• ryan213@lemmy.ca
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      2 hours ago

      What do you mean? I always pay extra for the audiophile version of vinyl records!

  • Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 hours ago

    I worked at an online shop for high end audio equipment. It was always both amusing and painful when customers asked about the sound characteristics of various power cables in the price range between $100 and $10,000 that we carried, or the same with USB and optical digital cables. Some came with the firm belief that they needed better power cables to enhance the bass of their setup. They even bought gold plated “audiophile fuses”.

    • KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca
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      6 minutes ago

      These people spend a crap ton of money to set up over priced equipment in untreated rooms.

  • howler@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    Im certain I could tell the difference between a $50,000 setup, and the one i have cobbled together for a couple hundo over the past decade… And i would love to have that setup. But that cost to performance is only worth it if you have way too much disposable income. Eff the audiophile market.

  • Kühlschrank@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    The eye opening moments for me were

    1. Listening to $35 Porta Pro headphones and realizing you don’t need a lot of money for great sound

    2. ABX testing and realizing I couldn’t tell the difference AT ALL and certainly couldn’t remember the last sound bite well enough to make a real comparison anyway.

    • ShankShill@sh.itjust.works
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      1 hour ago

      The AutoEQ project is all I need for great sound.

      Shit’s mindblowing with some headphones I’ve tried that need a heavy EQ. Porta Pros are fairly balanced already so not as mindblowing, but still worth at least checking out the demos on the webpage.

      AutoEQ is open source. It’s just EQ settings from analyzing frequency responses of headphones.

      • Kühlschrank@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        I did get aftermarket pads for them but they are not made for long term listening. But that is beside the point - they show you don’t need to spend $1000 to get great sound and they are only one example of that.

        • Jtotheb@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          I actually just bought a pair of porta pros three days ago—any chance you recall what pads you upgraded to? I’ve mostly seen recommendations for Yaxi

      • jnod4@lemmy.ca
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        3 hours ago

        Did they have good noise blocking? Good battery? Good delay? Microphone? Good warranty? Reparaibility? There’s so many reasons to spend a buck extra

        • ShankShill@sh.itjust.works
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          2 hours ago

          They don’t block noise. No battery, this is mid-'80s wired tech. There’s a model with a very good microphone. Lifetime warranty. Repairable with super glue sometimes.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    4 hours ago

    Delivery mechanisms and audio quality do not matter as long as it has a good beat that I can dance to.

  • bluesheep@sh.itjust.works
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    6 hours ago

    This is about a digital signal right? Cause I’m pretty sure if I add a banana midway into my bass’ pedalboard that I’d be getting a significantly different sound. I’m tempted to try and proof myself wrong tho lmao

  • plyth@feddit.org
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    7 hours ago

    This just shows that bananas and mud are materials for excellent audio equipment. I am looking forward to my gold-plated banana.

  • DynoNoob@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    To be fair, the signal is only going through these suboptimal conductors for a very short distance.

    Try wiring up your stereo with 50 feet of bananas, and you might start having problems.

  • FireWire400@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    I mean yeah, audiophile cables are 100% a rip-off every time. You can spend thousands on a cable without it having any real benefits.

    It makes more sense to just buy decent speakers and a decent amp, along with a good audio source (any CD player).

    • supernight52@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Yeah, but if they don’t buy the gold and platinum plated cables, washed in the blood of young rams, and studded with diamonds- how can they be sure they are experiencing the music as it was intended to be experienced?

  • Jarix@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Good cables are shielded well. That she makes them expensive. That’s not transmission, that’s shielding. I don’t think they tested that but for digital audio is not surprising

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Most high end audio equipment is mostly just rich idiot tax. Though low to mid is a huge jump in audio quality.

    • Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de
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      53 minutes ago

      Yep, there are a few things that matter in terms of signal transmission and audio quality and others don’t. But in the audio market, every product is marketed as sound-critical, even if it is physically impossible from a scientific point of view. They come up with the most absurd justifications for their “innovations”.

  • kevinsbacon@lemmy.today
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    9 hours ago

    This is why I like to get mid level stuff. Once you get past the cheap rubbish it’s all the same imo.