2. headphones
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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 twoleftears

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twoleftears
5,313 posts
 
...any objective assessment of the characteristics of the product itself.
But here's the problem.  You can have a mental checklist of things you want the component to do, and how well it does each one of them.  But the response to music is at least 50% emotional, which means that a large subjective element is going to come into the evaluation.

The trick is to keep separate the emotions inspired in you by the music played by the component, and other emotions you might have about the company, the advertising, the attitude of the dealer, and a host of other factors.

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