Have we witnessed the death of the audiophile? ...
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It can be, what limits it is the audio equipment and the bluetooth hardware. I have many song on my phone and stream mp3s from it to my headphones and car audio via bluetooth that sounds just like popping the CD in it.
At my work, I'm in office dweller mode lately. And the work from home thing has been halted so about half of the staff of 100 or so have returned. Some jobs were cut, others allow folks to stay at home and work. Anyway I noticed nearly everybody keeps company issued (read $3.99 type) corded headphones all day as they stream music through a laptop all day.
The other day I had an e-meeting and used some of those cheap-o headphones to keep the conversation on the other end private. Ugh! Where are my Shure's when I need them? So today I bought a pair of Bose bluetooth SUNGLASSES!! At a low volume they sound pretty good. Crank 'em up and things fall flat. They won't get loud enough to cause hearing damage and still sound good. But at mid-volume you can dig on a nice rich sound while drowning out buses and taxi's or if used while driving still allows the outside world to be heard.
Plus they do phone calls. Mrs Fixer and I were talking to each other at opposite ends of the house through our sunglasses. I'm actually looking forward to the next e-meeting. I'll be the bloke wearing wayfarer style sunglasses that double as ear buds.
The other day I had an e-meeting and used some of those cheap-o headphones to keep the conversation on the other end private. Ugh! Where are my Shure's when I need them? So today I bought a pair of Bose bluetooth SUNGLASSES!! At a low volume they sound pretty good. Crank 'em up and things fall flat. They won't get loud enough to cause hearing damage and still sound good. But at mid-volume you can dig on a nice rich sound while drowning out buses and taxi's or if used while driving still allows the outside world to be heard.
Plus they do phone calls. Mrs Fixer and I were talking to each other at opposite ends of the house through our sunglasses. I'm actually looking forward to the next e-meeting. I'll be the bloke wearing wayfarer style sunglasses that double as ear buds.
Chauncey Gardiner
Flashaholic
How cool is that, bykfixer! **** Tracy got nothing on you. 
I stumbled across a decent budget brand of bluetooth earbuds by accident the other day. I have a pair of the earphones that are like the ones that came with original Ipods that you sort of wedge in your ears but don't go into the canal that are corded and while they sounded decent for what they are I looked around and spent close to $50 on a set of wired earbuds (no mic or controls) by creative labs that are very good and when I finally got a smart phone was using them wired but without controls it was a hassle. I stumbled across a bluetooth controller on clearance from Walmart (Blackweb) that works well allowing me to control my music and it has a clip on it and a 1/8 inch stereo jack I plugged my creative labs wired earbuds and I was a lot happier but still the clip on the blackweb was flimsy and the wire from the earbuds I had to watch it popping lose and falling down hanging and getting caught on things and the wires from the earbuds tugging.
I was walking one night as I do to exercise and I stumbled on a case with a set of wireless earbuds. It was a set of JLabs with the wired bluetooth controller on them and I was impressed as it sounded very good and looked up on their website the cost was $15 and I thought wow that it pretty cheap. The controls work well and having the wires attached to the controller for me is better than the earbuds with no wires as I often go into stores on my walk and shop and when you have to talk to people trying to figure out what to do with a single earbud out of one ear to talk to someone is a pain but with the wires you just pause the music and pull one side out.
I liked the wired bluetooth ones well enough that I came across a bluetooth wireless set (JLabs Go Air) and tried them too. They work good but the only issue is for some reason they interfered with my wifi at home. I only paid $5 for the set and it only intereferes with the 2.5G band and most of my devices are running on the 5G band. For those on a budget I think they JLabs are an option to consider but since I haven't listened to much other hard to compare. I do like the 3 position equalizer settings though.
I was walking one night as I do to exercise and I stumbled on a case with a set of wireless earbuds. It was a set of JLabs with the wired bluetooth controller on them and I was impressed as it sounded very good and looked up on their website the cost was $15 and I thought wow that it pretty cheap. The controls work well and having the wires attached to the controller for me is better than the earbuds with no wires as I often go into stores on my walk and shop and when you have to talk to people trying to figure out what to do with a single earbud out of one ear to talk to someone is a pain but with the wires you just pause the music and pull one side out.
