not just fps we also have stuff like cinebench or aida 64 as well as use cases that directly correlate performance with a number. audio has measurements but audio also has a peculiar user base where you could tell soumone a cheap $100 is almost just as clean a $400 amp with literally impercievable difference and someone will say they can hear a difference. then now you put an idea of a difference in people’s heads and they will “hear that differece” regardless of what the measurements say.
It’s all preference lol
Technology in art and particularly in music is a favorite subject of mine. I was alive in the 70’s and ive seen a lot of tech in music start and change it. Its been a awesome experience to see:
1960
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Beatles come out and creativity and experimentation in the studio sparked by them and followed by other artists calls a demand for more sound fidelity.
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Home HIFI systems. Speakers, amps, record players, reel to reel players become available and more common. Headphones for listening to music becomes more common.
1970
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Big Change! The price of Microprocessors drop and start to become incorporated in Synthesizers, the Studio and various electronic music instrument accessories.
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FM radio becomes popular with increased sound quality over AM.
1980
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It started in the 70’s but technology in music instruments and the studio becomes more prevalent and hit a golden age.
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New Wave music hits the mainstream. Pure electronic music explodes. These are coupled with the new technology in the studio to create sonically interesting and sublime music influencing everyone.
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The Walkman becomes more popular and the small headphones that come with them are seen as a marvel of technology for the age. Cassettes become popular.
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Computers start to become more common in the home.
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CD come out and give people the kind of HiFi quality you could only get from expensive record stereo systems before.
1990
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Big Change! The Internet, the Web and search engines are made accessible to home computers. Allowing people to find web pages dedicated to their favorite artists.
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Web pages and forums are created along with access to usenet to discuss music and sound quality in technology.
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Mp3 comes out, getting people more into music than ever before. People start to build archives of their favorite music on computers. They start to explore and find new and old music they like.
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Portable Digital audio players come out.
2000
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The storage of portable digital music players become greatly increased and people are able to carry large libraries of music around with them.
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iphone comes out greatly increasing the popularity of portable music players and music on smartphones.
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Youtube starts and gives more information on music and sound quality in a more easily digestible format lol.
2010
- Technology marches foward and the kind of sound quality found in highly expensive devices (headphones, speakers, amps, dacs, EQ’s, players) becomes affordable.
2020
- ?
What am i missing?
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The average quality of various codecs and compression methods improving exponentially throughout the 00s and 2010s.
forgot to include that one lol
When it came out? Because they didn’t sound that great for the first few years until dac’s got better and studios got more proficient at mastering, and not really HiFi quality at a lower price, as cd’s and players were pretty pricy
well 200$ is not nearly as pricey as a 1000$ - 10,000$ stereo system. And the prices dropped quickly. I remember when they came out. for the masses they sounded amazing. I had 2 stereo systems that i had listened to in the 70’s and 80’s and they sounded no where near as fantastic as CD players when i heard them. And the earphones at this time where getting better and better.
you forgo the following:
2015 - Marzipan discovered good audio and experienced joy which, by extension, benefited the world scene as it was swept with his good audio vibes.
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lol my personal point of starting is
2014 - Rice’s friend let him borroww his pair of Hd 598’s and immidiately impressed Rice no because he liked how it sounded but he heard more from his music
-2016: that sane friend adviced rice not to buy the shitty pair of cheap sennheiser headphones that were on sale at best buy and instead chipped in some extra cash fora pair of k240s then down the rabbit hole rice went. now helping out others with more money than him pick out gear.
Dont hate me but i started with Bose. I got their 100$ companion 2 series 3 speakers. I was blown away with how good they sounded being so small. I started thinking, what else can i get…
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there was this documentary i kepted remembering while i was writing this and it was about hifi evolution in the 60’s and 70’s. it was a british Doc, maybe shown on TV. Does anyone remember the name?
It’s not really about how you started it’s about what happened after. To me any speaker or headphone is a good speaker or headphone if it gets someone in the hobby. It’s about what the individual does when he wants to upgrade.
ok then first it was Fisher Stereo -> Recording records to tape for -> Sony Walkman’s -> cheap Koss headphones ( not the ones Zeos mentions ), CD players -> Mini CD players ( with CDR mini CD’s) -> Mp3 Players (with a big fat chip!) -> MP3’s over smartphones -> Spotify -> Tidal
Then the audiophile stuff: Bose companion 2 series 3 speakers -> Elec Debut 2.0 B6.2 speakers -> Complants about the nose -> GRADO SR225e -> HD600’s -> HD650’s -> Hifiman Sundara (heres where it starts to get good) -> Sendy Aiva’s -> Focal Elex -> Koss 95x
Looking forward to getting the last 2 soon. Also getting the Fostex T50RP then Modhouse Argons woo!
We did forget a big factor. The imergence of ecommerce sites gave audiophiles around the world access to headphones and is one of the main driving sources of the Chinese developments. And really opened up for exploration of different brands that people couldnt have tried out in the past.
Not sure what year but how bout when bluetooth became a thing for music and then when we got the LDAC?
LOL, my bro got those cheap sonys at Walmart and I got the skull candies. Remember specifically looking at the beats and wondering how good must they be to cost like 150 dollars! Holy shit
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LDAC is pretty decent but we have had aptx for a while
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Lol yeah but beats really introduced to smooth of people a new price bracket for personal audio gear
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Wait wut? I thought LDAC is better than aptX?
Yeah for sure, even getting into audio recently besides beats I had never seen headphones at that price point