6 ms·

I think you only start caring about quality once you have sufficient depth of experience in the subject that you actually care about. Example would be audiophi

by gbuk2013 2y ago

I think you only start caring about quality once you have sufficient depth of experience in the subject that you actually care about. Example would be audiophiles - most people can't hear the differences that they trained themselves to hear. Also an illustration that training yourself to prefer quality is an expensive choice. :) My personal thing is high CRI LED lights - most people don’t notice the difference but the flat-looking 80% CRI lights that are installed everywhere really bug me.

nradov 2y ago
Audiophiles can't hear the difference either. They usually fail blind A/B tests.
- gbuk2013 2y ago
  Everything can be taken to extremes but up to a point you can definitely hear the difference - e.g. MP3 vs FLAC, quality vs budget headphones etc. I never wanted to go any deeper than that for fear of escalating costs!
  - leeoniya 2y ago
    lol we made same comment at same time :D
    - gbuk2013 2y ago
      Most be true then :)
- leeoniya 2y ago
  eh, it's a spectrum. i would not call myself an audiophile, per se, but i can hear the difference between a 128kbps MP3 and Opus 96kbps. same with $10 ear buds vs $150 iems, or my laptop's shitty 3.5mm stereo jack and a $30 usb dac. once you get into stuff like $1K iems or dacs it's mostly bullshit (aside from brand/aesthetics, and things unrelated to audio fidelity). same with anyone claiming they can hear a difference between FLAC and Opus 160; trust me, you can't.
  - steveBK123 2y ago
    With all products there are diminishing returns and there are connoisseurs who thrive on pushing past those and straight into veblen land. Wine is similar. Most can tell a $5 bottle from a $20 bottle but $100 or $1000 is unlikely to be as discernible. Even the alleged experts fail blind tests. Some can even confuse some reds & whites in true blind tests.
    - leeoniya 2y ago
      https://thevinylfactory.com/news/japanese-audiophiles-personal-utility-pole/ https://thevinylfactory.com/news/japanese-audiophiles-person...
      - steveBK123 2y ago
        Japanese dudes are just built different.
  - brightlancer 2y ago
    > same with $10 ear buds vs $150 iems Are there $150 pairs which are better than every $10 or $20 pair? Sure. But there are plenty of $150 headphones which have the same quality as a $10 pair of earbuds. People overpay for brand names, for trendy styles, for good marketing/ branding, etc. Price _alone_ is not an indicator of quality.
  - pessimizer 2y ago
    > i would not call myself an audiophile, per se, but i can hear the difference between a 128kbps MP3 and Opus 96kbps. That's not the question, everyone can. The question is whether you can tell the difference between a 320kb/s, or even a 192kb/s mp3 and a flac. People might say they can, but they'll fail when you test them. > same with $10 ear buds vs $150 iems When luxury earbuds became a fad, every major company pulled their high quality cheap ones off the market, and marked everything up. It caused me to panic because I loved a cheap ($15) Sony line that I would usually have to replace yearly, and when I went to replace them, they were gone. Every cheap good earbud was gone. I managed to find a case of the Sonys on Ebay shipped from Mexico, and have only gone through half the case since. I can compare, so I know how good (not $1K good, but good) they were. Most people can't.
- tonyedgecombe 2y ago
  It's the same for wine drinkers.
blauditore 2y ago
I put some effort to choose high-CRI light sources at home, but I have to say the difference is not very notable in many everyday situations, only when doing specific things (e.g. playing a board game where colors matter). What irritates me more are badly dimmed LEDs, i.e. too low frequency, causing a visual "stuttering" effect on moving things, espcially reflective objects. But generally, I agree.
- gbuk2013 2y ago
  I’m in charge of the laundry at home and I tell you it for sure helps me tell apart my wife’s dark blue tights from her black ones when I’m sorting things into piles. :)
  - CamJN 2y ago
    Perhaps like me you are somewhat blue/black colour blind. It’s apparently a deficiency in rods in your eyes.

nradov 2y ago

Audiophiles can't hear the difference either. They usually fail blind A/B tests.

gbuk2013 2y ago
Everything can be taken to extremes but up to a point you can definitely hear the difference - e.g. MP3 vs FLAC, quality vs budget headphones etc. I never wanted to go any deeper than that for fear of escalating costs!
- leeoniya 2y ago
  lol we made same comment at same time :D
  - gbuk2013 2y ago
    Most be true then :)
leeoniya 2y ago
eh, it's a spectrum. i would not call myself an audiophile, per se, but i can hear the difference between a 128kbps MP3 and Opus 96kbps. same with $10 ear buds vs $150 iems, or my laptop's shitty 3.5mm stereo jack and a $30 usb dac. once you get into stuff like $1K iems or dacs it's mostly bullshit (aside from brand/aesthetics, and things unrelated to audio fidelity). same with anyone claiming they can hear a difference between FLAC and Opus 160; trust me, you can't.
- steveBK123 2y ago
  With all products there are diminishing returns and there are connoisseurs who thrive on pushing past those and straight into veblen land. Wine is similar. Most can tell a $5 bottle from a $20 bottle but $100 or $1000 is unlikely to be as discernible. Even the alleged experts fail blind tests. Some can even confuse some reds & whites in true blind tests.
  - leeoniya 2y ago
    https://thevinylfactory.com/news/japanese-audiophiles-personal-utility-pole/ https://thevinylfactory.com/news/japanese-audiophiles-person...
    - steveBK123 2y ago
      Japanese dudes are just built different.
- brightlancer 2y ago
  > same with $10 ear buds vs $150 iems Are there $150 pairs which are better than every $10 or $20 pair? Sure. But there are plenty of $150 headphones which have the same quality as a $10 pair of earbuds. People overpay for brand names, for trendy styles, for good marketing/ branding, etc. Price _alone_ is not an indicator of quality.
- pessimizer 2y ago
  > i would not call myself an audiophile, per se, but i can hear the difference between a 128kbps MP3 and Opus 96kbps. That's not the question, everyone can. The question is whether you can tell the difference between a 320kb/s, or even a 192kb/s mp3 and a flac. People might say they can, but they'll fail when you test them. > same with $10 ear buds vs $150 iems When luxury earbuds became a fad, every major company pulled their high quality cheap ones off the market, and marked everything up. It caused me to panic because I loved a cheap ($15) Sony line that I would usually have to replace yearly, and when I went to replace them, they were gone. Every cheap good earbud was gone. I managed to find a case of the Sonys on Ebay shipped from Mexico, and have only gone through half the case since. I can compare, so I know how good (not $1K good, but good) they were. Most people can't.
tonyedgecombe 2y ago
It's the same for wine drinkers.

blauditore 2y ago

I put some effort to choose high-CRI light sources at home, but I have to say the difference is not very notable in many everyday situations, only when doing specific things (e.g. playing a board game where colors matter). What irritates me more are badly dimmed LEDs, i.e. too low frequency, causing a visual "stuttering" effect on moving things, espcially reflective objects. But generally, I agree.

gbuk2013 2y ago
I’m in charge of the laundry at home and I tell you it for sure helps me tell apart my wife’s dark blue tights from her black ones when I’m sorting things into piles. :)
- CamJN 2y ago
  Perhaps like me you are somewhat blue/black colour blind. It’s apparently a deficiency in rods in your eyes.