I liked the wired bluetooth ones well enough that I came across a bluetooth wireless set (JLabs Go Air) and tried them too. They work good but the only issue is for some reason they interfered with my wifi at home. I only paid $5 for the set and it only intereferes with the 2.5G band and most of my devices are running on the 5G band. For those on a budget I think they JLabs are an option to consider but since I haven't listened to much other hard to compare. I do like the 3 position equalizer settings though.
My brother was telling me about a JLabs product that is a bluetooth device you slide over the arms of your glasses or sunglasses and acts like the Bose sunglasses.
Yesterday I typed in "audiophile headphones" in my favorite search engine and good gosh…… some of the 'wired' ear buds were $3000+. And some wireless as well. I wondered how much better they would sound and what source would one use to take advantage of that better sound. Certainly not my little moto e6 unlocked smart phone I use for an mp3 player. But that did lead me to find some Klipsch wired ear buds from a few years back. 2014 if I recall correctly.
Yesterday I typed in "audiophile headphones" in my favorite search engine and good gosh…… some of the 'wired' ear buds were $3000+. And some wireless as well. I wondered how much better they would sound and what source would one use to take advantage of that better sound. Certainly not my little moto e6 unlocked smart phone I use for an mp3 player. But that did lead me to find some Klipsch wired ear buds from a few years back. 2014 if I recall correctly.
I do recommend my Blackweb BWA18WI111 Bluetooth adpter/controller. For the price the ability to use wired devices and have controls is wonderful especially if you have a pair of expensive cans or something.
As for the $3000+ ear buds I think very few people could tell a noticeable difference between them and a good $200 pair that isn't overpriced.
As I now have 2 pairs of JLabs I'm rather impressed with them they have better bass than my creative ones I think not sure about the overall accuracy but for the price I think you get more than other brands costing twice as much. The only thing I don't like about the separate bluetooth ear buds (no wire between them) is that one ear does one set of things and the other does other things so if you sort of have to memorize both ear and controls while the wired bluetooth set is pretty obvious once you figure it out.
I looked all over the place to find a bluetooth receiver/controller on the cheap as I figured if it cost $30 or more I would be better off just buying bluetooth earbuds instead. There is way too many wireless earbuds on the market as cheap as $5 even now. I think my main issue with them is I don't see a way to get new batteries and replace the ones in them when they wear out so if you spend $3000 for a set of buds and after 2 years they only run for 20 minutes between charges you are stuck with junk if the battery isn't serviceable and... and if it isn't a proprietary size/shape that becomes unavailable entirely. I've had electronics that I liked that when it died 5 years later I couldn't buy parts for it at any price. It is like all the CD and DVD and Blu-ray players that they quit working and it costs as much to get a new laser assembly as a second hand working player and you don't even know for sure if the laser assembly is the problem it could be the circuit board
I think the most amazing thing is how bluetooth speakers have evolved. The speaker market has all but destroyed the boombox market that and phones streaming radio stations and free music and digital music use a table radio is almost obsolete with the exception of runtime.
Using a smart phone and bluetooth speaker may get you a day or three of music in an outage but an analog table radio can run for weeks.
There are so many bluetooth audio devices these days it is almost impossible to sift through them, you have to rely on others to give you a clue what is good if there isn't a display at a local store to check out. The problem with earbuds is you really can't try before you buy likely due to hygiene issues especially with C19 around.
As for the $3000+ ear buds I think very few people could tell a noticeable difference between them and a good $200 pair that isn't overpriced.
As I now have 2 pairs of JLabs I'm rather impressed with them they have better bass than my creative ones I think not sure about the overall accuracy but for the price I think you get more than other brands costing twice as much. The only thing I don't like about the separate bluetooth ear buds (no wire between them) is that one ear does one set of things and the other does other things so if you sort of have to memorize both ear and controls while the wired bluetooth set is pretty obvious once you figure it out.
