It might be a good idea to have some separate space for measurements in this forum, like the pictures subforum - I (and I suspect many others) love to see a big wall of plots, but I suspect that for a lot of folks that feels like clutter/a distraction from the more subjective aspects of things, so having a dedicated space might be a good way to please everyone. For me, at least, online forums have been a great place to talk technical, but I wouldn’t want it to intrude on other people’s ways of engaging with the hobby.
As far as I’m concerned anyone may choose his own way and have any opinions that suits him — of course. But there are some dissues that ususally go wrong — that’s why I prefer not to participate.
How are you guys planning to moderate the forum? After all you’ll eventually need a mod team, and ideally we can avoid the SBAF “ban if they disagree” model"
For me, Ive not been to a lot of audio forms, but the ones I’ve been too, people just they’re horrible to each other. No need to be that way. Everybody can have their opinion of what they like and there should be nothing wrong with this. I’m also not the most technical person in the world. Being able to explain things that seem technical in a more laymens termbs would be good. You guys have heard of the Cable Company in New Hope, PA right? They do lend headphones. but I like the idea of being able to try things on my own equipment. Not everybody is gonna have the EQ’s and EQ settings I have so even if a store did exist, its not like hearing it in your own setup. I have a better idea though. rather than just a buy system, why not have a trade system instead? Does such a thing exist? Would anybody be ok with perhaps trading their headphones for another in the same price brakit or something? I used to trade airchecks, (main reason I don’t anymore is not many traders these days), and trading can be a g great way to get something new without losing money in trying to resell them.
What I’d love would be to be able to do taste matching. By this I mean that reviews by people who have very different taste in music and quality of sound from my own, won’t necessarily be the folks who’s reviews are good guidance for me in reviewing and providing feedback on the kind of sound I’m interested in.
Pinterest (love it or hate it) is a great “taste engine”. I can look at someone’s Pinterest boards or pins and know in an instant if their taste matches my own. I can also decide very quickly if they have interests which fall outside of my own, but which might provide inspiration and a path to new opportunities.
In music things are a little more subtle because you can’t do the at-a-glance view you can with images and photos. But you can get groupings and you can start to understand sound profiles and music profiles. I’m not asking anyone to write an algorithm to do this. Genre and artist are a really good starting place
In the past I’ve used the headphone.com site to compare and contrast frequency response graphs for different headphones. Through research, trial and error, I know what the F/R curves look like for the speakers and headphones I most enjoy. While there may be a range of sounds which differentiate the speakers/cans I like - they all group into remarkably similar sound profiles.
When I read a review of a headphone, and understand what music the reviewer was listening for evaluation, I check the F/R curves for those headphones, and I can usually get a really good sense if they will be right for me. I use that to match the sensibilities and taste of the reviewer and the phones.
This kind of matching and visual analysis has saved me from wasting time and money. It’s reduced frustration and the sense of loss that goes along with making an expensive but incorrect choice. It’s also helped me to identify “heroes” - equipment, brands, and reviewers who consistently point me in the right direction.
I can tell you the 5-10 top headphones and speakers that most agree with me. If you had the F/R curves handy you could see exactly what I love about them all. I’d love to have this capability for amps, headphones, speakers. I’d really like to be able to better understand the relationship and proportioning of bass, mid and treble that excites me. I’d love to know how I could enhance my listening experiences and work well with the headphones I have.
I’d also like to be able to connect with others who have similar interests in music and sound. While I appreciate we all have deep enough interests to join a community which is focused on music and sound, it would be great for me to be able to identify others who are seeking the same rather than different sonic experiences. While I respect that others may love Kenny G played through the deep fuzzy bass of the fozbag hohrenwoofen mark XVIII, the recommendations they are going to provide me will be less useful for equipment and new music.
As a social experiment I’m guessing that there will be less feuding in this community if we could do a little profiling of interests, genres, artists, budget and sound-profile.
It’s a great idea but I don’t think measurements need to be separate from the main topic. If it’s something the community would like, then we can definitely do it.
Measurements and subjective opinions both have their place and on audio forums, you have one forum that is pretty much all subjective and another that is almost purely objective. I think that there is a place for a middle ground between the two. The problem is people on both sides can get pretty emotional. We’d like to reign that in so that you are getting the maximum value out of the information you are seeing. Once measurements and reviews start getting posted, we do have ways to make them appear at the top of posts so that people can see them first and discuss them farther down.
