[Audio_Empire[_2_]]

On Wednesday, November 27, 2013 9:51:01 AM UTC-8, ScottW wrote:
On Monday, November 25, 2013 4:38:37 PM UTC-8, Audio_Empire wrote:



But we part company when you start comparing iPod and iPod-like devices and ear-buds favorably with a good stereo system.

But you've said here before that your unique ear makes a std earbud a non-option for you. Perhaps you should try one of those custom forming buds before declaring them "unsatisfying" and implying your personal inability extends to so many.

Sorry, I guess I have yet to discipline myself that with argumentative types one has to be super diligent and hyper precise in what one posts. You mentioned ear-buds in your OP. I was answering that and that only at the time. While you are right, I cannot use the so called "ear-buds" because I have nothing in my outer ear to hang them on (good memory, BTW). I certainly can use the kind of ear-wear that fits into my ear canal. They generally have better bass than "buds" anyway. But what I was really referring to was headphones in general. I find even the best of them unsatisfying. I call 'em a necessary evil and of course, I use them. But I do not find them anywhere even in the same ball-park as a good stereo system with speakers. I also have never heard an iPod or iPod-like device (such as Sansa models) that I though had a clean enough amplifier to make even the best headphones even sound their best.


Maybe such a playback is satisfying to you, but I know many audiophiles including myself, that
would not find these portable devices anything more than a convenient way to carry their music with them when they need to do so.



Perhaps that is where "audiophiles" have become less about sound and more about something else. Reality is earbuds or headphones are audibly far more capable in every measure except soundstage at a fraction of the cost..

There is another area where earphones (any of them) are less capable, and that's comfort. Also, I didn't know that cost was a part of this discussion. But you are right you can get a pair of earbuds for as little as five dollars, or you can spend five THOUSAND dollars for a pair of Stax phones with driver amp/power supply. So yeah, earphones can be had at a fraction of the cost of speakers, just not really GOOD phones.

As Scott said, it is the golden age of hi-fi. It's just not the era of big $$ hi-fi. Convincing young people they need to spend big $$ on audio gear is going to take an ad campaign equal to the one the gov't is waging to convince them to buy overpriced health insurance.

But the average joe has NEVER been into hi-fi. When I was a teen and just getting into the hobby, I knew only one guy, a tech-rep friend of my dads who was into Hi-Fi and had a decent system. I knew a number of people who loved music, including my high-school music teacher. They all had, what we called in those days, "brown-goods" hi-fis and stereos. These were consoles or luggage finished portables that had flea-Watt, single-ended amplifiers, tiny output transformers and cheap, stamped-basket speakers with one-ounce magnets. They sounded terrible, but that's what most people bought.
The only difference between today and then, is those same types of people now buy iPods instead of brown-goods.