Everything wrong with the r/headphones subreddit in one post

Well, here it is. https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/4eccsr/the_argument_why_several_pairs_of_midfi/

I may as well share this post, not as a chance to brigade or anything, but really to bring about some discussion about this community (that is different from head-fi's, headphone discord's, or SBAF's community in the worst way.)

 

Which post? There are a lot of posts on that page.

 

You mean the image post itself I assume?

I'm seeing some great voices of reason from swordknight, OJ and yourself, per usual. Keep fighting the good fight, I do often and I have no idea why, I started there and just can't leave completely I guess.

 

I

That's actually not the issue. It's more that he's trying to tell us his way is the better way as a way to justify his collection. A lot of people on Reddit like to badmouth any size able purchase as wasteful when something like this isn't.

 

Why bother trying to convince anyone that's clearly not open to it outright, it's the internet, if they didn't give an opposing point of view much thought the first time around it's likely not gonna happen on the third or tenth attempt.

If he wants to have two warm portable on-ears (that one's really puzzling tbh) and he wants to keep listening to Grados alongside his HD598 then more power to him.

Whatever argument he tries to justify while giving anyone a similar recommendation should fall apart on it's own. Some people just like collecting things, shouldn't be all that surprising, even if most collections are worthless. Some people embrace *and* can engage in healthy debate, some can't, not surprising either.

He was back pedaling hard with the whole fluid collection argument anyway... Not that trading or selling those will net him much, but that's clearly not a priority.

If he trims 1-2 hp out he's already at a reasonable open+closed+portable setup, whether he gets there now or when his significant other tosses some stuff out the widow isn't anyone's concern nor the end of the world/community/subreddit.

 

Swordknight says nothing new. I once had dozens of headphones and I appreciated all of them. Thing is you either keep collecting or actually enjoy your headphones.

There is no need to justify multiple speakers or headphones. What works for you, works for you. If someone thinks he or she knows better I have only one reply: time for music...

 

I have a bunch of headphones for some reason, just like the collecting and weird sound signatures that some midfi provides. I have a HD800 that I use as my reference, so hopefully I'm not full pleb tier.

 

HD600 for me
+ one closed 'at home' (or transportable) hp in the Oppo PM-3
+ Fidelio X2 for gaming (moar bass but also stage)
+ one highly portable closed on-ear in the V-Moda XS...

I probably already ran afoul of the minimalist/optimal rules (haven't even counted IEM or Koss clip ons, tho I only have one IEM >$20) but I don't much care, it works for me even if it looks like 4 mid-fi/redundant choices to someone else.

They do have clearly defined roles tho, I don't have more pairs purely just to have different, but maybe that's someone else cup of tea, different tastes/sounds for the sake of it. I do have some stuff to sell/give away...

 

http://imgur.com/rf6CCyx

My wife says I have a problem.

 

Your wife would probably appreciate the irony here... And I thought I was being silly in getting the Christmas Groot despite already having normal Groot, heh. It's just him + a couple Star Wars ones tho.

/thread derailment complete

 

When the f**k were those considered mid-fi? That's lower mid-fi at best.

Anyway, they are a hopeless bunch.

 

I think the notion of more mid-fi gear being more desirable than one piece of summit gear isn't the issue. I think the issue is that the people who argue that usually don't have good mid-fi gear. For example, if someone were to offer me Audio Technica AD2000s, HD650s, a set of Grado RS2Es or something like that and a set of K702s I wouldn't mind that over one of HD800s/T1s/LCD-2s/HE-6s to be honest. Reason being -- all of those headphones scale well and they're all pretty affordable. I wouldn't feel like my Zana Deux and dacs are wasted on those "mid-fi" headphones and I wouldn't feel stuck in purgatory. The problem is when people are talking about how X2s, V Modas, Momentums and headphones that don't scale with a crappy portable amp are better than summit-fi gear. It's not. Mid-fi purgatory isn't bad -- it can be better if done right. It just has to be done right.

 

It's only a problem if I wind up with more headphones than pokemon...

 

Which is why I questioned if those can are even mid-fi. He's not using what we consider as real mid-fi. I'd say entry level.

 

Top tier used to be the HD580, DT880, and Kwhatever. It's only been in recent years with stupid kilobuck offerings that has skewed things.

I would consider a $200ish headphone to be solid mid-fi. It's just that nowadays after Beats and the magical $300 pricepoint that there are so many choices to choose from in that realm. $200 is not entry level. For some people that's groceries for a month. You've got the likes of a Koss KSC35/75 or Monoprice 8323 sitting pretty at $15-25 which is truly entry level. Your budget stuff should pull into the $100 range. Hell, you used to be able to get a new ATH-M50 for $125 and that was FOTM for years and was reasonably well deserved; and I would have called that mid-fi.

 

Maybe there needs to be a couple new tiers then? One from around $300-600 (throwing out random numbers that probably have little to do with performance) with your HD650s, middle tier Grados, AD2000s etc. One from $600-1000 into former flagship territory (since you're looking at the steady greats like LCD-2s, T1s, HD800s, TH900s, HE-6s etc used or some new here). Then consider the stuff above that current flagship territory.