I looked all over the place to find a bluetooth receiver/controller on the cheap as I figured if it cost $30 or more I would be better off just buying bluetooth earbuds instead. There is way too many wireless earbuds on the market as cheap as $5 even now. I think my main issue with them is I don't see a way to get new batteries and replace the ones in them when they wear out so if you spend $3000 for a set of buds and after 2 years they only run for 20 minutes between charges you are stuck with junk if the battery isn't serviceable and... and if it isn't a proprietary size/shape that becomes unavailable entirely. I've had electronics that I liked that when it died 5 years later I couldn't buy parts for it at any price. It is like all the CD and DVD and Blu-ray players that they quit working and it costs as much to get a new laser assembly as a second hand working player and you don't even know for sure if the laser assembly is the problem it could be the circuit board
I think the most amazing thing is how bluetooth speakers have evolved. The speaker market has all but destroyed the boombox market that and phones streaming radio stations and free music and digital music use a table radio is almost obsolete with the exception of runtime.
Using a smart phone and bluetooth speaker may get you a day or three of music in an outage but an analog table radio can run for weeks.
There are so many bluetooth audio devices these days it is almost impossible to sift through them, you have to rely on others to give you a clue what is good if there isn't a display at a local store to check out. The problem with earbuds is you really can't try before you buy likely due to hygiene issues especially with C19 around.
Today while setting outside in the shade with a pair of Bose quiet comfort ear buds is a treat. For reference I put on an old favorite, Frampton Comes Alive at a volume about as loud as one would watch tv to try out the noise cancelation. Next door a neighbor was cutting grass. When done he was using a comercial leaf blower that's loud (to me) a football field away. I tapped the left one until cancelation was at max and suddenly "what leaf blower?" "oh the one a quarter mile away"…… When he was done he was chatting with his grandmother so I tapped for 0 cencellation and could hear them talking as if I were not wearing anything in my ears at all. Now it was like listening to a tv with people talking in the next room as in I could not make out what they were saying. Yet if a fire truck was near or a dog was barking at the mailman I'd definitely hear that.
Ordinarily I'd set here listening to cars, trains and motorcycles in the distance thinking back to my childhood where I'd mimic those sounds in the distance while playing with Hot Wheels cars. It's a chance to forget my name and just enjoy a nice day simply for being a nice day. Meanwhile Peter Frampton and his awesome band cause me to imagine it's 1975 and I'm in San Fransisco at the Winter Ballroom taking in a live show. The sound is pretty good. Like the original recording the lower mids are a bit strong, but the soundstage is just like I remember when listening to it on vinyl in the sweet spot between the Klipsch Hershey's.
Now it's onto Propellerheads 360 for the sound of the skateboard going back and forth on a half pipe, with lots of super bass. Again, the lower mids and all that "thump" are a bit much but I tune the equalizer to 'treble boost', which cleaned it up a lot. With no equilization at all the sound is clean, clean, clean but I'd prefer just a touch more bass much like a 71 degree day I long for it to be 73. Ah, but the song History repeating is spot on.
Between the reduced file size of the MP3 and bluetooth 3 point something from the mp3 player I must say life is good right now. Good enough anyway. Audiophile quality? Close enough for my 57 year old ears. I really like being able to hear the world around me while enjoying background level music. No wonder Apple bought Bose.
If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em……
Ordinarily I'd set here listening to cars, trains and motorcycles in the distance thinking back to my childhood where I'd mimic those sounds in the distance while playing with Hot Wheels cars. It's a chance to forget my name and just enjoy a nice day simply for being a nice day. Meanwhile Peter Frampton and his awesome band cause me to imagine it's 1975 and I'm in San Fransisco at the Winter Ballroom taking in a live show. The sound is pretty good. Like the original recording the lower mids are a bit strong, but the soundstage is just like I remember when listening to it on vinyl in the sweet spot between the Klipsch Hershey's.
Now it's onto Propellerheads 360 for the sound of the skateboard going back and forth on a half pipe, with lots of super bass. Again, the lower mids and all that "thump" are a bit much but I tune the equalizer to 'treble boost', which cleaned it up a lot. With no equilization at all the sound is clean, clean, clean but I'd prefer just a touch more bass much like a 71 degree day I long for it to be 73. Ah, but the song History repeating is spot on.