In terms of modding, right now me and Andrew are being fairly lenient as we would like to encourage discussion. We currently have one mod @Jaethan to help us out. We will have a mod team in the future as we realize that
- We are on the west coast on Pacific time and realize that there are people from all different time zones posting at all different hours.
- Its unrealistic for us to try and find everyone’s posts.
With that being said though, we are going to let a lot of stuff go. However, if someone is being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian, we will issue them a warning first. There’s nothing wrong with having a negative opinion of something that everyone likes or a positive opinion of something nobody likes. Just as long as you flesh out your thoughts and ideas.
We are also planning on filtering out some of the noise so that on the first couple of pages you will find a lot of good information for whatever you are looking at. On some forums, you have to look through 1400 pages to get the same amount of information that you get on 4 pages of SBAF for example. That’s valuable to new enthusiasts and older enthusiasts alike.
There are obviously headphones and companies that me and Andrew like better than others. Its the nature of being in the industry. But this forum isn’t about us. Its about the community and, we are not going to punish anyone for not having the same opinion as us. If a thread devolves into a witch hunt, we will reign it in.
Hope that clears things up!
Sounds good to me!
I have been a subscriber to r/headphones about 18 months now. I really enjoy it and go everyday and read all the posts. I has doubled in size over the last year and a half. Now wether or not it’s purely coincidence but what I have noticed is that in my opinion It seems to have lost its way a little. It doesn’t seem as focused as it once did. There seems to be a dearth of buying advice sought, especially gaming headsets. Now I know that the headphone community should cater for everyone but I feel that it’s gone too far in one direction and away from good debate and discussion with regards headphones and it’s whole subculture. I really do like r/headphones and there are some great people frequenting it. I guess what I am trying to say is that as this forum grows I would hate for it to get lost and take on some of the bad characteristics of some of the other well known places we all hang out.
I think it’s Upto us as a community to try and keep the discussion and content both on topic and above all treat each other with respect. Because once the respect goes then it will lose its way. At the moment everyone whom I’ve read or interacted with have been great. I learn more everyday and greatly enjoy doing so. I like reading about the gear and experience of the more knowledgeable members. So far it’s been a pleasure.
-Paul-
P.s I really haven’t got anything against gaming headsets. Honestly. Sorry if I’ve offended anyone.
Add me to the list of people who appreciate reviews and measurements.
But most of all, I like the community spirit here and hope we maintain it.
I really love the deep discussions on fringe topics that happen here. Some notable examples include topics on Tinnitus, IEM vs Headphone pricing, Nyquist, and cleaning. Really keep that going.
Not to simplify things but I think most of us want the same thing from each and every community we contribute too
Namely, a place where we can honestly discuss what we like, what we don’t like and why.
How we choose to discuss is of course another matter! I always enjoy debate but never name calling or insults, but again that’s pretty common, I imagine the Mod team will likely be pretty pro-active at creating a community that reflects them and their business well!
I also think that what will make this community special is the lack of sponsorships and adds! So negative impressions of a popular product will likely stand here because this team isn’t using any funding from any company to keep this board up! So I applaud that choice form them for obvious reasons.
That said I think a lot of us are already familiar with one another so all’s that left to do is enjoy ourselves and enjoy watching this community grow!
This.
SBAF can get toxic pretty quickly…especially if you like Audio GD products for some strange reason…
Encourage and support the top contributors. Keep the toxic, manipulative individuals out. If someone is an excellent contributor, and it ends up going to their head and they become toxic, don’t hesitate to throw them out.
Or criticism of Schiit products. That tends to get sketchy there and they get touchy about the measurements.
Yep, people can be very protective about their gear. Especially a small handful of Schiit fanboys on certain web sites. Mind you it happens in everything. Nintendo vs Sega or Apple vs Android to name a few. It can be quite entertaining to see them go at it sometimes.
-Paul-
In case you haven’t seen it, check out this thread announcing the loaner program: https://forum.headphone.com/t/announcing-the-headphone-community-preview-program/1319?u=andrew
A post was merged into an existing topic: The General Advice/Questions Thread
Hello,
I am a new member and this is my first response in the forum.
I checked out other headphone forums before deciding to join. One of the forums I visited seemd to be high-brow and didn’t offer many replies to simple/basic questions. The other had very little activity.
I enjoy the down to earth discussions and common courtesy shown by other members.
I REALLY APPRECIATE the efforts of taronlissimore and core members to create this community.
Hello and welcome @tjsgarden. You’ll find decent people around here and and they are always willing to help. They have great patience to, heck, they put up with me.