Little i-pods - big headphones - huh?

[Yorkie]

Anyone noticed that a craze seems to have swept the country for users of i-pods and similar MP3 players, and indeed laptops, to abandon the usual in-ear pod earpieces in favour of stonking great big over-the-ear headphones.

What's that all about?

Really quite bizarre, when the sound delivered by MP3 players is a trade-off between quality and portability. Headphones can't put back what isn't there.

No doubt there will be one particular brand that is a 'must have'.

They're everywhere - I've seen them in Hull, on the train, on Eurostar, in Paris. Sad to see so many people walking around no doubt think they look 'cool', despite looking like Mr Bean.

[Steve_P]

Kids, huh!

Somebody has pointed out to the right 'people' that the bigger headphones give a better sound quality (true in a broadcast studio or on a good Walkman) and this has been accepted by the youth who think that it does the same with an MP3 player.

It also depends on the level of the MP3 played. But I doubt that the kids know that either.

At least you can see the zombies now and don't try to talk to them!

Cheers,

Steve P.

[Mark Hennessy]

I wouldn't be quite so quick to write off the MP3 player as a source. But obviously it varies - some generations of iPod skimped on the output capacitor, so were bass-light when driving low-impedance loads. I have a Sony which sounds very nice indeed, and as a source for an amplifier, it's even better.

There is a rising awareness of the importance of bit-rates, and with storage increasing in these portable devices the need to heavily compress is less and less. But, it's very subjective, and some people aren't all that bothered by low bit rates. Certainly, I'm not. I'm much more upset by "analogue" distortions like wow and flutter, FM multipath distortion, HF distortion caused by slightly worn records (that's all of them, in my experience), which obviously gets worse towards the disc end. When I listen to DAB, I rarely hear genuine MP2 artefacts - what I hear is "bubbling mud" caused by the error detection and correction scheme, coupled with the awful dynamic-range processing that nearly all stations employ. The last time I heard an MP2 artefact, it was on R3 at 192 kb/s, and that's because they don't crush the dynamic range from their output - if you compress such that there's only 6dB of dynamic range, then MP2 sounds fine at 128kb/s and below! I don't know if I've ever heard such a thing on DTT, which obviously uses MP2 - although I've noticed that they use Joint Stereo, which does affect the stereo image when you listen properly with your eyes shut (best way to watch modern TV IMHO!).

I wore large-ish headphones 20 years ago with a cassette walkman. I don't recall the older generation looking at me with disdain, but would I have noticed? Probably not. I certainly don't object to youngsters listening to music, providing they're keeping it to themselves. Even a little bit of "spill" from their headphones doesn't really bother me, beyond making me worry for the health of their hearing. Of course, playing from their mobile phones ("sod-casting") really upsets me - at least I had the decency to carry around a boom-box. But, I appreciate the importance of music for the well-being of the mind and soul, and would much rather our younger generation was playing music - even if I don't understand or like it - than watching Jeremy Kyle or whatever mindless drivel passes for TV these days.

I'm getting old!

Mark

[Joe]

My main MP3 player is a twenty quid thing from Aldi containing mostly WMA files which sound great to me. If I'm sat listening to it properly, as opposed to pottering about, I'll have my bigger, better head-phones on, often via a pair of LM386s.

- Joe

[AlanBeckett]

Why do people feel the need to have a continuous drip of music(?) in their ears?
Can't they look round and appreciate the world as it is? or perhaps exercise what brain cells they have left?
Why do they need to walk about in a constant Audio fog?
We've been out to lunch in a reasonable establishment and we had to seach out a table where we were actually able to talk. The original idea of Musak, as I understood it, was to mask other people's conversation, not write off conversation altogether.
If I last long enough I'm looking forward to going deaf.
Alan

[Joe]

I've walked out of pubs for that very reason.

The other thing that's always foxed me is people who can't live without the television on. One of my old customers would turn the sound off when I went 'round but never switch it fully off.

I very rarely go out with ear-phones as if it's something I really want to hear I can't concentrate on it so there's no point and if not why bother at all?

- Joe

[tiv48]

i think the ones the kids are waring are called beats or monster beats with names of famous djs ie dr dre and can cost up to £250 advertised as good for hip hop and r+b .apair of £40 Sennheise sound far better

rob t

[Bushbaby]

As a daily train user I'm glad of the big headphones as it means the personal hifi is exactly that 'personal' - I dont have to listen to the horrible residue of sound that comes from earphones (badly worn) at high volume.

I use a pair of Sennheiser noise cancelling portable headphones with my ipod. I must admit that I wear it a lot in the current office as its too noisy with continual drone of idle chatter (yes, I'm a boring old f**t!!).

Rob