Is Headphone Listening The Future?

Hi all,

This is something I've been thinking about for a while now, and given the subject this initial post may be a little verbose. It's just something for people to think about and comment on really

I've recently noted a trend within these forums and elsewhere, of audiophiles (us) who are starting to stray to the dark side of headphone listening. I have a few theories about why this might be happening, they may be wrong, but stick with it.... My main theory is to do with current house prices, as many know the trend for house prices is always to either flatten out, or go up; I've heard they've only ever gone down once. The main problem with the house prices is the type of house many can afford, these are generally town houses and terraces (it also applied to semi's but to a slightly less extent), both of which have neighbours on both sides, and even if it's an end house they are usually so small Hi-Fi sound would travel through the house to the neighbours anyway. Peoples personal lives are also becoming more closely knit to home, what with having the kids tucked up in bed at 18.00 and many working shifts the opportunity to “let rip†with the Hi-Fi you have spent a lot of hard earned cash on seems to decrease with every minute. There's also the consideration of others to be taken into account, they may have the previously mentioned issues going on in their houses, even if you don't

I'm a headphone listener and enjoy my headphone system but there are many things I miss about my speaker system when I listen to it again. I can't “feel†the music through headphones, there are no subtle vibrations coming through the room to tease my senses. I'm very restricted in my movement when I have them on; the lead frequently becomes trapped under foot or in a book no matter how careful I am. I strangely feel the need to “listen†a lot more when I use my headphones, by this I mean I tend to over analyse the system and the music rather than just being able to sit back and enjoy a read and an album while the speaker system ticks over. Etc....

To summarise, do you feel it any longer socially (or legally) acceptable to use Hi-Fi to its full potential, or will all systems soon require the equivalent of a dog choker collar? Peoples tempers and what they will tolerate these days seems ever decreasing, given this anyone trying to start out on the housing ladder, who owns a fairly good Hi-Fi, would need to be very careful about their choice of volume :argue:

As such do you feel that speaker based Hi-Fi (audiophile standard – not mini systems) will soon become the reserve of the rich (these to me are the people who can afford to buy a detached house these days as well as £1k amp's) and the lucky i.e. the ones that brought their detached houses when one could be bought for less than £200k? Do you feel headphone based listening may be the future?

Cheers,
Rick

 

for me personally no,i spend a fair bit of time wearing the dam things at work,when youve worn a set of tecpros for anything up to 12 + hours you soon get sick of the sweaty ear syndrome

 

Well, with the bloody, sick, and frankly INSANE prices of the moment, I'll never be able to afford to buy a house, so I spend my cash on things I actually enjoy...

I mean, houses here in Exeter are more than double what they were three years ago - even in the really crap areas, yet no-one living in the south west can afford these prices due to low wages. My guess is a LOT of the stuff is buy-to-let - for those scummy people who consider a house is a PROPERTY not a HOME.

I'm hoping the prices will do a 1989 on us again - ha ha HA!

And for the record - headphones make me less analytical of the sound, but those damn cables are a PITA.

 

I agree. I/we bought our first house a few years ago now. Back then, it cost about 70k (small 3 bed starter house/terrace on the outskirts of bristol). It's now worth over £120k - and yes, the normal 3xsalary = mortgage now prevents most people from buying their own house. In hindsight, we should have bought the 120k house then - as they're nowe worth well over £250k. Still, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Anyway - our walls are like paper. Better hope you don't have a stomach upset, as poor construction ensures sounds from the bathroom are transmitted not only through our house, but into the neighbours houses too.

As well as listen to music - I also write music (go on, check out Caffeine Kill and Moon Foundation) ... and once I did have the neighbours hammering down my front door due to noise. It wasn't even that loud.

I always try to be careful with the main system - I know what neighbours from hell can be like, so I try to keep things low, especially at night.

Lunch times, I used to nip home - and have an hours worth of listening at a decent volume. My system really comes to life at higher volume, the tannoys especially need to be driven quite hard to really show what they're capable of. However, neighbours have now changed - and whereas the previous young couple who used to work - we now have an old couple who are home all day, every day.

So yes - new houses to effect my listening. And yes - I do use headphones ... I have a second system by the side of the bed - and I enjoy getting 'lost in the music' before falling asleep.

One suggestion ... if your headphone wires get trapped in books etc ... why don't you get a pair of those wireless infra-red jobbies? <ducks>


Steve

 

house prices are already starting to fall albeit by fractions of a percent and not in all areas but we may be at the top of the arc now. all we need is a few % rise in interest rates and house prices will plummet. unfortunately as there are a large numebr of people with ultra hefty mortgages thanks to refinancing for holidays, cars, home improvements, debt consolidation etc. there would be a lot of repossessions.
that said there are still some bargains out there. how about a block of 5 terraced houses in manchester for 50 - 60k ish at auction. the area is probably grim though.

i must say that i've great neighbors. i listen to music all day when they're out and on the weekends they are just as noisy as me so it cancels each other out plus there's a pretty hefty wall between us.

cant get on with headphones, the physical minuses and discomfort are just too great, id' rather listen at low levels. plus you'd be surprised as to how much noise is blocked from your neighbors, if they have their tv on i'm sure they won;t hear anything.
cheers

julian

 

not for me, headphones are too claustrophobic and they don't allow you to "see" the music infront of you like stereo speakers.

Fortunately I bought my first property, a 1 bedroom garden flat in south London over 3 years ago. When I sold it, it had gone up so much I couldn't of afforded to buy it.

