How much can you justify spending on headphones/in-ears?

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    abbztract on 28/11/2014 - 18:23

    No one goes straight to $1000 earphones or headphones. You get there step by step. Next time you get earphones or headphones, first look away from Sony and Bose and then up your budget a little. Gt something like Beyerdynamics or Sennheisers.

    Everything that we don't know about or aren't into look crazy to us. A few years back I would've said anything over $10 is crazy for earphones. Now I have $1000 UERMs. I didn't just get up and buy those. I moved up to $20 then $50 followed by $350 IE80s and now the UERMs.

    Get some Beyers or Sennys next time and you'll know why people buy things at $1000. You don't know what something is worth or why its worth something until you've had it.

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  xuqi on 28/11/2014 - 20:16

  I've spent up to ~$1250 for work headphones (Bose A20), and ~$350 on daily use units.

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  infinite on 29/11/2014 - 10:18

  Have never needed to spend more than $10, get them off ebay from china/HK usually. Never had a pair last less than 6 months & I use them daily for running, gym work and listening to music or media on the way too/from work. The sound quality in them has always been fine & no complaints about the generic one's at all.

  I've tried on pairs that were ludicrously expensive ($300+) and to be perfectly honest, even though they sounded a bit better, there was just not really that much of a difference to care either way.

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  lgacb08 on 29/11/2014 - 11:45

  +3

  being a tightarse, I'd only spend less than $50, no matter what it is, in-ear or over-ear.

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    LYRICALRAVER on 29/11/2014 - 16:39

    +1

    gotta agree with ya man. anything over $50 for headphones is just ridiculously overpriced. as if it's a real 'magical' sound that's it's worth paying more than $50 for? no way! sound is just sound. there ain't no magical formula

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      abbztract on 29/11/2014 - 16:48

      Why do you feel the need to comment on what you don't know or have an uninformed position on? You're saying that something isn't worth more than $50 if its better than the $50 thing and on the basis that you probably haven't gone past the $50 thing and that the better option costs more than that amount. Great use of logic mate. You might as well have said "x costs more than I'm willing to pay which is why its bad". Do you do that with everything? When you get a house, do you say a house is a house. There ain't no magic formula and get the cheapest one. Do you do that with food and clothing and every other thing that you buy? If you'd said "$50 because I don't want to spend more", I would've simply said fair enough. Not everyone is willing to spend more for better things. Instead not only did you say that you won't spend more than $50 but also that while maintaining that budget you happen to know that the $1k stuff sounds the same. Opinions are fine but making unsubstantiated comments on things that you are not informed about isn't.

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        LYRICALRAVER on 29/11/2014 - 16:58

        +1

        are you saying you'd be willing to pay $200 billion for a normal brick 2 bedroom townhouse if the price was put up at that much?? haha I've had enough of electronic companies ripping off consumers for products such as 'Beats Dr Dre headphones' for $500.

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        abbztract on 29/11/2014 - 17:14

        @LYRICALRAVER:

        No. I'm saying i would make my decision after seeing it first. Also, why the disproportionate analogy? Maybe because you haven't actually heard high end audio. High end audio isn't a 2 bedroom townhouse. Its a private island with an unlimited amount of cash with it to be able to build a house however you want to.

        And that confirms my assumption that you haven't heard high end audio. Beats aren't high end audio products. They are fashionable accessories. Talk to someone who has heard them and can compare then to actual high end products by the likes of Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, Shure, AKG, Stax, LCD, Fostex and a continuous list that won't mention Beats.

        Ask me if you want to know the difference between Beats and actual audiophile headphones and I'll be glad to tell you.

        All I'm saying is please don't say something isn't worth a given amount without having tried it. I used to do that with earphones too when I had the $2 shop ones. Moved up slowly from there to $20 Sony's any then $50 Brainwavz R1s followed by the $350 IE80s and now the $1000 UERMs. At each step I was met by a significant improvement in sound. Every single time.

        All you need to do is avoid the crap and that's not hard to do.

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        lgacb08 on 29/11/2014 - 19:43

        +1

        @abbztract: Nah, house is a different thing. You get what you pay for. Says for 2 million you'll get a 4 bedroom in a nice suburb, a train ride to work takes 15 min all up and you dont have to wait for half hour if you miss one, etc. If you can only afford a fifth of that then you have to trade off 2 hr more each day to get some sort of similar standard (not quite because your neighbour ismore likely to be a bogan/bikie, but you might get cheaper groceries.

        But with headphones, you only get something "sounds nicer", and I can still go to court to win against you if I say my $8 headphone sounds better than your $1000 something. And in the end your more expensive one won't save you from deaf 50 years later.

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        abbztract on 29/11/2014 - 20:38

        @lgacb08:

        So I guess we agree that the more you pay the better you get. The only difference is the analogy. Part of mine where I said you get to design it does apply to high end audio with CIEMs and goes as far as UE's Personal Reference Monitor which you can have tuned exactly how you want it.

        Sure "sounds better" is a subjective thing in terms of how you would describe your prefered sound but its not the same as saying X product is better than Y product or that X product does XX better than Y product.

