Yep this is the audiophile community. The same kind of people who buy Monster cables
you will never in a million years convince me that vinyl sounds better than digital. how this argument even gets off the ground is beyond me.
Records do tend to sound better to a listeners ears because of a bunch of psychoacoustic effects that make live instruments sound better than recordings though.
The sound of something like fast car is a classic example of applying those effects to a recording in the studio.
As a medium I will die on the hill that vinyl is better than digital for a bunch of reasons other than objective or subjective quality, but when you start measuring quality what you’re even trying to figure out gets muddy real quickly.
As a medium I will die on the hill that vinyl is better than digital for a bunch of reasons other than objective or subjective quality
That’s where you completely lose me.
A medium can do more than just convey information. Minidisc, for example, is a better medium than cd.
gibberish
Minidisc natively supports a solution to the problem of copying that existed with cassettes and reel to reel before it, something that cd didn’t address. Minidisc supports recording in stereo as well using a pair of headphones which have separate grounds, a rare feature on cd players or even high end audio equipment.
Minidisc was portable and much more resistant to skipping or read error than cd. Minidiscs themselves were more durable and outlasted cds in every type of storage condition I’ve encountered.
Minidisc had inline controls.
Minidisc is a better medium than cd and all the reasons I listed have nothing to do with any subjective or objective judgement of quality.
its 2025, man. I don’t think people still use minidic or CDs.
Vinyl does sound different though, and some audiophiles are so far gone that they think their own preferences are objectively better.
If you think that’s bad, ask them about 256k MP3 vs. FLAC lossless
well, i’ve always thought the difference is completely imperceptible from lossless after about 96 kbps per channel. that said, if you’re using certain types of components that read certain codecs like truehd, there can be a very perceivable difference between a truehd track and a compressed E-AC3 track.
320 is fine enough for even concert levels. You only need anything else if you’re doing serious mastering, and even then…
Audiophile cope in the comments is hilarious. A $30 pair of IEMs plugged into a 7 year old flagship phone is high enough quality that most people won’t want anything crazier the rest of their life. A $150 pair of over ear headphones plugged into a cheap DAC from AliExpress is good enough to achieve full fidelity for anyone.
I can’t wait until one of you nerds tries to tell me you can tell the difference between a flac and a 256kbps AAC file too.
Yes it comes with less memory than my modern smartphone, but at least the gold-plated oxygen free copper provides a purer sound.
Yeah Sonys always had a luxury brand lineup. Back in the day their uhh vaio? Computers were hailed as MacBook killers.
VAIOs were fucking awesome laptops
pseudoscientific slop of any kind will make big bucks to the right audience. “oh the decibel conflagration gradient is 0.005% lower in the soprano DVD spectrum, creating a harmonizing dissonating pulmonary association that’ll be $5000 please” and if even one chump buys it they get a 2000% return on investment.
You’d think you could get one for like 20$. i wanted a cheap one that would just do music for… some reason idfk, but the lowest end ones are more expensive than cheap phones.
Sandisk used to make good ones. There was even a community that made open source OS called Rock box which could play Doom and Opus. They replaced it with a model that couldn’t be flashed, and now they’ve stopped making that too.
some ppl have way too much money
Certified Lover Boy? Certified Audiophile
Striking a (literal) chord and it’s probably A-minooorrr
The only people still buying dedicated audio players are audiofools
nah they’re good. Sometimes I want something very light that doesn’t make my pockets sag
These are DAPs, and they are ment for the audiophiles. They are not the average mp3 player. You will need also proper headphones for those.
Are they worth it? Yes, if you have money for burning.
Are they worth it? Yes, if you have money for burning.
Ain’t no way it’s worth it, audiophile gear is 99% placebo. It’s kinda like wine, when you’re past a certain price point (that’s not actually that large compared to the really expensive stuff) it’s all the same.
Even if you can allegedly tell the difference (I doubt it, any device playing a digital file is as good as another) there’s no way it’s worth at least $1,500.
any device playing a digital file is as good as another
?
The audio device absolutely does matter, and it’s noticeably better with each increment up to a high price point.
The problem with audiophilia is that hearing perfect audio is not going to make your life meaningfully better after a certain point. It’s chasing perfection for no real reason. Every hobby has this potential though.
