Are headphones a "gateway drug" to high end audio? Or a permanent shift is spending?

caesar

Well-Known Member
May 30, 2010
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Is anyone aware of large numbers of people who are using high end headphones migrating to high end audio?
 

Fiddle Faddle

Member
Aug 7, 2015
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Australia
Is anyone aware of large numbers of people who are using high end headphones migrating to high end audio?

I don't know what the statistics say but I tend to think not. It seems to be that high end headphone fans are very parochial in their outlook when it comes to audio in general. But that is just my intuitive feeling based on being around headphone communities for years. They do seem to be more inclined to spend funds on the latest headphone related gear than to take the plunge into high end audio.

Then again, that makes sense to me. Headphone users enjoy unique advantages when practising their hobby (though of course they suffer unique disadvantages too). But it seems to me that the culture around high end headphone gear is about improving the breed and spending money on a given company's latest high end product rather than making a quantum leap to traditional audio. Afterall, if you are a headphone user and you want to blow $5,000, that won't get you very far at all (if anywhere at all!) in high end audio but it will get you very far in the headphone world.

If you look at the history of companies such as Sennheiser, for example, their products have been produced at ever-increasing price brackets to the point where their top end over the ear model costs as much as a very decent stand mount (like a P3ESR) and their top of the line in-ear still hit's the $1,000 mark depending on what country you live in. And those products could be considered to be "mainstream" given you don't have to look far to buy an in-ear non-custom headphone for $5,000, for example. I see amplifiers for sale that cost more than a new small car. So it can get insane too in so far as headphones are concerned, but even then that is really only just starting to encroach on high end audio entry level prices for individual components.

Consider too that the dedicated and long term headphone user never has to concern themselves with room acoustics, room isolation, annoying neighbours, etc, then it is easy to see why they are inclined to stay in their camp. For my own part, I have a headphone system now that I enjoy more than I ever did middle of the range audio, but I will never pretend it could hold a candle to high end audio. Then again, if I were to even just acquire a stand mount setup, the costs required would probably be around the $15,000 mark to cover room treatment, amplification, stands, cables and the speakers themselves. And I'd ask myself why I would do that when I'd still have to start restricting my listening hours (as in time of day or night) and I could otherwise enjoy a heck of an upgrade to my source, for example, for that same money.

Don't get me wrong. I am sure there are some who make that leap. Just not many. I think as time goes by, there would be even less people wanting to make that move. In my case, for example, I may want to downsize my home within the next ten years when I'll be at retirement age, and not needing to worry about accommodating high end audio makes choosing a new place to live much easier (and cheaper too). Here in Australia with the country having all but run out of affordable "traditional" real estate (unless you want to live in a remote country area), the apartment market is booming - a market compatible with headphone listening but certainly not with high end audio.
 

Rodney Gold

Member
Jan 29, 2014
983
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Cape Town South Africa
I think high end headphones are the gateway drug to more high end headphone setups and not to high end conventional hifi.
 

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