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Developments in the headphone world seem to be happening and an increasing pace and I jumped from that particular treadmill a couple of years ago. I have three systems, mancave, bedroom and portable that work well for me and any "improvement" would be small in relation to the outlay required.

I too dabbled in headphones for a while, one of the things I found appealing was that they don't take up a lot of room so it is possible to have a few different models about to use according to taste. This coupled with the affordable pricing of second hand units on TM made it quite an attractive area to dabble in. Unfortunately a lot of the top model headphones are now out of my easily affordable range so I have now trimmed down my collection to better suit my needs. It seems like a lot of areas of HiFi, that it starts out small hobbyish and affordable and then grows quickly into Large and expensive ( RMAF, headphone amps, DAC's perhaps being other examples, not to mention turntables...)

Fired up the Yamamoto HA-2 amp on the weekend mated with a pair of Audio Technica ATHW1000X phones and once again had a reminder that spending thousands of dollars isn't necessary to achieve a good outcome. Total cost of this pairing was around NZ$2000 new and sadly that appears to have become small change in the headphone world.
When I first re-entered the world of headphones in the late 90's with a pair of Gradio RS60s(still have and use them) the choices were minimal and quite simple, you either leaned towards the Grado or Sennheiser camps with not much else around.
With changes in life styles/living spaces/music sources the headphone market will continue to be the big growth area in audio for some time yet but I wouldn't expect to see many users on forums like this. In my experience most headphone users are not gear heads .

Mar 6, 2017 6:25:53 GMT 12 cooksferry said:

With changes in life styles/living spaces/music sources the headphone market will continue to be the big growth area in audio for some time yet but I wouldn't expect to see many users on forums like this.


In my experience most headphone users are not gear heads .

Unfortunately, most headphone users are happy to use their Apple earbuds, or whatever came with their phone. 

The Sony MDR wireless ones seem popular too.

and bose !

especially their noise-cancelling 'phones.

Nearly everyone I know still just uses what was given to them when they bought their phone. And their phone is what they use for listening.

I've managed to convert a few, but most remain agnostic to hifi.

The hardest part is actually getting someone to give a better pair of phones a good trial over their earbuds. I hassled my son for years to take my Grado SR60s, but as he was listening mainly to music on You Tube or low rate mp3s he always said no. When I gave him my old Fiio X3 last year I bundled it with a new pair of Audio Technica MX50 headphones and a little Meier Cordia portable amp. Pleased to hear him acknowledge the very apparent improvement and as well as the files I bundled on the Fiio he is now listening to cds via a computer, small steps.
Unfortunately I've been less successful with my daughter who appears to be quite happy with the bundled buds with her I-pod. It's not as though she hasn't lived with better sound. During her student days I gave her a cdp, Luxman amp and Wharfedale speakers for her flat but most people don't place a high priority on sq.

It was a bone of contention between my wife and myself for years with her use of a very poor Warehouse sourced boom box thing in the kitchen. She loves listening to opera and I couldn't understand how she could enjoy anything on it. I gained a victory when I redid the kitchen a couple of years ago and biffed the boom box and replaced it with a Yamaha TSX-B235 Mini System. Not high end hifi but a big improvement. Sometimes you've got to not just led the horse to water but force them to take a drink as well.

Hi Cooks, Exactly bang on, have had very similar experiments with my 3 sons. My eldest uses a pair of Sony MDR wireless Headphones, my 2nd son now has 2 pairs of headphones that I have given him, and my youngest I gave a stereo system and a pair of sennheisers when he left home. None of them place a huge importance on soundquality, and the youngest works at JB hifi ! I have just upgraded our kitchen system also to an old JVC receiver and a pair of Goodmans speakers.

Mar 6, 2017 7:27:52 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Unfortunately, most headphone users are happy to use their Apple earbuds, or whatever came with their phone. 

I agree with you, most people are happy with what they get with their phones. But I believe that one should get a headphone based on specific needs and taste as guitardude said. These days one can find affordable quality headphones that provide high quality sound, bass and treble. Also the noise isolating ones are good since they provide an excellent listening experience to the users by restricting the outside noise. And yes cooksferry, even I feel that the headphone market will continue to grow.
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