The Head-Fi Healing Thread

It sure is, but then so is any department store mall really. All the stores are screaming at you that they have the highest quality and best deals etc. I wonder what it is from a psychological standpoint that would make anyone think HF is different from that? Is the interaction with other members? The fact that you can register and voice your opinion? Is it Jude himself? Interesting. I have to think more about that.

If you have limited funds it can certainly be more frustrating than if not, especially if you have high standards when it comes to audio. The funny thing is that most of the new guys don't know what high quality gear sounds like, so to them almost anything sounds good. I don't think that effect should underestimated. If all you've ever heard are Beats powered through a phone then almost all of the recommendation on HF are good. It's funny but it's sort of true.

And I don't believe all the hype on HF is made up, I think a lot of it is just people hearing something which isn't shit for the first time in their lives. The sad part is what happens after that if they want more and get stuck in the hype loop. If you always believe that the newest and most expensive gear is the best I understand that it can be a very expensive and frustrating experience indeed.

I understand that you want to save people from the "trial by fire" - and it's a noble intention. But I'm not sure that it's possible to save them all. To a large extent the game is rigged against you, and some people don't want to be saved anyway. But you can certainly try, there's no harm in that I don't think.

 

You can try on clothes and shoes in a department store and see if they fit and look nice on you

People also tend to bullshit and hype up less about clothing than headphones and other audio gear. Although I guess if you start getting into high end fashion, it might be a different story.

 

I like Head-Fi quite a bit because there is just more information. Even though the product impression threads get pretty ridiculous echochambers at times, there is just simply more talk about certain products. It's a good resource if you consciusly filter out the bullshit and the cable discussions that plague certain threads...

SBAF is where I seem to find more in-depth and detailed impressions, opinions and fact though. Better "signal to noise"

TLDR: IMO both are invaluable sites in their own ways.

 

Comparing head fi to a mall is odd. The purpose of stores in a mall is to sell you things. That's the straightforward stated purpose. We don't go there to get honest information that is unaffected by dollars. Head fi is not a store - it is supposedly a community to learn about and get info about headphones. The fact that opinion there seems to be significantly swayed by advertising dollars and that no one is held to any kind of standard for information is a big deal. This situation is in no way comparable to a store in the mall.

 

I was relatively lucky in that I tumbled to HF fairly quickly. The fact that HF insisted that I could run HD650 out of a Mojo was a dead giveaway.. I tried it and it was insipid-sounding and quite disappointing- which stimulated my scepticism and made me question things a lot more. I could have learned a much longer and more expensive lesson.

I still do visit HF- spending quality time with the elephant in the room. I also occasionally try to save people blowing their budgets on yet another mid-fi sidegrade and fanciful boutique interconnects, which leads to them dropping me a PM with follow up questions. If someone is civil and appears to be relatively willing to engage brain in gear, I'm usually happy to give some basic pointers for becoming less confused and dissatisfied, and maybe gently warn them about the craziness of Head-Fi. There are some nice people to be found on there who you'd not want to see ripped off.

Occasionally, I do discretely give someone a useful link to a thread here, if they seem like the sort of person who'd enjoy the information as presented. However, I do think that there's mileage in the fact that if you're curious enough to cope with the delicious horror of SBAF, you're also the sort of person who will be curious enough to look beyond the obvious big site.. and find end up here through your own agency.

 

Maybe - but I think the place makes a lot more sense if you look at it like a mall. Some of the regulars are cool and will help you out, some of the regulars are clueless but will try to help anyway. Some of the guys in the mall are just visitors, they'll ask for advice about this and that. Some of the advice they get is good, some of it less so. But the visitors might be happy with the bad advice anyway, for them it's hard to tell one from the other. And right there and then it doesn't matter too much anyway, everone is hanging out and having a good time.

Then every now and then there's a big announcement from the speakers in the sky about a special deal, or a new product, that one of the stores has. And then a lot of the guys in the mall rush there to see what the fuss is about. Some of the new guys are swayed, some of the older folk may be more reserved. But typically some products change hands and some deals are made. And most of the customers are happy with their purchase, a few are not. It's normal. And if you're not happy there's always another day and another deal to be made.

 

I think at this point you've even forgotten what you were talking about.

 

I was talking about the symbiotic nature between HF and SBAF, and how SBAF couldn't be what it is today without HF.

But don't mind me, I have an open bottle of Spanish red wine and a populated play list.

 

Hey, I'm a talking point!
Basically what Muppy said. I'm a gross poor, I have to delicately budget around any purchase over 50$ to ensure I don't have to beg around for food at the end of the month. Hype cycles are nothing new to me, god knows I've spent so much time perpetuating them in my younger years for, say, video games, but when it comes to stuff like audio purchases it's on a whole new financial level for me. And like it's been already mentioned, HF seemed to me like it was this whole self-propelling race on who can spend more cash on new thingies.
I did check out the place somewhat before, actually, just didn't really bother getting too much into a f'ing 20 million post forum about audio. I mean, where would I even start? Basically HF left a harsh impression on me. And for the longest time it made me think being an ~*audiophile*~ is some sorta unattainable status you can only achieve by spending what I get in half a year for the starting point gear. It's p cool that it's not really true.

This February, back when I studied at a different university, I used to pass next to an Adidas store on my way to the bus stop. When the Yeezy Boosts 350 were about to drop, there was this small group of maybe 40 people waiting for five days in a line before the store, in snow and sleet, not going away even for the night. Cuz the drop was limited to 33 pairs for the entire country.
Fashion ppl are hardcore, man. At least you can sit comfortably in your home while spending the eternity waiting for your BHSE order.

Ety-Kids5? I liked those, but the humiliation of using something with "kids" in its name is not for everyone.

 

Head fi has its place. I certainly don't hate it, I do enjoy it. It's a great place to hear about new things. My biggest gripe with Head-Fi is the ridiculous amount of fanboyism.

Instead of speaking about the shortcomings of a product, a lot of people regurgitate the same crap, speak the same love over and over again. I've found some excellent suggestions there, but only from a few threads.

One of the more ridiculous things I've read was how the Noble Katanas bass could shake you from your chair, hit you in your heart, and some other nonsense.

It's a lot of work to sift through the nonsense there. God forbid you speak up against something, voice displeasure, etc.

As far as SBAF and head-fi enjoying a symbiotic relationship... Not sure I can agree with that in anyway. Head-fi draws a large crowd. People eventually learn about the hype there and seek other outlets. I don't see what good head-fi does for SBAF, other than making SBAF look a lot better. I think it's quite the opposite, head-fi harms SBAF, depending on your POV. Censoring posts related to SBAF, that's not symbiotic... Quite the opposite. Not that we need additional members from head-fi, but the point is that head-fi tries to prevent their members from finding this place.

 

I first found this site through the discussions at massdrop when I was considering buying the HE-350. May have been posted by Will but it was the thread with measurements. It was clear to me pretty quickly that there was less nonsense here.

 

Hmm, so it's the LeBrea tar pit of audio?

 

Or the audio equivalent of my first marriage

 

Referrals and you give duckduckgo as an example? Maybe I'm just missing something but duckduckgo is a searchengine, like google but it doesn't track you.

 

Picture worth a thousand words and all that.