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Design Aesthetic fails!

mansr

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Sorry, I had to. The Abyss are one of the ugliest headphones on Earth IMHO, more like a head-clamp :

View attachment 109532

They just have everything wrong aesthetics-wise. Of course they will say that's intended. And I will say "hire a better designer, or send yours back to design school". I have designed stuff myself in the past, and I can see lots of blatant design mistakes. Too numerous to count probably. "Industrial design" you say ? Nah, I don't buy it. Oh, apparently they sound nice - so there's at least one good thing about them. :)
0_Cybermen-70a3540.jpg
 

Maki

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The Blon BL-30, just so cheap looking, like they put it together with spare parts that were gonna get tossed out, Frankenstein cans.
View attachment 109574
The drivers and housing are really pretty if you take off the pads, shame they sound like absolute garbage and have widespread fit issues.
 

RickSanchez

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OK, so technically these would be considered "neckphones" (maybe "shoulderphones"?) and not "headphones". But since I'm too lazy to create a new thread for neckphone design failures I'll add these to this thread. I give you: the 1999 Sennheiser Surrounders ...

109688_3197317 (Small).jpg



Should you like to learn more about these wonderful examples of .... ummm, "function over form" I guess? .... feel free to waste 16 minutes of your life watching this review:

 

Vini darko

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OK, so technically these would be considered "neckphones" (maybe "shoulderphones"?) and not "headphones". But since I'm too lazy to create a new thread for neckphone design failures I'll add these to this thread. I give you: the 1999 Sennheiser Surrounders ...

View attachment 109757


Should you like to learn more about these wonderful examples of .... ummm, "function over form" I guess? .... feel free to waste 16 minutes of your life watching this review:

Techmoan is quality content.
 

andreasmaaan

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Ok firstly, apologies for my previous post, had just read the thread title and not the OP; this is a headphone thread...

Here's my proper contribution c/o Gucci:

1612139011242.png


After Rihanna was pictured in them, they sold out instantly, despite the $9k price tag. The offending photo/post:

1612139182537.png
 

raykkho

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Moral of a story .... no matter how good they sound, if they make you look like an idiot, pass.
 

LearningToSmile

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Stax and things like AKG K1000(other than the yoke really should've been black) kinda look fine to me in a vacuum, though they might make anyone wearing them look silly.

My personal vote in the high-end space at least goes to RAAL-requisite SR1a:
aGuBBtO8SSiu3I8K4new_UOpAvLIRECXhF8Quy8yg_pcs.jpg

The materials and machining seem high quality, but the ridiculous design and the black & red color scheme make it looks more "gamer" than any "gamer" headphone. Plus they have even worse issues with how people look actually wearing them than any Stax.
 

sergeauckland

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Moral of a story .... no matter how good they sound, if they make you look like an idiot, pass.
maybe I'm immoral....don't answer that!....but I take the opposite view. I don't care what I look like, as long as the headphones work. My Jecklin Floats did make me look like an idiot, as the photo above with the glasses evidences (no that's not me, but it looks a lot like me) but I really don't care what anyone thinks I look like...if they only knew what I thought of them....

Don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to.

Headphones are functional objects, not fashion items, whatever Rihanna might think, so as long as they function, that's what matters.

And yes, I wear an FFP3 respirator in public, not just a fabric face-mask.

S.
 

raykkho

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maybe I'm immoral....don't answer that!....but I take the opposite view. I don't care what I look like, as long as the headphones work. My Jecklin Floats did make me look like an idiot, as the photo above with the glasses evidences (no that's not me, but it looks a lot like me) but I really don't care what anyone thinks I look like...if they only knew what I thought of them....

Don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to.

Headphones are functional objects, not fashion items, whatever Rihanna might think, so as long as they function, that's what matters.

And yes, I wear an FFP3 respirator in public, not just a fabric face-mask.

S.
Happy for you, really.
 

AnalogSteph

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FWIR, the GMP's are basically designed to indestructible pro monitoring headphones so they get a pass with their function over form design.
Besides, the design is no doubt something like 30 years old at this point, it seems very late 1980s (remember ribbed car tail lights? apparently it helps keep them visible even when dirty)... I think German Maestro (ex MB Quart) is a very small operation in the grand scheme of things and updating their molds isn't at the top of their list of priorities at this point.
 

raykkho

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Ok firstly, apologies for my previous post, had just read the thread title and not the OP; this is a headphone thread...

Here's my proper contribution c/o Gucci:

View attachment 109768

After Rihanna was pictured in them, they sold out instantly, despite the $9k price tag. The offending photo/post:

View attachment 109769
Its Dolce & Gabbana by the way but thanks for bringing this up, most interesting.
 

Not Daijoubu

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I like to recommend KSC75 as some pretty nice and cheap earphones, but the hardest part is not convincing people that open-back is fine or that the sound is indeed good....

It's that they look like this. Also, terrible wires. Even cheap dollar-store earbuds come with straighter wires.

thumbnail_koss_headphones_ksc75_ear_clips_4.jpg
 
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