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        iridiumstem on 30/11/2014 - 08:22

        +1

        @lgacb08: I don't know, I personally think of this hobby as similar to wine drinking in some ways. Everyone has their preferences, the price ranges from $10 ~ a lot. Though result is always the same, all wine get you drunk. I personally think it is the satisfaction you get from getting what you really like and wanted that makes people to look for into this hobby.

        Also sound quality is such weird way to describe a person's preference, some people like them flat, some people like that with a lot of bass etc etc. Personally would go for flat since you can play with equalisers to make them do lots of different stuff, but that's going off the topic. My point is everyone has their own preferences.

        Also, I personally think there are elements outside of sound as well: Comfort, design, durability etc etc. Though usually speaking, more expensive a headphone is, they excel in one area or another, which attract people. For example, a lot of expensive earphones use BA, which makes the earphone smaller. A lot of expensive headphones use fancy pads, which make them to be more comfortable. Some expensive headphones look gorgeous.

        Forgot to mention, my justification. My justification was cheap ones break a lot easier, might as well get something that's expensive that will last long. Also sound quality did come into my reasons as well, along with how comfort it is etc etc.

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        sheepy on 30/11/2014 - 09:25

        @AznMitch:
        Well said AznMitch, totally agree with you.

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        roadsign on 01/12/2014 - 13:49

        +1

        @AznMitch:

        But what about alcohol free wine?

        And what if I get drunk from alternative alcoholic beverages?!

        What will my listening experience even mean??! Aaaaaaaaa

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        iridiumstem on 01/12/2014 - 16:00

        +1

        @crazyoldman: Alternative alcoholic beverages are like… speakers and earphones? They are different therefore they give you different experience, though in the end they do similar things. Alcohol free wines are like…… If you are drinking non-alcoholic wines to get drunk, you are going to find hard time? Curses, almost got away with it, but couldn't. :P

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  [Deactivated] on 29/11/2014 - 13:05

  In general, I always blow the budget.Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination :P

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  porsche26c on 29/11/2014 - 20:30

  bought my bose qc15 for 250 from DJS last christmas. probably wouldnt go higher than that.

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  AzuAzu on 29/11/2014 - 22:28

  +1

  HD800 and Fostex TH900 (1.3-1.5k-ish each)

  Finanacial Justification:
  High-end headphones have resell value unlike cheaper ones, if they're treated/handled well, they retain at least ~50% or so of their value even after like 10 years. (While CIEMs are nice and all, they're not really worth much to other people)

  Personal Justification?:
  IMO, everyone's hearing degrades with age, so might as well enjoy the best while I'm still young-ish.

  Not-really-justification:
  I really like how these sound and they're worth it purely in my opinion, and since they're within my budget I might as well.
  (Ideally though, I'd like Stax gear but that's really out of my budget)

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    sheepy on 30/11/2014 - 09:36

    Those are two of the headphones I want, but can't pull the trigger because of the price tag!
    I have many headphones ranged from $100-$500 though…

    Are those your only headphones?
    One open and one close flagships sounds sufficient if you can resist the temptations to get more!

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  taqi on 30/11/2014 - 00:15

  +1

  Personal experience: Just got myself the ATH-A900x, as I looked around and saw that it didn't need a DAC/AMP and also provided better sound quality (especially for gaming). And TBH…Not worth it. I paid $173, and sat there for an hour trying to tell the difference between them and a $40 headphone, and while they DID sound different, they weren't noticeably better. They were definitely not worth the price I paid, ah well, you live and you learn.

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  hooray on 30/11/2014 - 12:53

  I have severe hearing loss and have hearing aids which cost over $5000 but was still unable to understand all the words on TV. I then got a pair of Sennheiser RS 180 and now can understand most. As well I can be outside doing the barbecue and not miss anything spoken. I recommend them to anyone in my position

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  Jackson on 30/11/2014 - 13:57

  Just bought a pair of TDK ST170 headphones from DSE, they were 40% off at $12 but since it took me up from 79 to 99 I got to use a 20 dollars off which made the headphones -$8. I am guessing they are the cheapest posted and while I don't have them yet the reviews on Amazon are all 3 to 5 stars so should be good for my needs which aren't extensive

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  jaybo on 01/12/2014 - 10:51

  spent about $200 on some sennheiser hd555s years ago (about 10??) and they've been wonderful for my at-work/desk phones.

  my in ear/canal phones have been a rockier path. i've tried everything from $20 cheapos to $300rrp stuff. the high end ones were definitely amazing for their audio quality but they died after 6 months, cables frayed and one side stopped working. had them replaced about 4 times through warranty claims but they eventually died after the warranty expired.

  then i found the monoprice ones in a group buy somewhere - http://lifehacker.com/5927570/the-monoprice-8320s-are-the-be…

  they're not the most amazing sounding ones (the $300-600 ones will be much nicer) but they fall somewhere around the $90 range in terms of past experiences, except they're about $10-$15 depending on how many you buy… so i bought 10. and some comply foam tips… gone through about 3 pairs now(lost 2, 1 died) in about 2 years. they're seriously good value and i'd highly recommend them. only downside is the cord is a fabric thing so it can get a bit 'scratchy' when you're walking/running etc.

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