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So I guess you travel with an orchestra? Because there aren't any "natural" / "neutral" / whatever speakers / headphones / cochlear implants. They all get a si

So I guess you travel with an orchestra? Because there aren't any "natural" / "neutral" / whatever speakers / headphones / cochlear implants. They all get a signal and a task: make this sound the way the listener wants. "Just make it sound as it did when it was (live) recorded"? That's not going to happen even assuming some "perfect" speakers (not headphones), unless you can also supply the room, audience, humidity, and appropriate level of inebriation. Apple has done a lot of of work on adjusting AirPods to your head and ear, IIRC. That's all software, and exactly the sort of thing they've been good at, even in the last few years. It's basically iPhone camera vs. Canon & Nikon, the sequel. How many times did people on HN insist phone cameras will never be as good as SLRs, because the latter have the five pound of glass it takes to create good photos? Turns out software and sensors are a pretty good substitute. While some features of good lenses are still not quite there (bokeh), they've eviscerated them in other, arguably more important disciplines (low light).

tomc1985 6y ago
Phone cameras still aren't as good as SLRs, and never will be due to sensor size and optics. Apple could have made these as good as $500 Sennheiser/Grado/Sony cans. But they didn't. Rants about "traveling with an orchestra" don't even make sense when one listens to music produced exclusively in-the-box. And even if I am listening to recorded material what is wrong with nuance and detail... after all that is what the mixing and mastering engineers heard when they made it. Do you think they choose their microphones and recording hardware willy-nilly? Software is a terrible substitute for hardware! Hardware is easier to understand, latency-free, and produces a more harmonically interesting result
- rblatz 6y ago
  Yeah man, you live in a different world from 95% of consumers. For typical users the iPhone camera will destroy what they could do with an SLR. You remind me of a buddy of mine that has hearing loss from the marines. He is a giant headphone nut, and owns numerous $500+ pairs of headphones. All sorts of head phone amplifiers and dacs. But his hearing loss prevents any of that from really even mattering.
  - tomc1985 6y ago
    Does it? Or are you just saying that? You can't experience hearing through his ears, so how can you possibly say that? Hearing loss is a weird beast that takes many forms. If he truly cannot tell the difference between Beats and his setup in a blind hearing test then maybe I would agree. Do you know if he's done this?

tomc1985 6y ago

Phone cameras still aren't as good as SLRs, and never will be due to sensor size and optics. Apple could have made these as good as $500 Sennheiser/Grado/Sony cans. But they didn't. Rants about "traveling with an orchestra" don't even make sense when one listens to music produced exclusively in-the-box. And even if I am listening to recorded material what is wrong with nuance and detail... after all that is what the mixing and mastering engineers heard when they made it. Do you think they choose their microphones and recording hardware willy-nilly? Software is a terrible substitute for hardware! Hardware is easier to understand, latency-free, and produces a more harmonically interesting result

rblatz 6y ago
Yeah man, you live in a different world from 95% of consumers. For typical users the iPhone camera will destroy what they could do with an SLR. You remind me of a buddy of mine that has hearing loss from the marines. He is a giant headphone nut, and owns numerous $500+ pairs of headphones. All sorts of head phone amplifiers and dacs. But his hearing loss prevents any of that from really even mattering.
- tomc1985 6y ago
  Does it? Or are you just saying that? You can't experience hearing through his ears, so how can you possibly say that? Hearing loss is a weird beast that takes many forms. If he truly cannot tell the difference between Beats and his setup in a blind hearing test then maybe I would agree. Do you know if he's done this?