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Posted to rec.audio.opinion
Jenn[_2_] Jenn[_2_] is offline
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Default Once upon a midnight clear....

In article
,
ScottW wrote:

On Jan 24, 11:03*am, Jenn wrote:
In article
,
*"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote:

The "audio system" I see in most people's homes these days consists of
an iPod and a docking station.


One of our contributors recently said (on another forum) that his mp3
player and Sony MDR-EX85 earbuds "provides sound competetive with any
hi-end system the industry can offer." *That's an interesting statement,
I think.


The cost of a soundstage between your ears and one recreated in a
room
has always been orders of magnitude different in cost.
Most the current technical challenges of high end sound in a listening
room become
moot with earbuds/headphones.


Unless, of course:
1. You don't want to listen with headphones
2. You are concerned with other aspects of home audio than just
soundstage.


Power requirements for live SPL levels are a small fraction of those
required
for a room. Room interactions are eliminated.
Multi-driver crossovers....gone.
Full range low distortion drivers from subsonic to supersonic
frequencies, no problem.


Really? You can get true bass with earbuds?


Only drawback is the discomfort of headphones/earbuds and the sound
field between the ears.
Every other objective measure of performance can be relatively cheaply
exceeded (unless you really want to feel the bass as well as hear it)
with
a personal listening system over the typical high end system.

Nothing really new here. The "high-end" doesn't offer performance
improvement to many youngsters who grow up accustomed to the drawbacks
of personal listening devices.
From their perspective a typical box speaker system can't give them
the sound quality they already have at a fraction of the cost.


I would agree with that, given what their experience is of a "typical
box speaker."