3 ms·

The data sample sizes are too small to draw any real conclusion, but it's pretty obvious what's going on. Audiophiles care about sound quality more than anythi

The data sample sizes are too small to draw any real conclusion, but it's pretty obvious what's going on. Audiophiles care about sound quality more than anything, and spend time researching what kind of cans fit their personal listening preferences as well as listening environment. They spend money on headphones because music and audio quality is their passion/hobby. Hackers, for the most part, have more money to spend than the average "consumer", but music and audio quality isn't necessarily their hobby. If those Bose ads are everywhere and the mini-stores are in airports, or if everyone and their mother has "Beats" labeled headphones/earphones, then they're more likely to just spend whatever their budget is on Bose or Beats, because since it's not their passion, they are less likely to research. So we end up with hackers paying more for worse listening experiences than audiophiles. I bet car enthusiasts get a better deal on buying used cars than audiophiles. And chefs pick out better produce than car enthusiasts. Is this really interesting?

drostie 15y ago
It is to me. I was very surprised that programmers pay ~$100-$200 for padded over-the-head headphones. Perhaps this is just ultra-typical. The styles are very interesting, although unfortunately they don't provide that data directly; the brands are also somewhat interesting. Keep in mind, I say this as someone who is apparently quite atypical. I have converted to neckphones -- headphones which wrap around your neck while wearing them -- as things which occupy my permanent ensemble. It's partly because I wanted to be able to quickly drop and resume music listening while cycling, but to be honest the padded headphones feeling around my neck died in high school for me, and hasn't been resurrected. They were too sweaty and you couldn't really wear them around your neck comfortably and sleekly while you were in a situation where you wanted to pay attention. Thinner traditional headphones are good for that, earbuds are horrible for that. I feel like the story is missing the details, though. I could write a blog I suppose about all the neckphones I've used and their relative advantages, but honestly it seems like my basic problem is "I expect to accidentally sit on my headphones once or twice per year and they must be cheap, so that I think of them as expendable." That's not really in this article. ^_^;; I've used Sennheisers, I have a pair of Sonys now, but I must remark that at least for neckphones, after several frustrating experiences with other brands my brand loyalty today belongs with Philips. So I am even more atypical; they don't make the graph at all here. ^_^;; I feel some extra pride because it's a Dutch company, but still: the last Philips neckband headphones I bought, the SHS5200s, lasted me almost an entire year for (if I'm remembering this correctly) 15 euro, with beautiful sound that, unlike my present Sony's, didn't leak sound to my office mates. They ultimately wore down because they had a straight headphone jack, not an L-shaped one. (The headphone ports on both my old and newer laptop were/are on the front, and therefore fatigue the cord when I'm reclining with my laptop on evenings and weekends.) The only reason I'm ranting about them, and I promise I'll stop, is that the SHS5200s actually solved the problem of cord-extension breaks. And it's retrospectively such a simple engineering fix: just don't make the audio wire load-bearing. Use a piece of elastic to "bunch up" a little bit of wire, when you accidentally hyperextend your cord, the elastic is what responds. It's a brilliant little thing. The reason I'm saying all of this is just that, in my role as hacker, these are the little things which I value most. The sound quality needs to be pretty beautiful, yes, but there are other practical problems like being able to comfortably keep them around my neck when I'm walking around town.

drostie 15y ago

It is to me. I was very surprised that programmers pay ~$100-$200 for padded over-the-head headphones. Perhaps this is just ultra-typical. The styles are very interesting, although unfortunately they don't provide that data directly; the brands are also somewhat interesting. Keep in mind, I say this as someone who is apparently quite atypical. I have converted to neckphones -- headphones which wrap around your neck while wearing them -- as things which occupy my permanent ensemble. It's partly because I wanted to be able to quickly drop and resume music listening while cycling, but to be honest the padded headphones feeling around my neck died in high school for me, and hasn't been resurrected. They were too sweaty and you couldn't really wear them around your neck comfortably and sleekly while you were in a situation where you wanted to pay attention. Thinner traditional headphones are good for that, earbuds are horrible for that. I feel like the story is missing the details, though. I could write a blog I suppose about all the neckphones I've used and their relative advantages, but honestly it seems like my basic problem is "I expect to accidentally sit on my headphones once or twice per year and they must be cheap, so that I think of them as expendable." That's not really in this article. ^_^;; I've used Sennheisers, I have a pair of Sonys now, but I must remark that at least for neckphones, after several frustrating experiences with other brands my brand loyalty today belongs with Philips. So I am even more atypical; they don't make the graph at all here. ^_^;; I feel some extra pride because it's a Dutch company, but still: the last Philips neckband headphones I bought, the SHS5200s, lasted me almost an entire year for (if I'm remembering this correctly) 15 euro, with beautiful sound that, unlike my present Sony's, didn't leak sound to my office mates. They ultimately wore down because they had a straight headphone jack, not an L-shaped one. (The headphone ports on both my old and newer laptop were/are on the front, and therefore fatigue the cord when I'm reclining with my laptop on evenings and weekends.) The only reason I'm ranting about them, and I promise I'll stop, is that the SHS5200s actually solved the problem of cord-extension breaks. And it's retrospectively such a simple engineering fix: just don't make the audio wire load-bearing. Use a piece of elastic to "bunch up" a little bit of wire, when you accidentally hyperextend your cord, the elastic is what responds. It's a brilliant little thing. The reason I'm saying all of this is just that, in my role as hacker, these are the little things which I value most. The sound quality needs to be pretty beautiful, yes, but there are other practical problems like being able to comfortably keep them around my neck when I'm walking around town.