Insanely Expensive Audio

[Ron Texas]

https://www.moon-audio.com/hifiman-shangri-la-headphones-amplifier-system.html
$50k for electrostatic headphones and companion tube amp. I guess everyone knows by now I don't like those space heaters. At least you don't have to worry about room size.

 

[FrantzM]

Well ... if there were some correlation between price and performance then we could only salivate and not laugh at. There isn't.

I had the opportunity, back in the days to be truy but truly disappointed in listening to an Audio Note driving an Infinity Beta ... the comparison amp in a medium sized-room was a Pass Aleph about 60 wpc ... The Audio Note was a 45 wpc or so ... We thought the AN was broken .. What came off was similar to AM compared to FM, for those old enough to remember those days ... The Audio Note Onga-whatever , IIRC was sounding as a broken amp, in the mid 70s dB SPL. We switched to an Harbeth and it continued to sound broken. It was a week-end, we put back the Aleph and brought the Onga-s#$%t back to the dealer> On a whim we didn't mention that we thought it was broken and asked him to play the Audio Note on his speakers of choice ... He complied, I can't remember but I believe it was also an Audio Note ... It was one of the first blow to my beliefs in High End .. it sounded like crap ...with the dealer extolling the extraordinary midrange and musicality .. To my friend and I, the system simply sounded bad, wimpy ... It was perhaps $150 K for the system, expensive by late 90's standard and it sounded bad .. I should have learned my lesson ... I did not .. It took me many years, almost 15, to realize the emperor had no cloth... High End Audio is mostly a Luxury Sector where performance is not the metrics , only the perception of it ... thus things like the Pivetta or the Living Voices .. A Dutch and Dutch or Kii will run circles around those contraptions ... But their midrange ..Oh their midrange

 

[tomelex]

No offense to posters such as yourself, but @amirm really should own something better than the hoi polloi posting here.

Speakers only as expensive as a Hyundai Kona?

No wonder the dudes at WBF don't take him seriously.

He really should change his Patreon account to accept donations for new speakers, instead of yet-another-cheap-DAC to test.

LOL, of course, the whole point of our site is that money DOES NOT absolutely or even possibly equate to quality, over at why believe facts site I had a guy when I was discussing hypothetical amplifiers and mentioned one cost $2K and the other $4K which one would sound better and he actually said that of course the $4K one would sound better, I kid you not. And he was a favorite and leader over at that site for many years.

 

[DonH56]

Isn't the top Boulder amp around $200k+ a pair now? The 3050, I think it is...

 

[dts350z]

If you stop enjoying the music and are stressing too much about this or that setting or tweak, then you have spent too much. IMHO.

 

[watchnerd]

If you stop enjoying the music and are stressing too much about this or that setting or tweak, then you have spent too much. IMHO.

I don't think that's a money problem. HeadFi is full of gear sluts who play flavor-of-the-month with relatively inexpensive headphones and amps.

 

[Thomas savage]

I don't think that's a money problem. HeadFi is full of gear sluts who play flavor-of-the-month with relatively inexpensive headphones and amps.

There’s a few factors at play but basically it’s a addiction imo.

 

[Sal1950]

There’s a few factors at play but basically it’s a addiction imo.

Absolutely!
I just made a post over at CA on the subjectives being unwilling to test their beliefs under blind conditions for fear of having their notions blown up. For many the realization that the constant gear roulette they play in search for the absolute sound might end and would destroy their interest and fun in high end audio. That scares the hell out of them like a junkie considering the pains of withdrawal.

 

[watchnerd]

Absolutely!
I just made a post over at CA on the subjectives being unwilling to test their beliefs under blind conditions for fear of having their notions blown up. For many the realization that the constant gear roulette they play in search for the absolute sound might end and would destroy their interest and fun in high end audio. That scares the hell out of them like a junkie considering the pains of withdrawal.

Did you get banned yet?

 

[Sal1950]

Did you get banned yet?

Naw, Chris has actually been amazingly tolerant of my constant jabbing at the believers. LOL

 

[watchnerd]

Naw, Chris has actually been amazingly tolerant of my constant jabbing at the believers. LOL

That's better than Head Fi, with it's 'no DBT' rule.

 

[Thomas savage]

That's better than Head Fi, with it's 'no DBT' rule.

Yea, but I can fully understand how they got there. These forums do tend towards polarisation, it’s very very tempting to avoid the conflicts and streamline the narrative of discussion.

It’s no different here, the pressures are the same but I try to resist the temptation rather than capitulate to the will of the masses. You get no thanks for that , no reward just more aggravation and bitching so I can fully understand why some forums go down the road they do.

Audio forums are like little dopamine dispensers, people post and they want a reward , a confirmation, a affirmation, to feel good not to feel stressed by cognitive dissonance and have their sensibilities challenged.

 

[Frank Dernie]

That's better than Head Fi, with it's 'no DBT' rule.

I have always been bemused about how to go about a "blind" test with headphone systems.
How would one be sure levels were matched to 0.1 dB, and how "blind" could it be when headphones all feel so different to each other to wear?

 

[Wombat]

It is all somewhere on a spectrum of much-ado-about-nothing significant.

 

[Thomas savage]

Headphones seem to cause issues , I wonder if it’s possible to develop a headphone that incorporates a in ear piece for minds and highs maybe and a round ear ‘ headphone ‘ for lower content. With the idea you’re trying to circumnavigate the issues surrounding folks diffrent shaped lug holes or outer lug holes ( sorry don’t know the Latin , raised by wolves)

Probably already been done , most of my ideas turns out some bastard thought of it before and/or they are just plain shit.

 

[Wombat]

Humans have not evolved to be fooled by sound representation via 2-channel headphones. Loudspeakers are over-hyped but better in this regard.

Enjoy what we have and don't overthink/rate it.

 

[watchnerd]

I have always been bemused about how to go about a "blind" test with headphone systems.
How would one be sure levels were matched to 0.1 dB, and how "blind" could it be when headphones all feel so different to each other to wear?

Oh, it's not for the headphones...it's for the upstream amps/DACs.

 

[Sal1950]

Oh, it's not for the headphones...it's for the upstream amps/DACs.

Like WBF they have a "Sound Science" forum where Luddites such as us are expected to stay and discuss issues of high fidelity reality. But of course when the hoards of believers decend over some fact that shakes one of their closely held delusions, we're expected to shut up and not argue back too strongly. How dare we ask for supportable evidence for any ridiculous claims the believers present. The real problem is our ears or gears of course and you might even get banned for being right.
I was banned at WBF for simply asking Steve why he was telling Amir not to post measurement graphs in the Science forum?

 

[Ron Texas]

It's all to easy to get banned from a forum. If enough people attack you they end the dispute by banning the person being attacked.

Sorry, what's WBF? World boxing federation?

 

[Dialectic]

It's all to easy to get banned from a forum. If enough people attack you they end the dispute by banning the person being attacked.

Sorry, what's WBF? World boxing federation?

What's Best Forum. I may be banned there because I stated that Mark Levinson (the man) has a history of starting companies that rebadge Chinese stuff and sell it at a 10X markup. Mark Levinson (the man) made a vague threat, and the Californian, Wilson-loving gynecologist who runs WBF now ordered me to apologize to Mark for my (entirely true) statements. I haven't logged in and don't know what the status of my account is.

I believe many other ASR members, including Amir (who once was an admin of WBF), have been banned there as well.