The Head-Fi Healing Thread

I don't like to go on about this too much, because it sounds like sob story (ok, for a music lover, it is!) but my signature is very much true, the bottleneck is now, absolutely, undeniably and incurably, my own ears. Since my last audiogram, my hifi wish list, once extensive and expensive, has been torn up and thrown away.

Maybe it's divine punishment for calling bullshit on so many audio forums!

But, if there is a silver lining to the cloud, it is a certain sense of freedom. Of not being bothered any more. It's quite nice to have cut back to an integrated amp with a headphone socket, and not be worried about additional head-phone amps, gain settings and the like. It's simple. And it is good enough, more than good enough, for me.

And I still have enough hearing left to enjoy music, just not enough to pass comment on the frequency response of the equipment. And I still have enough interest in audio to hang around at least one audio forum.

Hmmm... Maybe it's actually time for that pair of HD800s! My ears will attenuate the spike. OK... wish list reborn!

 

Even if your ears are letting you down, there's always the danger of sleeker, cooler, more elegant things out there to pique your interest occasionally. Don't ever think you'll get away with it that easily!

 

I could still live with some of that previously-desired stuff, just... because.

But it is not a big thing any more.

And one thing about Head-fi is sure: I'll keep visiting this thread, for the revelations and stories! It never fails to amaze!

 

Well, when I type "headfi" into my browser nowadays it auto-fills the URL of this thread instead of taking me elsewhere. I guess that says something about my browsing habits lately .

 

HF was one of the places I listed the Mojo I had for sale. Not long after I listed it, some jerk there listed his for $10 less. Mine sold yesterday via eBay, so it didn't bother me too much in the beginning. Then I thought about it, and posted a reply in his FS thread referring to amazon UK's $450 deal shipped to the US at the current exchange. He got upset and reported me, and the mods deleted the amazon reference. I replied to him that I wished him luck with the sale, but went back to the main Mojo thread and posted a link to the deal, and of course people are up in arms there now.

Censoring good deals is BS...

Edit: just to be clear, my HF price was way above the friend price here

 

Oh, I saw that. You are so going to get Currawonged, we should open a book on what they'll do to you.

(Also, well done! Fight the good fight!)

 

I wish you were true! I've seen one for 450 on headfi, that was the lowest I've ever seen. Hopefully it's gonna get cheaper layer on indeed.

 

From Currawong:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/sch...-most-improbable-start-up/12645#post_12863723

Pfft. Have at it, folks.

 

I think what he meant is: paid shilling will dishonestly work on head fi.

 

After spending quite a while away from this hobby, I've been frequenting both Head-Fi and SBAF regularly again.

The SnR over at Head-Fi has reached almost intolerable levels. Which is a crying shame since there's plenty of level-headed and reasoned posters/posts around, only hopelessly drowned out in the midst of the shit ton of juvenile emoticon spammage, selective/confirmation bias, groupthink, and general look-at-my-big-audio-schlong bullshit going on. It's not really worth wading through 100-odd pages of crap just to get a smidgen of valuable info.

Not sure if anyone on here has paid attention to the portable headphones / IEM subforum but the plethora of Chinese/Asian IEMs getting hyped to death is quite amusing.

Some dude in particular had the gall to create a thread wanking over some endgame IEMs he ordered from China. His review was incomprehensible at best, but somehow several poor souls were lured into throwing 200 quid in a heartbeat to purchase them -- turns out they sound like shit and the OP was using some super saiyan EQ settings in the entirety of his review 'process'.

Yet another was a 100+ page epic on a hybrid IEM. Several allegedly well-regarded posters hyped them up only for Brooko to post some measurements on them which showed a 20db chasm between the low and mid frequencies. What followed was a hilarious attempt at subtle backtracking by said posters. Blame directed at QC, "whoops i was actually using EQ", "whoops i did some measurements without actually knowing how to measure properly", YMMV, IMHO, e.t.c. Frequency response graphs don't tell the whole story but they don't lie either. No way in hell that IEM could have sounded decent.

 

In the same theme, the Shozy Zero has been immensely hyped over at head-fi, including by Currawong, yet incredibly there's been little fuss over them here at SuperBAF.

/scratches head...

 

While waiting for a needle drop to finish playing (ripping a new batch of vinyl; working on the NME top 100 albums of all-time now), I started reading that thread*.

You'd think by now that I'd have learned not do to things like that.

You'd be wrong; but could be forgiven for thinking it ...

But ... anyway ... bloody hell ... I've lost at least 50 IQ points reading that drivel ... and I really didn't have any to spare!

(*In my defense, its been a slow day and I'd finished reading the entire internet ...)

 

It's a bad, bad day when you reach the end of the internet. I for one am constantly wondering what are the odds of an asteroid hitting the internet...

(Not expecting an answer anytime soon, though. And certainly not my most productive of intellectual endeavours.)

 

The odds of that shift significantly when your understanding of the internet devolves to this:



(You really need to watch the whole episode to get the full gist of it.)

 

I still do, as there are some good people hidden in there- but

a) It's getting harder
b) Most of them are here now

Between the shills, the magical cable lunatics and the "buy more shiny midfi crap" merchants, it's deadening. Then there's the Nwavguy fanboys, who consider themselves devastatingly well-informed and objective and are sure that there's no point having anything better than an O2 amp*:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/769647/objectivists-board-room/2040

If anything, the Dunning-Kruger is nearly as strong in those guys as the magical thinking cable nuts. Like I say, there are still some sensible, well-informed people- it just gets harder to find 'em.



* Hey Marvey et al- how about an O2 amp loaner, for when we need to remind ourselves that some amps really do sound better than others? I can barely even recall the insipid shitfest sound of that thing at this point.. and worry that one day I will lose my mind, stray from the path and get eaten by spiders.

 

If you felt the Shozy Zero thread was bad, take a look* at this one: http://www.head-fi.org/t/808607/zhiyin-qt5-4ba-1dd-impressions-thread

Page 70+ onwards is where the bizarre stuff really kicks in.

(*Recommended only if you're alone and tremendously bored)

 

Currently still using my ODAC. Was wondering why I was growing six more legs. Maybe, like some spiders and mantids, ODAC mates with O2 --- and then eats it. Owners have to do the same.

Credit to NwAvGuy: I'm not a fanboy, but I'm not a hater either. He is one of the people that helped open my eyes to some of the audio bullshit. Yep: I even bought an ODAC. But i) he was only one of the people and ii) no design or product, at any price, low or high, is ever going to be every-one-else-can-go-home. Maybe Yggdrasil users might disagree: there are some things in the world I'm not going to be able to afford to find out!

 

SBAF is basically Head-Fi but with a layer of Our Opinions > Their Opinions running through it. If the sum total of your evidence is your own subjective impressions then there is no way for you to show you're right and others are wrong.

We've got cables removing grain here. CD transports are the new fad. How long till cable risers become a thing.

 

Haven't seen this yet I gather?
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/marveys-cable-rolling-adventures.2034/