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I’ve always been pretty picky with audio, but have made some changes recently. The 5.1 system was absolutely worth it. In fact, I got rid of my turntable speakers and just run it through the surround sound and it sounds great.
Although, for reference – even before tinnitus I couldn’t tell the difference between 320 and FLAC/lossless.
Never let perfect be the enemy of good enough. Do you want to do the thing or do you want to stress about the thing for days, delay it for months while you save up then suffer regret anxiety about whether it was the correct choice? For a lot of people the latter is the part they enjoy about the hobby. For others it isn't worth the time and resources requires, they'd rather do the thing now with what they have and enjoy it as it is. Where does the inflection point lies between hassle and enjoyable results is personal and everyone has different criteria for different goals and contexts, and that is OK.
I'm a musician. I can't afford top tier sound!
Tbh I can live with what I've got at home. A garden variety setup today still sounds better than something high-end did when I was growing up. Just give me some decent channel separation and I can zone out.
Where there is still significant room for improvement is in stage sound. Why do monitors always have to sound like sh*t? It's like bands spend all their budget on amps and PAs and whatever dregs are left over go to the monitors. And house sound. Don't even get me started. Maybe their gear was good once (probably not) but it's invariably seen one beer spill too many.
I always wanted my music to sound nice, but could never afford the best equipment.
These days I have a set of Sony MDR-7506, and while I appreciate there are ‘better’ headphones, the detail I hear when listening to lossless audio through them is astonishing. I can listen to tracks I’ve heard dozens of times and hear elements that I’ve never noticed before. And these headphones are relatively cheap at £80.
I grew up really poor, so high definition audio isn't something i've really ever had access to growing up, and I've never felt like I was missing out once I had the money to spend on new stuff.
Big fan of good quality music reproduction. I'm no audiophile, but I have a HiFi I'm happy with. Had the same set of speakers for 20 years, bought an Audiolab 6000a last year after suffering with a poor second hand receiver for a few years and it's so nice to have dynamics and some punch back. Mostly paired with a Wiim mini or a NAD CDP.
I can tell the difference between 320 mp3 and FLAC (there's some online comparison test / quiz that I can get right 80% of the time). I don't have particularly good hearing, bit once you know what to listen out for then its quite apparent when it's not there. Storage is cheap so all my CDs are ripped to FLAC now, because even if I can't hear the difference on every track, why not?
My Mrs happily listens to music through her phone speaker or some cheap Bluetooth headphones. I know it shouldn't, but it really annoys me. She's also the kind of person who won't stop to take a stone from their shoe and end up with a big painful blister on their foot
What are your tips on glasses? I choose standard uncoated lenses nowdays after finding that anti-reflective/anti-scratch coatings often scratched easily or had an optically-rippled surface, but maybe things have improved?
Going to a legit optometrist that either cuts their own lenses or tells you where to get good ones rather than trying to find the cheapest option online is probably the biggest thing. They tend to recommend or automatically go for the other top tips, like avoiding any coating that will ripple/peel/fade over time, using high-index materials for high prescriptions (expensive, but drastically reduced the necessary thickness and curvature + distortion of the crystal), and spacing the lens centers to your personal measurements.
Do I value the better picture on a TV? Yes
Same with music. I don't enjoy watching TV /movies using TV speakers.
Listening to music using phone speakers is not worth it at all.
Depends. I'm aware of the difference, but how much I care about it depends entirely on how much I like the hobby or tech. If it's food, PCs, and clothes (as in, no cheap materials that won't last a year) I care and will go beyond reasonable expectations to ensure that whatever I buy or cook is the best within reason. Anything else, as long as it works.
I don't have the energy for more than that.
I'm interested in this when buying a product, but I can't always buy new products. I also tend to go with the "buy once, cry once" mentality, which means I get something with high fidelity, but it's a rare occasion when I can upgrade something else.
I can't tell the difference between good audio and great audio but I can definitely tell when it's shit. I have no experience listening to high quality audio formats but I do have a pair of senhessier headphones that made me never want to go back to cheap gaming headphones.
You only know what you know. So if shit audio quality is all you know then you won't value spending money on a better experience. Once you do get a taste of that better experience you will never want go back to that shit quality.
Depends. It's a mix of all the reasons you've mentioned, and I'm sure this will vary from person to person. For me, high fidelity audio matters only with headphones, and if I'm listening to music. I can absolutely tell there is a difference with speakers but I don't enjoy them as much so I don't care as much.
Similarly I'm not much of a HD4k+ person when it comes to video. I do see the difference but for the most part my brain will filter most visual noise, issues and distortion away while I'm engaged in narrative. I don't need large TVs nor too much high resolution. PC monitors/laptops/phone screens? I want every pixel you can give me, the higher the resolution the better. Completely different experience than TV. I'm annoyed when I can see the pixels on a screen I'm working on.
I'm with you on the binoculars and microscopes. Yeah, quality does make a huge difference and I would absolutely get the best if I can afford it.
Food- I'm a lazy cook and very picky about condiments. I really enjoy most foods plainly. I don't mind if my stir fry got a bit soggy or if I forgot to salt the roast. I'll eat it all the same and be content with it like it had been perfect. For me to really appreciate the difference in food quality you need to add significantly more than 1% effort, so I leave that to professional chefs.
Yes and no.
I own a nice pair of studio headphones, and monitor speakers. I have a large collection of vinyls and a hard drive full of FLAC files. High quality audio is great.
But I also don't care about quality all the time. I wear Bluetooth bone-conductor headphones most of the day because they are comfortable and open-ear. I can passively listen to music and remain alert to my surroundings and I like that.
But there are noticeable differences between things like MP3 and FLAC, digital and analog, and different kinds of speakers and headphones that I can appreciate when I am actively listening to music.