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!"

mikedangelo

Showing 1 response by hshifi

Hello,
This is ridiculous, so vague! Maybe I am part of the problem for responding. As we talked about before there are some newcomers and new people to AGon or being an audiophile who read this. Then they believe that a basic headphone sounds the same as a $3000 headphone. It’s doesn’t! I’m not even a headphone person but I do know about the sound differences of products. The only thing I will agree with is the laws of diminishing returns. The less people buy of something or the more it costs to make the more it’s going cost to buy due to proprietary parts.  How many people can afford  six figure Wilson’s compared to how many can afford Tekton speakers. A 42” plasma used to cost $20,000. Now they fill our dumps. I know this is my opinion. If any new people need to learn about products or have good questions to help build your system please ask away. Most are hear to help. Also, if your are going to post. At least read and respond to the posts. Why drop a ridiculous comment and walk away when you are the OP. Most see my posts and I try to help anyone who asks on and off the forum and others do the same for me. So when I leave a post like this it’s a big deal.