My thing with audiophiles is more like at a certain point, the room you’re sitting in would have a larger impact on the acoustics than whatever real or perceived marginal gains from audiophile-grade devices. It’s pretty consumerism-brained to think that you can buy ever more expensive products to get what you want. Audiophiles need to bite the bullet and renovate a room to be more acoustic friendly and move all their audiophile shit to that room for the optimal listening experience.
Audiophiles need to bite the bullet and renovate a room to be more acoustic friendly and move all their audiophile shit to that room for the optimal listening experience.
And also you’ll be getting the same listening experience with like $500 gear lmao.
The audio device absolutely does matter, and it’s noticeably better with each increment up to a high price point.
You can buy DAC’s and amplifiers today that have zero audible flaws for not much money at all.
Edit: I realize now you might have in mind the mp3 players from the post, while I’m making a more general point
What about the speaker/driver?
There is a lot that has to happen to convert the “identical” binary data into physical sound waves. Each component has flaws and limitations (one might call this character or personality) that perceptibly changes the quality or impression of the same data. It doesn’t all come down to the DAC and amplifier.
It’s not that these differences are placebo, it’s that it is a perfect confluence of consumerism and addict-like obsession over it
any device playing a digital file is as good as another
Not really. The Digital to Analog Converter (the thing that turns 1’s and 0’s into voltage that eventually goes into a speaker) makes a difference. I’m not saying the sony thing is worth it, but the output from the line out is gonna be much clearer than the line out of $5 temu mmp3 player
Marginally, if anything. Quality electronics are nowadays available for cheap, it’s not the 90s anymore.
Computers can play all formats but, I can hear the noise coming from my headphones when i plug them to my motherboard or to my screen.
Also good luck putting good headphones or speakers without an amplifier.
You can get an external sound card for $50-100 and get rid off all that noise and use those good headphones
If you pay more than $300 for headphones (for non-professional use) you are being taken advantage of
Digital sound processing is a solved problem and the cheapest amps run the same hardware the hifi brands sell, the QA is just worse
If you pay more than $300 for headphones (for non-professional use) you are being taken advantage of
Apple Airpod Max costing $500+ lmao
It’s $100 for good audio, $400 for brand
Apple headphones have always been a scam for their price point. Sony or Sennheiser will get you significantly better sound quality at a much lower price usually.
Yes for home a DAC and AMP is the solution. But for outside, you need something portable. DAP is the high end old mp3. But the price range of these, is enormous.
For outside you need porta pros, not studio audio
I can hear the noise coming from my headphones when i plug them to my motherboard or to my screen.
Must be a really shit board, I haven’t heard any noise from a default sound card on a motherboard for more than a decade now.
Yeah shitty built-in soundcards were an issue in like 2010 at the latest. Unless you’re mixing music for a living, there’s not any reason to buy a dedicated soundcard anymore.
The one thing I can see is if you need some 27.1 audio format or S/PDIF out. I have a 10-metre optical cable between my PC and my stereo and a lot of the cheapest mainboards don’t have optical out.
Really? i was always hearing noise from motherboards. From all computers i have used (personal or not).
motherboards, even the cheap ones have pretty damn good sound these days. I would do a pepsi challenge with $150 mobo and its sound vs pretty much anything. I very much doubt an “audiophile” could tell the difference.
My motherboard costed $300, 2 years ago. Mobos will always have shit sound due to high EMI. It got better than 10 years ago but its still low quality.
higher-end motherboards don’t have issues like that generally
Yeah, but if i am to pay $200 more for high-end motherboard just for the sound, i better buy a DAC and an AMP, lasting forever.
generally no one is buying a high-end motherboard for the sound… its for the overall better quality and configurations, but you also don’t have to worry about having shitty sound
high-end motherboards offer almost nothing important these days, for average users like me. Almost 2 years ago when i upgraded my PC i could not find a reason to go above $300. And yeah in this price range, sound is still shit.
Not really true. The proximity of the audio components to other components on the motherboard results in inevitable impact on the audio quality, unless it’s some special hyper shielded motherboard that I’ve yet to see. A DAC is going to sound better 9 out of 9 times than onboard audio.
this is nonsense
No, it’s not, but it’s not worth arguing over, so I’ll just leave it at what I’ve already said
mojo costs like 400 bucks, 1500 bucks is just silly
The smile they get from it is worth it, if that’s your hobby and what you want to buy, go for it.
