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Challenge From Harbeth... (part II)

A pair of Sony MDR-V6 headphones can play music from something portable with no need for apologists or compromises.

Ugh. These became popular with live sound and recording because they're easy to drive and the shouty upper midrange and good isolation meant that they had a sound that would "cut through" in a noisy environment. Using the Sonys for leisure music "enjoyment" would be painful.
 
Ugh. These became popular with live sound and recording because they're easy to drive and the shouty upper midrange and good isolation meant that they had a sound that would "cut through" in a noisy environment. Using the Sonys for leisure music "enjoyment" would be painful.

No. That's the MDR-7506, with its deliberate presence lift for ENG use.

The MDR-V6 is a very different beast, that happens to look virtually identical to the pro product.

Edit: This is beside the point, anyway. Exchange Sony for Sennheiser HD25, Shure IEMs or any one of dozens of different headphone and IEM options that will out-perform almost any pair of loudspeakers for a fraction of the cost. Or even go mental and buy a set of Audeze or Stax and end up with a pair of headphones that can out-perform any loudspeaker known to man, for a fraction of the price and size of audiophile approved behemoths.
 
There appear to be two definitions of the term Brian.
No, there don't.

merlin said:
Wiki defines it as "a person enthusiastic about high fidelity sound"
Yes, it does.

merlin said:
The Oxford on line defines it as "a person enthusiastic about hifi equipment."
No, it doesn't.

merlin said:
I would place Serge and Robert in the first category.
You may be right. Personally, I don't care, however it appears placing people into a category is of interest to others. I'm not generally inclined to place people I don't know into categories of any sort, it's not me using the term "audiophile" as an insult toward other members and distancing myself from that group. I'm not insulting anyone because they are either objectivist or subjectivist.

merlin said:
I believe they are using the term to describe those who fit in with the second.:)
I agree with you. What I don't agree with is Serge, Robert and some other people lumping everyone who disagrees with them into that second, fictional category.

Since it appears objectivists are commonly using the word "audiophile" as a means of insulting members without seeming to break the AUP, do you agree it is fair for objectivists to be referred to as "pseudo-scientists" from now on?
 
Edit: This is beside the point, anyway. Exchange Sony for Sennheiser HD25, Shure IEMs or any one of dozens of different headphone and IEM options that will out-perform almost any pair of loudspeakers for a fraction of the cost. Or even go mental and buy a set of Audeze or Stax and end up with a pair of headphones that can out-perform any loudspeaker known to man, for a fraction of the price and size of audiophile approved behemoths.

Except that headphone listening is a miserable, anti-social activity, and fatiguing experience after a short time. It can be an interesting alternate reference, but it's no substitute for listening to music through loudspeakers.
 
..or for folks such as myself a sensitivity to latex or leather against my ear lobes means I can't use headphones for any length of time. A real shame as I really enjoyed a pair of bottom of the line Stax units I purchased 30 years ago.
 
You are still being an apologist for a glaring omission. This is why the old-fashioned audio business is dead. Sorry, nearly dead.

So at 'affordable' levels, you either get uncontrolled bass, or no bass. At stupid money levels, you might be able to get good, deep bass, but once again need to make excuses about high cost, size, weight, ugliness and outright silliness of the system.

A pair of Sony MDR-V6 headphones can play music from something portable with no need for apologists or compromises.

You want 'out there' sound? Try a Soundmatters foxL. It's staggeringly good. It even has bass that doesn't boom but goes low. Smoke and mirrors? Perhaps, but I can put up with smoke and mirrors if it's the size of a Mars bar, and sounds just as good with dub is it does with Debussy.

Buy both. In fact, you could buy both five times over, and an iPad to play it from, and still not have spent as much as you would on a single pair of Harbeth P3ESRs.

Is it really any wonder why people gave up on traditional loudspeaker-based systems when even the non-audiophile audiophiles need to use weasel-word language to justify their expensive, boring monkey coffins?

You're missing the point - not everyone values bass accuracy (or your choices whatever they may be) above all else so compromise is inevitable when working within a budget.
 
Interesting, that was the very customer profile I was successful with when I had my dealership in the mid '80s. I sold a lot of Quad to 50 year-old Solicitors and Chartered Accountants, sadly there weren't enough of them, and most of the people coming through the door would have a copy of the latest rag under their arms and would rather believe what their favourite boy-scribbler wrote rather than what anybody actually knowledgable would tell them. I was spectacularly unsuccessful with those people, and there weren't enough of the former.