Have to feel sorry for the graduates these days, massive student loans and an unobtainable first rung on the so called property ladder.

ram
________
Toyota cs&s history

 

My parents paid £15,000 for their terrace house in 1980, identical houses in the area are now selling for £180,000. With these kind of prices I am priced well out of the area probably even Manchester. Even in 'proper' Salford which has not had good press terrace houses are now fetching £60k (this is the corrie style streets).

There is a new housing estate been built a couple of miles down the road from me on the site of on old hospital and the starting price for a 3 bed terrace is £280k. Ouch.

With this kind of inflation a crash may be round the corner, but here at least house prices just keep on rising and rising. I am sure the South East slow down will hit the North West soon though.

 

As much as that? You can buy an entire street of 50 houses in Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne for £50.

Grim doesnt even begin to describe it though!

 

Looks like one of the posher bits of Newcastle to me.

-- Ian

 

Ian, it is!

 

Our one bedroomed flat is valued at £140,000

If you want stupid prices, move 20 minutes from London like we did.

 

To get things back on track, I like headphones but....

When my girlfriend and I moved from our last place to this one, the Hi-Fi took up more of the living room, and I didn't really put it in the best place. I didn't get many opportunities to crank it up, so in a fit of rational madness, I sold most of it, and put the money into a new TT. It wasn't until I started accumulating more kit again that I was told in no uncertain terms that I couldn't have a main system in the living room any more. I built a system in my 'blokes room', but the acoustics were terrible and I didn't listen as much as I had hoped I might. Cue a repeat selling of the system and a move to headphones. They're really convinient, and we've got a Teac mini system in the living room - not high fidelity, but its unobtrusive, and I can crank it up if I want a wall of sound. Now, I'm in the process of getting the upgraded LP12 sey up in the living room, with a Meta42 headphone amp, and a pair of Senn HD600's, whilst I've got a Denon DCD-3520 player in the bloke room - currently with the Senns and Meta, but I've got a Sugden A48 MkII on the way with a headphone amp built in - time will tell if its any good. I've also got some Sony MDR-EX71SL's for use in public spaces.
If I could have a full system again, in the living room, I probably would. However, to a great extent its wishful thinking on my behalf, because I don't get the chance to listen to as much music at reasonable volume I would like. I've got enough components to build a system in the bloke room again should I so desire, but for the moment everything works well. In addition, I'm getting a better quality of sound than I was before, because you're money buys you more.
Simon

 

:spank:

 

What a load of stress!

Get yourselves a 6 Bed detached in Birkenhead for less than £100k still..

Phones are nice for recording - I can hear detail easier, but
I wouldnt do without speakers that do bass, and the biggest room we can afford. As for SWMBO...I can tolerate most things, but the speakers go in the best place.

Fit her a TV aerial in the bedroom or bog, so she can watch garbage all night. Buy her a kettle too, and you should get plenty time to blast it out.

Graham C

 

Lot's of variation in pricing here chaps, I suppose it's all well and good going for a £70k detached house but if your system gets stolen every other day there's not much point

It does look as though there isn't a definitive answer to this (as I suspected, my theories were just that, ideas), every situation is different but it has gone some way to confirm that there are people out there using headphones for the reasons I mentioned.

I have recently started simply using my system quietly, over using the headphone system, I have it ticking over at about 1/4 on the volume knob while having a read and it's really quite enjoyable :MILD:

I have also noticed the ringing in my right ear has now completely gone, unfortunately I have absolutely no idea how loud something actually is through headphones as I just get used to the volume and crank it up a bit more....not good!!

 

Ringing in your ear? That's bad. Very bad.

Be careful!!!


Steve

 

RDD yep thats exactly what I do, it starts of with the headphones at 9:00 o'clock and by the end of the listening session it ends up at 11:00. And on the turntable its often 2:00 but the pre-amp dosn't make the turntable volume equal to line level.

I have a rule though to try and make sure I never go past 10/11 on the clock, if it does I turn it down.

I think night clubs are probably more damaging for your ears as I often get tinitus when coming out of them. I had a hearing test yesterday and my hearing has not changed one bit since my first test in July 1986 which is encouraging.

 

Sorry, my mistake, it's actually more of a quiet high pitched whistle. This is only noticable when it's quiet (i.e. no music) and goes louder the more volume I put into my ears.

It has pretty much gone since I stopped listening to my 'cans.

 

Seconded - there's no need to whack nightclub systems up so loud - you can dance to music a LOT quieter than they play. I stick bogroll in my ears - I don't care how stupid it looks. I'm not losing what's left of my hearing just to look "cool".

Where's this area of Newcastle, Paul? I'd drop 500 quid and get a whole block, then level it and sell it to a property developer...

 

Oh please please PLEASE let prices crash - serve those smug muppets who lord it over me just right! Pity the a-hole buy-to-let brigade won't lose out though - I mean, unemployed people can still get housing benefit - which means said buy-to-let muppets might STILL come out smelling of roses - grrrrr....

It's holiday home/buy-to-let that's ruined the South West's house prices. I'd outlaw holiday homes straight off if I got into power - nice swamping of the market and affordable housing again.

Why don't the government buy those places in Benwell and dump the bogus asylum seekers in there? Or even better, build a huge wall around it and turn it into a fend-for-yourself prison a'la Escape from New York. Escape from Newcastle sounds less fun though!