Between the reduced file size of the MP3 and bluetooth 3 point something from the mp3 player I must say life is good right now. Good enough anyway. Audiophile quality? Close enough for my 57 year old ears. I really like being able to hear the world around me while enjoying background level music. No wonder Apple bought Bose.
If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em……
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I didn't know Apple bought Bose..... but it makes sense to me as both are proud of their prices IMO. I like good treble in my speakers and not overloaded bass and a lot of stuff is heavy on bass and light on treble luckily I stream music from my phone and my MP3 player app has a 20 band equalizer that you can save custom settings to accomodate your hearing. As much as I like my old Koss open air headphones the cushions only lasted about 10 years before turning to dust and never found a good source to continually replace them and I got a pair of bluetooth sony cans that were good a bit heavy on base but made out of mostly plastic and I've dropped them several times breaking them from a drop of 3 feet. I've repaired them but had to be ingenius to do it as you can't order parts to replace broken parts and they did sell parts for $25 for one side or $50 for the set and that is what I paid for them. Why the idiot engineers didn't make some of the parts out of metal escapes me I'll never buy sony cans again..... they may sound good but are made of glass IMO.
Later, listening to Smashmouth for reference I heard instruments I'd never heard before.
So today's reference music comes from a little Sansa clip I found while looking through a box of stuff. The Bose ear buds got the nod but for a little while the Bose sunglasses were used while I peeled a decal off my truck. Being they are only IPx2 and it was 80 degrees at 9:00, I did not keep wearing them while doing some yard work. Sweat might kill 'em.
The music was an oldie from the mid-90's called Joe Dirt Car by the Bodeans.
What a great live album from back when Kurt Nuemann and Sam Llanas still got along. It was tunes recorded in fairly small venues throughout the mid-west and California from 1989 to 1994 and the double disk cd came out in 95. The shows were done in places with great accoustics so the lively echoes make it sound like 3D through these headphones. Those two blokes sang some great duets in an almost country-fried rock sense. Think Roy Orbison's "Claudette" type of Texas two step numbers with some fabulous ballads mixed in. The audience plays a big part in the enjoyment (if you like that sorta sing along thing) as they drowned out the singers at times. The bass guitar and drums are spot on in the original tapes. The piano and accoustic guiters too. Different people recorded different shows, but they all did it very well. I haven't gotten goose bumps from listening to music in quite a while, yet between the fabulous recording of a once great band and some really sweet ear buds I got goose bumps a few times while plucking weeds in 90 degree weather.
Next up: Song Remains the Same. Jimmy Paige and John Bonham just kill it on that live disk. I have the 2007 re-release version that added a few tunes that the original 1976 album didn't include. I saw the movie in '76 at the "midnight movie" show in Richmond VA when it came out.
I remember smelling the aroma of burning grass and hearing bottles hitting the floor at times. I was 12 so I did not know about such things at that point. I also remember wondering why so many long haired dudes were wearing army fatigues and field jackets in July. Later in life I realized one could carry nearly a case of beer in that outfit. lol.
Note, all music enjoyed today was ripped to 320 from compact disks.
The music was an oldie from the mid-90's called Joe Dirt Car by the Bodeans.
What a great live album from back when Kurt Nuemann and Sam Llanas still got along. It was tunes recorded in fairly small venues throughout the mid-west and California from 1989 to 1994 and the double disk cd came out in 95. The shows were done in places with great accoustics so the lively echoes make it sound like 3D through these headphones. Those two blokes sang some great duets in an almost country-fried rock sense. Think Roy Orbison's "Claudette" type of Texas two step numbers with some fabulous ballads mixed in. The audience plays a big part in the enjoyment (if you like that sorta sing along thing) as they drowned out the singers at times. The bass guitar and drums are spot on in the original tapes. The piano and accoustic guiters too. Different people recorded different shows, but they all did it very well. I haven't gotten goose bumps from listening to music in quite a while, yet between the fabulous recording of a once great band and some really sweet ear buds I got goose bumps a few times while plucking weeds in 90 degree weather.
