is this not absurd?

[LP2006]

Genelecs or...headphone AMP


why? does anyone actually buy these? Maybe I'm just being arrogant, but you could get some bitch'n actives at that price.

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by LP2006

Genelecs or...headphone AMP


why? does anyone actually buy these? Maybe I'm just being arrogant, but you could get some bitch'n actives at that price.

Wow, that's really fuckbuggered

(ok, I'll stop now)

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by LP2006

[why? does anyone actually buy these? Maybe I'm just being arrogant, but you could get some bitch'n actives at that price.

For the person who alredy has everything else.

For the person for whom active monitors whould get them kicked out of their condo.

For the person who, while reading that ad kicks their feet up onto a paid manservant down on all fours acting as a human ottoman, and lights up their Cohiba with a flaming $20 bill.



That last one is really buckfuggg...er..fugbuk...ummm...guffcubb....DAMN!!
Yet one more thing that Tom is better at than I

G.

[masteringhouse]

G.

You said it better than I!

If you're interested in this amp, I've heard of a place where you can but $50 clothspins that lift your cables off of the floor to avoid issues with static electricity, or a demagnetizer for your CDs.

Originally Posted by SouthSIDE Glen

For the person who alredy has everything else.

For the person for whom active monitors whould get them kicked out of their condo.

For the person who, while reading that ad kicks their feet up onto a paid manservant down on all fours acting as a human ottoman and lights up their Cohiba with a flaming $20 bill.



That last one is really buckfuggg...er..fugbuk...ummm...guffcubb....DAMN!!
Yet one more thing that Tom is better at than I

G.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by masteringhouse

a demagnetizer for your CDs.

HAHAhahaha...I gotta put that on my Christmas list.

...right next to the gasoline-powered turtleneck.

G.

[FALKEN]

yeah...i'd rather have the genies. actually, plan on getting them, once I actually have a decent console to even make them worth it.

[peopleperson]

There are two types of people in this world. Those who are true fans of music, and freakish obsessive audiophiles.

Seriously, I'm not gonna listen to only Steely Dan for the rest of my life.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by peopleperson

There are two types of people in this world. Those who are true fans of music, and freakish obsessive audiophiles.

That's weird, I always thought it was, "There are two kinds of people in this world. Those with guns, and those who dig."



G.

[chazba]

How'bout some $29.95 RadioShack specials and a gram of templeball?

[ermghoti]

I, for one, will buy several. I was so delighted reading that ad copy, that my top hat flew off and my monacle popped out.

[bblackwood]

Umm, great amps are expensive, whether they are designed to drive speakers or headphones. Just because this one is pricey doesn't mean it's not worth it.

This is not the same thing as tweako cables or power cords...

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by bblackwood

Umm, great amps are expensive, whether they are designed to drive speakers or headphones. Just because this one is pricey doesn't mean it's not worth it.

This is not the same thing as tweako cables or power cords...

True, it's not "snake oil" however it's the first paragraph that turned me off.

B, do you subscribe to the idea that headphones are a better way to listen to music than a full system even those costing an equal amount?

Personally I find listening to music this way is like sex with a condom.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by bblackwood

Just because this one is pricey doesn't mean it's not worth it...

Define "worth it".

G.

[RAK]

Not sure how familiar you are with Headroom, but it is one of many sites devoted to audiofile personal listening. You buy that headphone amp to drive your hi end headphones/earphones for listening to music. Not for recording/production of music.

For example, the first line of Headroom's mission statement

"HeadRoom is a about a sanctuary for personal listening. We do a variety of things to provide a safe haven for people involved in getting great sound in your head"

If you really want to dive into this society, check out Head-Fi, the all things headphone/earphone audiofile userforum.

[Ford Van]

I love audiophile threads!

Here is my contribution:

http://www.altmann.haan.de/tubeolator/default.htm

[chazba]

Does anyone else remember the experiment undertaken circa 1999 by one of the techie mag's comparing various types of speaker wire???
The contestants:
24 gauge zip cord
16 ga zip cord
12-2 romex, the kind you would use to wire your house
12 ga O2 free fine stranded Monster cable

The judging panel was made up of Audio Engineers, golden eared audiophiles,
musicians and regular guys.

After hours of blindfolded A/B testing, they were not able to determine which was which.

Opinions?????

[RAK]

cables are one thing, headphones/earphones are another.

I'm not at all surprised by that result.

Here's another question though. I understand they couldn't tell which was which, but does that also mean they couldn't tell any differences at all among the cables?

[chazba]

Yeah, pretty much couldn't tell the differencs. One GoldenEar actually preferred the 24ga zip. Go figure

chazba

By the way, the test also included RG-59 coax, like your Cable TV.

The fact is that the so-called "skin effect" which is blamed for the "crappy sound of lesser speaker wire does not kick in till you get to the upper VHF range (100MHz and above)
I've got to admit that it is a genius marketing device though lol

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by RAK

cables are one thing, headphones/earphones are another.

I'm not at all surprised by that result.

Here's another question though. I understand they couldn't tell which was which, but does that also mean they couldn't tell any differences at all among the cables?

Apparently the good folks at HeadRoom can:

http://www.headphone.com/products/ca...able-upgrades/

"(Do wallets snap?)"

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by RAK

"HeadRoom is a about a sanctuary for personal listening. We do a variety of things to provide a safe haven for people involved in getting great sound in your head"

IMHO if they genuinely felt strongly about the above, they wouldn't list earbuds on their product section.

http://www.newsfactor.com/news/IPod-...d=103003BB4BT7

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I don't care if that headphone amp is used to pick out alien signals from ten billion light years away, it's not worth two grand.

I base that argument, and yes it's just a subjective argument, on a couple of different practical, down to earth scales.

