I am not averse (see, didn't include anyone else in my pronouncement) to finding those quality pieces for less money; sometimes it pans out, most times I realize that something is not quite right for whatever reason, and I am ultimately dissatisfied with it. SO you need to look yourself in the eye and be honest with what kind of person type are you - the kind who listens for yourself and can be happy with a "good deal" or "giant killer", the kind who says "It's got to cost $$ or it's no good", or possibly "I can't tell the difference between A and B, but if so-and-so says it's good, that's good enough for me". You will save yourself a lot of time and money and heartache in acknowledging what type you are. Coming from a musical background, I would initially buy a cheaper model guitar and tell myself that it was just as good as the more expensive model but then spend lots of money and time upgrading parts, and still ending up getting rid of that guitar and buying what I really wanted in the first place. I now try to catch myself before I go buy the "Junior" version of something and ultimately spend more money in the long run. Understanding that sometimes you just can't swing (insert appropriate amount of money here) right now but if the one you really want isn't too too far out of reach, hold off until you can get it (maybe used).
So how much do you think the placebo effect impacts our listening preferences?
My hypothesis is that for ~%97 of us, the more a headphone costs the more we will enjoy the headphone.
My secondary hypothesis is that the more I told consumers a headset cost, the more they would enjoy the phones. i.e. a $30 headphone < $300 headphone < $3,000 headphones <<< $30,000 headphones.
I’m willing to bet that if I put the kph 30i drivers in the focal utopia’s chassis and told participants in this fake study that the phones cost $4k.... Everyone except for the 3%ers would never guess something was up. The remaining 97% would have no clue and report that it was the best set they ever heard.
Then if I gave them the kph30i and explained it was $30. 97% of people would crap on them after hearing the same driver in a different chassis.
My ultimate hypothesis is that build quality and price are the two most important factors in determining if people will enjoy a set of headphones. This how I rationalize the HD8XX getting crap on when only 3 people have heard it and publicly provided their opinion lol. "It’s a cheaper 800s, of course it’s going to sound worse!"