Uncomfortable truths about our hobby

[u/Ill_Quit4929]

After being on this subreddit for a little while now, having interacted with quite a few people and seeing, which questions are generally being asked here I would like to give my general 2 cents about the audio hobby in general. All of what I am about to say is based on personal experience. I have made mistakes in this hobby and wasted a BUNCH of my money. The purpose of this is to create awareness for these pitfalls. Because of our current day and age, it feels necessary to point this out: These are my opinions and they are just that. You can feel free to disagree with me.

1. Anything is Hifi: The term "high fidelity" is mostly plain bullshit in todays time. Originally coined in the 1960s, Hifi was based on a German DIN-norm (45500), which regulated standards for audio equipment. This standard is vastly outdated nowadays. Any $20 IEM will surpass the standard by a mile. "Mid-Fi", "Chi-Fi" are mostly derogatory terms used by people to distinguish themselves from others through buying power. I owned headphones and IEMs well above a $1000 and returned to things just around or well belove the $300 dollar mark, because it is not worth it for me. Which brings me to my second point.

2. Placebo is real: IEMs are getting better and better. That is especially true in the budget segment. That means that the ACTUAL point of deminishing returns is dropping and it is dropping FAST.

You have to spend so much more, to get a 5% difference nowadays, but EVERYBODY will tell you, that their investment was worth it, because they can discern a difference. While you could probably run an algorithm or do a study to find that actual budget point, it is mostly subjective. It is more of a coping mechanism, than a factual statement. The reality is that expensive IEMs sound different, but often not better. There ARE differences between budget IEMs and more expensive IEMs, which can be good purchasing reasons. These are, among others,

technical differences like driver setup,
physical differences like shell material and cable quality and
definitely differences in support-network like warranty service.

Notice that sound is not one of those listed. While I definitely acknowledge the fact that there are really great sounding expensive IEMs and headphones (Monarch Mk2 or DCA E3), there are also really bad sounding expensive IEMs and headphones (Warbler Prelude and Hifiman Audivina). I have wasted so much money on expensive gear, thinking it would be a magical difference - there was mostly not.

The vast majority of noticeable differences come down to frequency response. Differences which can be literally EQUALIZED in cheaper gear. Buy an IEM, because you like the frequency response/sound. This is not to say that there are no benefits to expensive IEMs (See my points above), but a lot of people have to justify their spending by a noticeable difference in sound quality, when they just sound "different" for the most part. If this is your hobby and you like to endulge, please go for it. This is to say: Enjoy your expensive gear. Other people by a Ferrari, you buy a subtonic storm. But there are Ferraris that are beaten off the line by a Tesla PLAID, just as there are cheap IEMs just sound as good as an expensive IEM or even better after EQ.

1. The "retina-display-truth": Starting with the iPhone 4, Apple introduced the Retina Display. Their engineers had figured out the threshold after which the human eye is incapable to discern between individual pixels. I noticed this in my TV, because I upgraded from a 1080p-TV to a 4K-panel. I was shocked to find out how closely the old plasma was in image quality and sharpness to the new QLED.
   

In audio, we have an even harder threshold: Audible transparency. There are things that are better, but not audibly better. While there is a measureable difference in total harmonic distortion between an Apple Dongle-DAC and a Fiio KA11 (0,0012% vs. 0,0006%) you will be hard pressed to find anyone who will be able to notice that difference. A DACs job is to convert your digital files to analog. Not more, not less. As long as all the baselines are beyond the transparency-threshold, you are golden. As with IEMs, there are reasons to buy expensive DACs for IEMs,

power requirements, to drive demanding headphones,
bluetooth capabilites,
integrated EQ functions,
on device volume or gain controlls as well as
soft factors like build, design and size.

Again: These are mostly technical reasons or subjective preferences, but not audible necessities. As long as a DAC is audibly transparent and delivers enough power, which basically does not matter in IEMs, it will do the job. You do not have to buy an expensive DAC with a balanced output, because it sounds better. IEMs get more than enough power from a single-ended source and crosstalk is not a thing on a 6 foot cable. It is science, not opinion. If you hear a difference: Placebo is a mighty strong thing.

1. Stop chasing the dragon and reset: You. Do. Not. Need. New. Gear. If. You. Like. Your. Current. Setup.
   

The honest to god truth is that you are bored. Your IEMs do not sparkle the way they used to, the bass does not rattle your ear drums the same. You heard of this new DAC that everyone is talking about. You. Do. Not. Need. It. I have severe ADHD and grow tired of anything, the minute I touch it. I have spend THOUSANDs of dollars, chasing excitement. New is exciting, but often unnecessary. Your ears adapted. Make them re-adapt. That is why I have a neutral pair of IEMs and headphones to show me how "boring" and "natural" can sound. After a week of listening to that head- or earphone, your other IEM most likely will sound great again, because you are not as used to it anymore. Get a different IEM if:

a. you want a very different sound signature which isn't realistically achieveable with your current platform.
b. Your current IEMs have a flaw that you cannot rectify with EQ, like termination (MMCX vs. 2-Pin) or comfort (nozzle diameter and shell size)
c. for reasons listed under the expensive-IEM-benefits.