First, does it actually perfom and sound a full twice as good as a $1000 amp? Does it actually perform and sound a full 10 times better than a $200 headphone amp? The law of diminishing returns is thumbing it's nose and blowing raspberries at any fool who blows two grand on that thing.

Second, that is one of those 80% profit margin devices designed to take advantage of a limited audience of snobs with way too much money on their hands who feel that no price is too high for "the best". That is the $500 phono cartridge of the headphone world. Even including R&D costs, extra cost for higher quality components, any cost you can think of, the total production cost on that device is likely along the lines of no more than twice what the production cost is for a $200 amp. Find a dealer or distributor willing to sell it to you at 20% above his cost and you could buy that thing for probably around $250-$300, at most. The rest is all pure profit margin that you might as well just put in a pile and burn rather than pay full price for that thing.

As for those who reply, "If the customer is happy and feels it's worth the price, then what's the problem?", I can only say, "No problem. Just proof of the old saying 'A fool and his money are soon parted.'"

G.

[RAK]

Originally Posted by SouthSIDE Glen

I don't care if that headphone amp is used to pick out alien signals from ten billion light years away, it's not worth two grand.

I base that argument, and yes it's just a subjective argument, on a couple of different practical, down to earth scales.

First, does it actually perfom and sound a full twice as good as a $1000 amp? Does it actually perform and sound a full 10 times better than a $200 headphone amp? The law of diminishing returns is thumbing it's nose and blowing raspberries at any fool who blows two grand on that thing.

Second, that is one of those 80% profit margin devices designed to take advantage of a limited audience of snobs with way too much money on their hands who feel that no price is too high for "the best". That is the $500 phono cartridge of the headphone world. Even including R&D costs, extra cost for higher quality components, any cost you can think of, the total production cost on that device is likely along the lines of no more than twice what the production cost is for a $200 amp. Find a dealer or distributor willing to sell it to you at 20% above his cost and you could buy that thing for probably around $250-$300, at most. The rest is all pure profit margin that you might as well just put in a pile and burn rather than pay full price for that thing.

As for those who reply, "If the customer is happy and feels it's worth the price, then what's the problem?", I can only say, "No problem. Just proof of the old saying 'A fool and his money are soon parted.'"

G.

If you want answers to those questions (and many more) about super hi-end audio gear for those who consider themselves audiofiles (this is a niche market) I definetly suggest you do some browsing around Head-Fi. You may discover a world you never knew existed. It's not a recording forum, but deals exactly what we're talking about here. Some might find it interesting though.

[RAK]

Originally Posted by masteringhouse

IMHO if they genuinely felt strongly about the above, they wouldn't list earbuds on their product section.

http://www.newsfactor.com/news/IPod-...d=103003BB4BT7

That's a good point. The only earbuds that headroom seems to list are Sennheiser, so maybe they have a deal going or something.

Not to be confused with In-Ear-Monitors/earphones/canalphones which allow you to listen to your music at much lower volumes.

[bblackwood]

Originally Posted by masteringhouse

B, do you subscribe to the idea that headphones are a better way to listen to music than a full system even those costing an equal amount?

No, I don't care for them other than for QC or llistening to tunes on the plane. I don't care for cassettes either, but that doesn't mean a killer Nakamichi deck wasn't great for cassette lovers...

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by RAK

If you want answers to those questions (and many more) about super hi-end audio gear for those who consider themselves audiofiles (this is a niche market) I definetly suggest you do some browsing around Head-Fi. You may discover a world you never knew existed. It's not a recording forum, but deals exactly what we're talking about here. Some might find it interesting though.

I spent five years selling audiophile gear early in my career (SAE, McIntosh, Carver, etc.), and debating with my associates of such marginal esoterica as high-mass vs. low-mass tonearms, eliptical vs. shibata stylii, IM vs. THD distortion measurements, QS vs. SQ vs. CD-4 discrete encoding, 4-gang vs. 5-gang vs. digital PLL tuning, blah blah blah blah blah. I understand audiophilia quite well; I used to have it.

We sold phono cartriges at retail for anywhere between $19.95 and $350. You know what the range in our store cost was? The $19.95 cartriges cost us $9.95. That's about a 50% markup. High, but not all that high for an "accessory." The $350 cartridges had a store cost of $39.95. That's right, the "audiophile series" cartridges had a profit margin of a whopping 88.5%, and only cost $30 more at distibutor cost than the crappiest ten buck cartirdges we sold! On a $350 cartridge, $310 was pure gross profit into our register. And that's not counting the fact that the distributor had to be making at least 20-30% profit themselves at the $39.95 price. Even if they made only 20%, that meant that the manufacturer was making a healthy profit by selling cartridges for $32 to the wholesale level that sold as $350 cartridges on the retail level.

And as just a lowly salesperson, do you know how much I made on the sale of a single "audiophile" phono cartridge? I got my standard 10% of GP ($31) pluss a SPIFF of $25 out of the daily register. That's $56 I personally pocketed just for selling a $32 cartridge by using words like "air", and "warmth" in just the right spot. Not bad, eh? (You can imagine how much we made on an entire $5000 system. Can you say "Extended Warranty"? )

So you can know that every time some guy in a tweed jacket and Platinum card walked in carrying a Telarc DTD pressing or DDD glass in his hand, we'd be climbing over each other to kiss his unsuspecting audiophile ass. And that a $2000 headphone amp is almost as surely nowhere near what it's hyped up to be, value wise at least.

And you'll also know why I got out of that insane racket. Unfortunately now I am in this insane racket and working harder for less money . Oh well, at least I know that even if I jumped out of that frying pan and into this fire, that at least I won't burn in hell for doing it.

G.