Yep this is the audiophile community. The same kind of people who buy Monster cables
this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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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.
Vinyl does sound different though, and some audiophiles are so far gone that they think their own preferences are objectively better.
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.
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Yes it comes with less memory than my modern smartphone, but at least the gold-plated oxygen free copper provides a purer sound.
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 $150 pair of over ear headphones plugged into a cheap DAC from AliExpress is good enough to achieve full fidelity for anyone.
I can't wait until one of you nerds tries to tell me you can tell the difference between a flac and a 256kbps AAC file too.
Yeah Sonys always had a luxury brand lineup. Back in the day their uhh vaio? Computers were hailed as MacBook killers.
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some ppl have way too much money
You'd think you could get one for like 20$. 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.
Certified Lover Boy? Certified Audiophile
Striking a (literal) chord and it's probably A-minooorrr
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.
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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
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.
It's $100 for good audio, $400 for brand
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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.
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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
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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.
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daps used to be free. what happened? you used to receive free daps on entering any club. not anymore.
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
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they're getting mad at you but you're right.
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?
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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
lol, who buys this shit. this makes me wonder how much my ancient 50gb ipod would go for these days.
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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.
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