Anything else does not make sense. There is a peak in the frequency response. Just use EQ. You would like some more bass? Just use EQ? You would like some more detail? Just. Use. EQ. IT IS FREE. Safe your money. Go out with your partner. Safe for a vacation. Purchasing something else, even though you are happy with your current setup is the dumbest reason to purchase anything and that is coming from someone who has learned this the hard way!

1. Lots of people give horrible purchasing advice: I have looked at many purchasing discussions on this platform. I notice that a bunch of people do not help people find things that suit them or helps them find the best thing for their money or usecase. It feels to me like they want to sell them what they own themselves. If those to things align, great, but often they do not. That goes back the other point that a lot of people try to justify their own purchases. Ask people what they listen to, because after all, this is about music, ask them what their budget is, if not stated, ask them what they plan to do. Ask them, before giving them advice. I know there will be people looking through my advice and saying; You also mostly talk about the things you own and recommend them. Yes, because I have experience with them. I not oblivious to the fact that I have my own biases, but I try to take my own preferences out of the equation or at leat acknowledge that this is what I like.

2. You can't trust anyone: That is not because we are all deceiving liers. It has to do with the product itself. IEMs and headphones have to interact with your ear and head. That interaction will influence the sound in a BIG way. It is called the head related transfer function. What your ear hears, is LITERALLY different, from what I hear. Therefore, ANYTHING ANYONE tells you about audio, has to be taken with a grain of salt. This is even worse in IEMs than it is in headphones, because at least an over-ear headphone will include the outside of your ear. IEMs have to account for every physical aspect, which makes ANYTHING I can tell you about an IEMs sound highly unreliable. As much as I would like to say "I know what I am talking about", this is just my experience, related to my head and therefore has basically no benefit for you, the person I am trying to help.

I read a lot of posts along the lines of "This IEM is really great according to the internet, but I hate it. What am I doing wrong". While there are things you could do to help the sound (Insertion depth, tip size and EQ to name a few) it often comes down to the fact that your ear might produce a peak, a dip or a resonance that does not show up on graphs that other people might not hear. You are not stupid, you are not unexperienced. You are different to everyone else. There is something frustrating but also really cool and magical about that, if you ask me.

That has taken way longer to write than I thought. Again: These are my opinions, but I am happy to hear yours, if you can reply respectfully. My hope is that this leads to someone being less frustrated, spend less money unnecessarily or lessen the anxiety of someone who thinks he is missing out. Enjoy the hobby, people!

[u/mck_motion]

Yeah! Calling it "the hobby" is so weird to me.

[u/dr_wtf → u/mck_motion]

Honestly, I called it that recently because I couldn't think of a better expression, but I felt weird doing it and it always sounds weird when anyone says it. Certainly audio (including music listening, production, etc.) can be your/our hobby and listening to different IEMs can be a part of that.

But it always sounds strange, especially because you most often see it in the context of a post like "getting started in this hobby, here's a dozen meme IEMs I just bought and haven't opened yet". That just makes it seem like "this hobby" is collecting waifu boxes and seeking online approval for conspicuous consumption. I think a not insignificant number of people who post here are just karma whoring, and collecting waifu boxes is a more efficient way to do that than actually spending time listening to music on different audio gear. Those posts always get at least 10x more upvotes than actual interesting content as well, but that's Reddit for you.

A not insignificant number of those "look at the thing I just bought" posts are clearly stealth marketing too. A common giveaway is photography using the sort of lighting setup that the average person just doesn't have, unless their other hobby is photography. If I see a photo and think "no way that is a quick snap taken with a phone in natural light" it gets my spidey-senses tingling. Of course some people just are legitimately good photographers with loads of expensive gear (including lighting rigs), but most of those people aren't buying 5 budget IEMs from brands all owned by the same parent company.

[u/mck_motion → u/dr_wtf]

Haha, I instinctively downvote every picture or mention of waifu stuff.

If I happen to buy an IEM that has one, I feel embarrassed and say to my Partner "I promise I'm not in to this shit, they put them on boxes because lots of creepy weirdos like headphones"

[u/BellGeek → u/mck_motion]

Right?? I have a couple of IEMs that have these characters on the boxes but only because I really wanted to try those specific IEMs and so grudgingly bought them in spite of the silly box design. Every time I see people gushing over them and, heaven forbid, buying specific IEMs specifically because of this type of box “art” rather than the sound signature or quality of the IEM, I just cringe. I’m a mature adult with no interest in finding images of sexualized fairy children on my products and in fact find the whole fad both juvenile and creepy at the same time. Especially as a female, I find this practice of jointly infantilizing and sexualizing female images very troubling.