Headphones

Kids parroting what they hear from youtubers or what they read here without having real experience with the products. "This headphone is trash, worthless without EQ!"

Yeah.. I think my biggest pet peave is the EQ gang. I have no objection with EQing and I undersrand the point but I hate those who preach like it is absolutely necessary to EQ everything to the fucking Harman curve.

Not a huge deal but the misuse of "end game". End game is a phrase which originated on headfi when dinosaurs roamed the earth (before 2010 ...) and it meant a setup so good you couldn't possibly want more.

I see posters on here regularly who try two or three modestly priced headphones, keep one, and declare it their "end game". That's not endgame, it's just a headphone you can afford and like enough to not sell it within a week of buying. Its like if I test-drove a 2024 Civic and Corolla, bought the Civic, and then posted on r/cars "well that's it bois, I found my end-game car the Civic, I'm out of the car game forever, much peace and love to those of you still chasing the endgame."

I understand that it can be difficult to save money. It can be difficult to hold off and wait until some chips have stacked and to actually upgrade. It feels weird seeing people with 20 pairs of IEMs and chasing all the different tunings when, with the money spent to this point, they could have purchased a very serious upgrade. Like "I can drop $1k over the course of two years on sub-$100 sets but the thought of just waiting for a while so I could drop $300-$500 on something SERIOUS is abhorrent." But to each their own. If you really enjoy collecting like that then more power to you, just my perception of the habit. It starts to look compulsive.

Militant objectivism. Deification of certain prominent influencers. It used to be more balanced in its discussion of IEMs but in the last few years it's turned into a Chifi cult. In the portable space resentment of anything that costs over $100.

Hobbyist giving hobbyist advice and then arguing with professionals/ science. I try and keep my nose out of it but I still get second hand embarrassment seeing some of the hills people will be willing to die on.

Who wants to praise HD6XX with me? They are amazing for vocals!

Reviewers calling everything Harman tuned regardless of how closely it actually follows the Harman target.

No bass tuck? Not Harman.

The negativity toward Bluetooth headphones

The amount of wasted energy we spend worrying about the status and behavior of "the community." Literally no other hobby I have has such a weird, constant, running, meta commentary about itself

I hate the fact that people think that a headphone with improper volume reproduction on certain frequencies that makes things sound quieter, aka farther away, is a good thing. big soundstage is not a good thing to go after imo. it takes sound that is intimate and engaging and completely removes some of that all-important intimacy and honesty of the sound. this should not be a preference thing, I do not know how people have been THIS brainwashed by the big headphone reviewers and other influences that convince them that a "wide soundstage" is a good thing. I have had headphones that have this aspect to them, or at least more so than 6xx, such as 560s, ananda stealth, and focal elex, to name a few. elex is most similar but still a little quieter in the vocals while somehow having a sibilance issue. ananda is the worst headphone I have ever owned in regards to sibilance, very technically capable, but with terrible tuning. 560s made some things sound weirdly quieter than they are supposed to sound. so overall i can't understand why people go for gear with these attributes.

I went into this hobby to get a better sound than what consumer brands offered. so I got 6xx because of all of the popularity and recommendations. did not, and still have not regretted it. I have tried to "upgrade" from it but it seems i just cant because any marginal improvement like with the elex bass and detail advantage comes with its own downsides, such as sibilance or that all important "soundstage". 6xx is recommended for a reason. and people who hate on it just because of its popularity do not deserve respect from others in the community.

I also don't like headphones and entire brands that tune their products to be unenjoyable to just listen to, just to get that last ounce of perceived detail, cough*(hifiman). if you have to eq a headphone for it to even remotely sound good, then imo its not worth the investment.

The sheep mentality and bad information/advice that's given and/or thrown around. It seems more apparent nowadays people aren't willing to try and discover things for themselves.

Personally, the circlejerk or the anti-circlejerk around a product/company, etc. At worst one side leans so heavily to an opinion to the point they sound less objective as they can be which could unrightfully turn away a potential buyer from something that's right for them. But I think it tends to happen in online communities.