce the sonic benefits of better gear somewhat. I gave him a fiio x3 so that he had a better source than his phone, but he doesn't want to carry 2 devices, and would be lost without his phone. Can't say that I disagree with that either. So he only uses it at home, and as a dac for his pc, the benefit of which he gets, but he wouldn't have bought it himself. But just yesterday he paid $500 for a tattoo, and probably has $2000 invested total on tattoos. Too each his own, I guess.

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. My friend is a music professor at a university on the double bass and he spends way more on bows. The OP did say it was a beginner though.

 

Good thing I never decided to take up any stringed instruments...

Most people have hobbies, most people have something they would be willing to spend what another person may view as an unreasonable amount on. Personally I probably have more than most, but that's a different story. It's all relative...so the next time someone balks at you spending 1500 dollars on a pair of headphones put it into perspective for them.

Its a hobby, hobbies can be expensive at times

 

I think it goes more beyond a selfish thing or not.

You have to remember, this is a new facet of the hi-fi world. In 1999, about the best headphones out there were 7506's or V6's and those were still $100. Even the Sennheiser anniversary's were only about $125 maybe. AKG 240's about the same.

On the other hand, hi-fi stereos have been a thing since the 1950's. So that market is well established from a low, mid, high, uber, and super and even uber-uber markets. The headphone is kind of a split from this as many of the same principles apply, including those involving source gear. Even amps has similarities as far as specs and build (power, distortion, damping, etc.), although OTL is extremely uncommon with speakers.

The truth is that headphones are more or less considered something to fit a need. Like, I need to hear something when no one in the room needs to hear. Or, I need to hear music while I am walking down the street, or on my phone. The issue of quality is more or less on the build quality and SQ to a point, like does it not sound like it is in a can, but more or less in the frequency domain - are they offensive sounding?

So the idea of dedicated amps, hundreds and even thousand(s) of stuffs for headphones is wildly insane. And yes, they don't get it until they hear it. I still have friends that actually refuse to listen to my rig because they will fall down that rabbit hole because they realize the headphones and the headphone jack on their laptop is shit.

 

I'm not really sure I understand this? HD600 was out in 1998 for like 400+ dollars? Stax lambda models as well? Not to mention Orpheus already existed for thousands and thousands in the early 90s.

I mean I get your point about speakers being more established, but there were definitely more expensive headphones than 100 dollars available in 1999. The prices are creeping up, but if I had to guess it's because more and more people have become interested in hifi and clearly the numbers have shown they're willing to pay.

There are also certain advancements that do somewhat cost more. The beryllium drivers in Utopia come to mind as a headphone that uses very expensive just plain physical materials even before all the design and then eventual markup come into play.

 

The 80/90s saw the Akg K1000 ($1200 MSRP) as well as the Sony MDR-R10 ($2.5k MSRP). Not to mention the Orpheus.

People reference the HD 800 as starting the high end headphone trend, but preceding that headphone by years in the 2000s was the Sony Qualia 010 (2.4k) & Audio Technica ATH-L3000 (2.5k).

Expensive headphones are not a new idea.

 

Good call out. I should have been more clear...I mean in the mainstream market. I mean Grados were around back then too, but the hi-do markershare was SO tiny compared to what it is today.

The HD600 was TOL for Senn back then, and then the 650 right after that.

In Japan, the headphone market was way ahead because of needs of portability and a system that does not annoy the neighbors in their high rise apartments.

 

I don't think that affordable stereo was a thing in the fifties, or even the sixties. Back then, even a stereo "radiogram" sort of box was beyond the means of most households.
In the early-ish 70s, when many had one of those portable cassette players with mechanical keys and fairly awful sound. A friend of mine had the Sony Stereo model. It was priced well beyond my means! Back in those days one was lucky to have a housemate with a real stereo system... but it was just becoming affordable, at least to those with a bit more money than I had.

 

Yes, £1.5k is a lot to spend on headphones. But on the other hand, I have gone from rarely listening to music at all, to listening for hours at work and borderline obsessively collecting our rabidly searching out more and more good stuff.

Weirdly, I now find I can also enjoy music again with much more crappy gear too, but somehow it needed something... better to bring back the passion.