S.

I had friends who ran Westwoods of Oxford and, they too, had potential customers asking for what Nigel and Julian termed ' Amplifier of the Month'. ( Usually recommended by Hi-Fi Comic, sorry Hi-Fi Answers) After all, it was SO popular Westwoods couldn't have acquired one anyway... Nigel Pearson used to get very annoyed by all this. After a sensible conversation on his part, the potential customer was taken to the dem. room and listened to a Quad amp. combination, or something similar. In many cases the customer went away satisfied... Of course next month a new amplifier/speaker/etc. of the month !
 
..or for folks such as myself a sensitivity to latex or leather against my ear lobes means I can't use headphones for any length of time. A real shame as I really enjoyed a pair of bottom of the line Stax units I purchased 30 years ago.

They make latex headphone pads? Why do I imagine someone with blow-up condoms on each ear? :rolleyes:
 
They make latex headphone pads? Why do I imagine someone with blow-up condoms on each ear? :rolleyes:

Vinyl to be more accurate for the ear pieces I suppose however the results are the same. The itching and irritation was unbearable after a record side.

Whatever this allergy is (dubbed a sensitivity to latex by my doc) I can't have many synthetics directly against my skin without irritation or pain and even black and blue bruises where it touches. Bizarre but true.
 
You're missing the point - not everyone values bass accuracy (or your choices whatever they may be) above all else so compromise is inevitable when working within a budget.

That's complete nonsense. People can learn to devalue aspects of audio performance, but the key word is 'learned'. You've obviously learned to be insensitive to aspects of music that are not well handled by your choice of loudspeaker. How is that musically valid?

Can you imagine going to a concert and discover that because the engineer forgot to mic up the drums, there was no drum sound?
 
Except that headphone listening is a miserable, anti-social activity, and fatiguing experience after a short time. It can be an interesting alternate reference, but it's no substitute for listening to music through loudspeakers.

Anti-social, as opposed to sitting alone in your man-cave?

Fatiguing, as opposed to listening to a pair of Focals?
 
EE, may I politely suggest a return to the medication?

Your angry ranting is a little tiresome for us stable readers.

Just sayin' like...:rolleyes:
 
..or for folks such as myself a sensitivity to latex or leather against my ear lobes means I can't use headphones for any length of time. A real shame as I really enjoyed a pair of bottom of the line Stax units I purchased 30 years ago.

Fake leather (which I take is what you mean by latex) can be very uncomfortable, but have you ever had a set of headphones with good quality, soft genuine leather ear pads? Much more comfortable.

You might be glad to know that you can get soft leather ear pads for Stax headphones these days, which also appreciably improve the sound quality. I have a set on my own Stax SR-303 and they are a huge improvement on the old fake leather ones, both in terms of comfort and sound quality.

They aren't exactly cheap, but if you still have the old stax lying around, they are worth it - http://bluetin.com/catalog/stax_stax-ep-234limited-earpads-for-sr-404-limited-and-more.html
 
That's complete nonsense. People can learn to devalue aspects of audio performance, but the key word is 'learned'. You've obviously learned to be insensitive to aspects of music that are not well handled by your choice of loudspeaker. How is that musically valid?

Can you imagine going to a concert and discover that because the engineer forgot to mic up the drums, there was no drum sound?

Tell all of this to the Average Joe who has no clue or care as to what is technically "right" about sound and music reproduction and you'll find out what's nonsense.
 
Fake leather (which I take is what you mean by latex) can be very uncomfortable, but have you ever had a set of headphones with good quality, soft genuine leather ear pads? Much more comfortable.

You might be glad to know that you can get soft leather ear pads for Stax headphones these days, which also appreciably improve the sound quality. I have a set on my own Stax SR-303 and they are a huge improvement on the old fake leather ones, both in terms of comfort and sound quality.

They aren't exactly cheap, but if you still have the old stax lying around, they are worth it - http://bluetin.com/catalog/stax_stax-ep-234limited-earpads-for-sr-404-limited-and-more.html

Thanks for the tip Sky....I may try them again one day as I really do miss them.
 


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