Next up: Song Remains the Same. Jimmy Paige and John Bonham just kill it on that live disk. I have the 2007 re-release version that added a few tunes that the original 1976 album didn't include. I saw the movie in '76 at the "midnight movie" show in Richmond VA when it came out.
I remember smelling the aroma of burning grass and hearing bottles hitting the floor at times. I was 12 so I did not know about such things at that point. I also remember wondering why so many long haired dudes were wearing army fatigues and field jackets in July. Later in life I realized one could carry nearly a case of beer in that outfit. lol.
Note, all music enjoyed today was ripped to 320 from compact disks.
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i hope u installed rockbox firmware on ya clip
I have a Ipod Video 30G and ran out of room for all my music and was looking at upgrading it as you used to be able to buy a kit that would fit SD cards instead of the hard drive and one guy already made a 1TB version. Now with my phone I can do 2TB with a micro SD card and instead of fiddling with a scroll wheel I have a touch screen and mp3 player with a 10 band equalizer.
So my Ipods (I have a 60G now too, and a broken 30G for parts) sit gathering dust needing new batteries.
So my Ipods (I have a 60G now too, and a broken 30G for parts) sit gathering dust needing new batteries.
ive heard systems that cost as much as a new car. there mind blowing. but as said above my sony amp and sony speakers sound so good i sometimes tear up. just to let ya know i hate systems that are over bassy for rap music i like systems that sound as the artist want there music to sound like
No, a while back I pulled it out of the package in hopes it would play on my car radio in bluetooth mode. It did not so I put it back in the package to take back to the store but forgot to. Yesterday was the first time I actually used it. It's decent but yeah, I can see where something like rock box would make it more user friendly.
In my office/music listening room I have a a very simple system that I have enjoyed for almost 20 years. It has great imaging and renders sound the way I like it. No one's hearing system nor the brain that interprets that sound is exactly the same, so whatever equipment you prefer to listen to should reflect that.
As long as you enjoy what you have...who else should care?
As long as you enjoy what you have...who else should care?
Audiophile? Not even close, but I'm happy.
2007 mp3 player now broadcasts to my wireless ear buds.
I forget who it was that mentioned the Anker broadcaster (in this thread?) but I say "thank ya"
I wondered if I could ever use the Sansa Fuse wireless because it allows my Windows playlists to copy and play verbatum.
Now to figure out how to broadcast it to my Sync 3.
2007 mp3 player now broadcasts to my wireless ear buds.
I forget who it was that mentioned the Anker broadcaster (in this thread?) but I say "thank ya"
I wondered if I could ever use the Sansa Fuse wireless because it allows my Windows playlists to copy and play verbatum.
Now to figure out how to broadcast it to my Sync 3.
LD 5050
Newly Enlightened
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I sell and occasionally install/ program high end AV systems, so I hope the answer to the thread is, “I hope not!”
Seriously though, most of my clients are not true audiophiles. But as picky and hard-to-please as they can often be, the ones I do get are always satisfying jobs to complete. For over a decade, I chased the ever-higher end perfect combo in my own setup. My modest budget being largely offset by access to dealer and demo pricing helped and for a time it was really enjoyable. But like with most high end hobbies, the law of diminishing returns kicks in pretty hard at some point. Once I witnessed clients paying the electric company for dedicated mains from the local transformer, it helped me realize that I was never going to take it that far and reigned in my audio addiction.
If only I worked for a high end flashlight retailer…
Seriously though, most of my clients are not true audiophiles. But as picky and hard-to-please as they can often be, the ones I do get are always satisfying jobs to complete. For over a decade, I chased the ever-higher end perfect combo in my own setup. My modest budget being largely offset by access to dealer and demo pricing helped and for a time it was really enjoyable. But like with most high end hobbies, the law of diminishing returns kicks in pretty hard at some point. Once I witnessed clients paying the electric company for dedicated mains from the local transformer, it helped me realize that I was never going to take it that far and reigned in my audio addiction.
If only I worked for a high end flashlight retailer…
