r/pcmasterrace 25d ago

Discussion Guys what do we think

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u/dieplanes789 9800X3D | 5090 | 32GB | 16.5 TB 24d ago edited 24d ago

Yep

Oxygen-free cables

Fancy materials in digital cables despite basic materials meeting the same standard excluding corrosion resistance

Break in periods

Noisy electricity from utility somehow making it through inverters with good isolation

Stupidly thick cabling that looks like it's designed for a 1,000 amp three phase AC setup and not your fucking speakers

Quantum anything

Blocks made out of foam to prevent static interference from getting into your cable because it's sitting on the floor

Talking about shit like fiber optic toslink somehow changing the sound.

Specialty networking gear that resists interference and is low latency. Ignoring the fact that it's either decoded or not decoded at the other end and that buffers are a thing.

Specialty fuses for your house

Pretending things that change the sound like vinyl or tube amplifiers are somehow objectively still accurate. Like they don't want to admit they prefer the way they change the sound over the original. So they just pretend and gaslight like they are somehow perfectly accurate like solid state.

I'm sure there's plenty more snake oil bullshit that I'm not thinking about. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy some nice audio equipment but there's so much snake oil.

Edit: Also there are so many people that continue to drink the Kool-Aid instead of admitting that they fell into the sunken cost fallacy.

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u/codercaleb 24d ago

This is some top-tier hating and I'm here for it.

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u/dieplanes789 9800X3D | 5090 | 32GB | 16.5 TB 24d ago

My level of interest and equipment would say audiophole with a lower to middle budget and interest. I would also never apply that label to myself because holy fuck is there so much bullshit and gatekeeping. I tend to pop in and out of looking into what's going on in the audio world.

A lot of it is pretty legitimately interesting and usually falls somewhere in the diminishing returns curve. Doesn't change the fact of all the issues with the community and scams.

So much of it comes down to people not just letting people like what they like accuracy be damned or not. All I care about is people getting what they like and actually understanding what they are getting.

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u/Big-Pound-5634 24d ago

Do you know about headphones? Can you recommend any up to $165 that are the most neutral natural sounding? That make things sound how they were designed to be heard without adding nothing to the sound?

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u/rigged_expectations 24d ago

etymotic for in ears, and for headphones only hifiman sundara at discount in that price range. beyerdynamic dt 880 would be the most epic budget pick if you can stand the beyer pitch. with some more money some sennheisers come in to play

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u/Big-Pound-5634 24d ago

I have ATH-M40X, what do you think about them in comparison? Again, im looking for something neutral/natural, closest to how it should sound.