Good luck plugging Sennheiser HD 600 to an average mp3 player or your smartphone. I don’t defend audiophile, because they cost extremely more for what they offer. But they are a step up.
Also you can find DAP starting from $100, so i don’t know how these scale with the price. I just recently found them out and shared the info.
If you walk around outside with HD 600’s on your head you deserve to be robbed tbh
I dont know man, i feel you, but i have seen many with these ugly apple headphones these days (overheads). And these cost double the money…
And you still deserve to be robbed
Headphone amps: exist
Yes, but he is talking about stock devices. A phone with a good DAC/AMP portable dongle ($200-400) will be on par with these $1300 DAPs.
Sennheiser HD 600
There are plenty of headphones with equal quality of sound that are also lower impedance, allowing them to be powered by a phone or a laptop or whatever.
Don’t let them hear you say that. I’ve been beaten to death for telling them they can’t tell the difference between 320kbps mp3s and lossless.
With hardware, there’s definitely an improvement in quality but only to a certain point, you have to spend like $200-300 and you are already at the perceivable ceiling. Audio equipment is just so damn good and affordable these days. Audiophiles tend to buy things that have different sounds, maybe they prefer how one album sounds with one set of headphones vs another and they pay a pretty penny for this. But the quality is the same.
They’re really not worth it. A $15 USB-C dongle and a smartphone will put out audio quality better than almost any audiophile’s headphones can discern.
Also you can get DAPs for like $50-$100 that will be the same type of deal: indiscernable.
You forgot the /s
Mods, I’m begging you. Fuckin’ give me the signal. Set me loose on this fuckin’ goober. He’s fucking pwning our asses in debate with Redditisms.
?
Sorry, i thought you were sarcastic. A good DAC/AMP with your phone is gonna be better than most DAPs. But not in the $15 price range. More of in the $200-500 range.
“Gonna be better” doesn’t mean anything when they are not discernable qualities. Not even worth arguing about whether one is or not, it is throwing money away.
And yes a USB-C to 3.5 mm with a half-decent DAC in it, which you can get for $15, will sound just as good unless you are in a perfectly silent room with electrostatics or something. At which point you don’t want or need something portable.
Apple USB-C to 3.5mm dongle
daps used to be free. what happened? you used to receive free daps on entering any club. not anymore.
they’re getting mad at you but you’re right.
You will need also proper headphones for those.
buying my $3600 cell phone that can’t make phone calls and then making the foolish mistake of plugging in some $5 earbuds which immediately makes it explode because i didn’t use proper headphones
Its more like buying an expensive suit and then the cheapest shoes you can find.
So you agree, it’s a worthless status symbol
What’s the average mp3 player these days? I use an old FiiO but they’ve discontinued the budget edition that I have and I don’t know where I’ll turn if anything happens to this one.
Edit - FiiO does offer a new version of what they call a “budget DAP”, the JM21, for $199, but even if it seems better than the others on the market that’s maybe three times as much as their old one cost me. Dammit. Well, my current one had better last.
Buy a decade old smartphone with a headphone jack and just use it for music?
Pretty much this, dunno why people are overthinking it.
They have also some nice ones at $400-500, i see. Like the M11.
People aren’t allowed to have their hobbies.
Removed by mod
this would be such a good bit i’m mad you don’t do it more
Following the Switch 2 Boycott account asking what the next bit is gonna be like that one ITYSL sketch
Switch 2 pre-orderers have infiltrated even the mods. My god.
banned for revealing gameplay secrets about Donkey Kong Bananza (the Binch Crystals)
No, Nintendo is in the ignore list now, after their Switch 2 launch info. Also games that i had in wish-list for Switch 1, got deleted. Not another penny from me.
Also watch your language. Mods, maybe need to pay attention to you.
Begrudgingly letting you go after I get yelled at by the admin at the station that he’s gunna’ take my gun and my account if I hassle you without a mod-warrant.
Let me guess. Fentanyl???
lol, who buys this shit. this makes me wonder how much my ancient 50gb ipod would go for these days.
Probably quite a bit since there’s ways to make them like 1TB now.
