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this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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chapotraphouse
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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.
?
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.
And also you'll be getting the same listening experience with like $500 gear lmao.
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
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
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
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
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.
you get high end boards for the ports and the PCIE lanes. not the sound. even cheapo boards have very decent sound these days.
Mobos have strong EMI. Even with good shielding they are worse than a cheap DAC.
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.
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.