Giving recommendations and introducing to the hobby

Not such a Noob sounding remark. The bright side is, several of the people that I turned on to Koss or good Ultra Cheap IEMs just stay at that level loving it. They wanted something better, they got it. Now they’re on to the next thing.

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You need to meet people where they’re at with it.

In my experience most people don’t want to spend over about $200-300 on wired headphones. Most people think wireless/ANC headphones are the best kind of headphone available. People are very skeptical of headphone amplifiers/DACs. You need to be prepared to give recommendations without an amplifier and/or closed-back recommendations.

People are really wowed by bass performance. It’s something they only hear if they have a decent home theatre system or a set of speakers with a good subwoofer. They may be used to listening to their music in their crappy car audio system, on their laptop, or on their phone.

If you could show your friends some different headphones and point out some things about them that are great about them (something that other headphones miss) this might get them into it. From my experience, some people literally just don’t care about any of this though and we have to understand that some people can’t hear things that are objectively there and also don’t care.

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Oh yea no doubt, everyone is different. My issue isn’t that I didn’t like the things I bought to keep buying more and more, absolutely have no regrets about any of my purchases and enjoy them all. It’s just the endless possibilities, as you said IEMs, headphones, speakers, home theater.

Mine was that I prefer stereo music over headphones, but never owned speakers to be aware of what I like. Absolutely not a bad thing, but honestly wouldn’t give up or give back anything I got. I’ve actually not sold anything I bought except my sound bars, and even though were speakers never found it any more pleasant than my portable BT speaker.

Mind you that 90% of this came from my savings as I had no income until I recently went back to work. I really love audio far more than I ever thought possible, no body asked me to join or look into it. It was solely my decision to explore. Also you can blame Audeze

Some people may fall deep into the rabbit hole, you never know. But it is something to consider.

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Yea that was me too, but honestly never liked beats and the irony of the situation is considering paying like 300 dollars for a Sony MX4’s or whatever was like no way, why would I do that. It’s dumb lolll

I had a pair of JBL’s BT speakers that I paid 20 dollars for and Flip 4 and I was happy. From 2018 to 2020 I spent a 100 on audio.

Look at me now. As I mentioned in my paragraph above, blame Audeze. A friend of mine is into headphones, he never encouraged me to do audio but at his house I saw the lcd-2 and I was like wtf is this LOL. He asked me to take a listen and it was an eye opening experience. Honestly never even knew he had them

My first impression and sighting of them was you put this on your head? Really

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Get the newbie Bose cans. It’s considered a good brand and very reconizable by the John/Jane Does. Beats is also a popular/recognizable/desirable brand for some.

Context: I was talking to a friend about headphones. And I said “just get Boze. Your wife will never be the wiser.” Hus retort: “What’s wrong with Boze?” Oops…

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Heavy, heavy, heavy marketing and staffing retail stores with good salespeople will do that. The 901 was a mainstream standard for a couple generations, and received huge publicity per the Consumer Reports lawsuit. Bose micro cubes were the first mainstream satellite and subwoofer lifestyle system. Bose was also a genuine innovator with ANC “rich people who spend a lot of time on airplanes” headphones.

Bose often provided better quality than its department store competitors – at high prices. Don’t fight the fanboys who know the best and biggest advertisers and who are eager to pay for fanboy brands (Sony, Honda, BMW, Tesla, Apple, Bose, etc.)

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As you and @wgarbo point out, there are worse choices than Bose. I even have and like their original wave-radio. The newer Quiet Comfort headphones are decent for their purpose. Beats also has improved some models since their introduction.

Back in the day, if you were in retail, there were often bonuses for selling a particular brand. Few stores these days have commissioned sales people, which is why you can go into a Best Buy and not be greeted by the floor crew standing around talking and texting with each other. Why pay people to actually sell, when the customer will try the goods and buy online anyway?

But the thread is giving recommendations. And for that you need a process to do it right. You need to find out 1) where are they now. 2) where do they want to be. 3) can they get there. 4) how do they get there. 5) will I need to help keep them on track.

If they’re not serious and have little budget there is a different set of recommendations than if they already are tending toward audiophile, or are frequent live concert attendees. My earlier post here gave good ideas for the not-serious and just dabbling crowd.

But just finding out where they are now, and what they like, and perhaps what they want or think they want is a very fun conversation. And if you’re being asked for advice, take it seriously and think of their wants, not yours.

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Interesting topic, thanks for raising it.

Agreeing with a bunch of other comments: When most friends / family ask me for my advice on headphones they generally want to know which Beats (or equivalent) or ANC to buy. They are looking for bass, wireless, portability, and style. I just answer those questions and try to help them make an informed choice within those constraints.

If they are interested in more, my inclination is to do an A/B comparison between a pair of HD6XX and a pair of Beats and ask them what differences they hear. If they “get it”, i.e., realize that they are hearing the unadulterated / neutral presentation of the music vs a reshaped presentation and are intrigued, then we can talk budgets, music genres, listening environment, and so on. (Note: This almost never happens!)

Yep. That’s exactly why I often recommend the Meze 99 Classics or Noir to those wanting to start an audiophile journey from consumer ANC cans.

The Meze cans have the bass of consumer cans that most non-audiophiles seem to crave. But they also have far better mids, highs and separation than most ANC cans, so newbies can put one foot into the audiophile world while still wrapping in the comfortable blanket of bass.

Then the journey really begins. Or is it more accurately called “falling into the rabbit hole?” :slight_smile:

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Honestly it would definitely be a marketing thing, however I really don’t understand all these companies that just lurk in the shadows.

Besides the big 3, I only knew about sennheiser and honestly always thought they were just fancy gaming headphones.

As mentioned I used to think spending the money for beats, Bose or Sony was insane. Like who would spend that much money on headphones and to my knowledge it was all for more bass cause that’s the only difference I ever noticed and I didn’t know what an audiophile was lol. I never liked any of the beats products, Bose or Sony from my experience at electronic stores that have them on demo like Best Buy.

I mean marketing is expensive, but I guess we are their marketing in a sense

My son is into gaming and was looking for a new set of cans (without mic). He was looking for some good mid-tier ones. He had a set of Beyers and an HD6-something on loan. He asked my advice. I handed him my HD800s to try. 10-minutes of A/Bing and he was hooked. The sound blew him away. He had no idea what he was missing. He “blames” me for upgrading his audio tastes.

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Don’t have a recommendation since i’m beginning in these world, but so sad i find this topic after i buy the meze 99, the aria and the ES100.

Edit: really interesting topic to be honest, there’s knowledge out here. :face_with_monocle:

Nothing wrong with the 99 Classics and the Aria. Both very fun headphones for the money.

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I let my son (27) try my Porta Pros for a couple weeks, and when he returned them i asked what he thought, and he said they sounded great. I told him he could keep them, and he said “nah. Thanks dad, but I would never wear them. Between the hair-pulling and the stupid looks, I’m out.” Ok then.

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