What annoys me today in marketing and media that too often today then talking on hi-fi, science is replaced by bizarre belief structures and marketing fluff, leading to a decades-long stagnation of the audiophile domain. Science makes progress, pseudo-science doesn’t. Hi-fi world is filled by pseudoscience, dogma and fruitloopery to the extent that it resembles a fundamentalist religion. Loudspeaker performance hasn’t tangibly improved in forty years and vast sums are spent addressing the wrong problems.
Business for Engineers: Marketers Lie article points tout that marketing tells lies — falsehoods — things that serve to convey a false impression. Marketing’s purpose is to determining how the product will be branded, positioned, and sold. It seems that there too many snake oil rubbish products marketed in the name of hifi. It is irritating to watch the stupid people in the world be fooled.
In EEVblog #29 – Audiophile Audiophoolery video David L. Jones (from EEVBlog) cuts loose on the Golden Ear Audiophiles and all their Audiophoolery snake oil rubbish. The information presented in Dave’s unique non-scripted overly enthusiastic style! He’s an enthusiastic chap, but couldn’t agree more with many of the opinions he expressed: Directional cables, thousand dollar IEC power cables, and all that rubbish. Monster Cable gets mostered. Note what he says right at the end: “If you pay ridiculous money for these cable you will hear a difference, but don’t expect your friends to”. If you want to believe, you will.
My points on hifi-nonsense:
One of the tenets of audiophile systems is that they are assembled from components, allegedly so that the user can “choose” the best combination. This is pretty largely a myth. The main advantage of component systems is that the dealer can sell ridiculously expensive cables, hand-knitted by Peruvian virgins and soaked in snake oil, to connect it all up. Say goodbye to the noughties: Yesterday’s hi-fi biz is BUSTED, bro article asks are the days of floorstanders and separates numbered? If traditional two-channel audio does have a future, then it could be as the preserve of high resolution audio. Sony has taken the industry lead in High-Res Audio.
HIFI Cable Humbug and Snake oil etc. blog posting rightly points out that there is too much emphasis placed on spending huge sums of money on HIFI cables. Most of what is written about this subject is complete tripe. HIFI magazines promote myths about the benefits of all sorts of equipment. I am as amazed as the writer that that so called audiophiles and HIFI journalists can be fooled into thinking that very expensive speaker cables etc. improve performance. I generally agree – most of this expensive interconnect cable stuff is just plain overpriced.
I can agree that in analogue interconnect cables there are few cases where better cables can really result in cleaner sound, but usually getting any noticeable difference needs that the one you compare with was very bad yo start with (clearly too thin speaker wires with resistance, interconnect that picks interference etc..) or the equipment in the systems are so that they are overly-sensitive to cable characteristics (generally bad equipment designs can make for example cable capacitance affect 100 times or more than it should). Definitely too much snake oil. Good solid engineering is all that is required (like keep LCR low, Teflon or other good insulation, shielding if required, proper gauge for application and the distance traveled). Geometry is a factor but not in the same sense these yahoos preach and deceive.
In digital interconnect cables story is different than on those analogue interconnect cables. Generally in digital interconnect cables the communication either works, does not work or sometimes work unreliably. The digital cable either gets the bits to the other end or not, it does not magically alter the sound that goes through the cable. You need to have active electronics like digital signal processor to change the tone of the audio signal traveling on the digital cable, cable will just not do that.
But this digital interconnect cables characteristics has not stopped hifi marketers to make very expensive cable products that are marketed with unbelievable claims. Ethernet has come to audio world, so there are hifi Ethernet cables. How about 500 dollar Ethernet cable? That’s ridiculous. And it’s only 1.5 meters. Then how about $10,000 audiophile ethernet cable? Bias your dielectrics with the Dielectric-Bias ethernet cable from AudioQuest: “When insulation is unbiased, it slows down parts of the signal differently, a big problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio.” I see this as complete marketing crap speak. It seems that they’re made for gullible idiots. No professional would EVER waste money on those cables. Audioquest even produces iPhone sync cables in similar price ranges.
HIFI Cable insulators/supports (expensive blocks that keep cables few centimeters off the floor) are a product category I don’t get. They typically claim to offer incredible performance as well as appealing appearance. Conventional cable isolation theory holds that optimal cable performance can be achieved by elevating cables from the floor in an attempt to control vibrations and manage static fields. Typical cable elevators are made from electrically insulating materials such as wood, glass, plastic or ceramics. Most of these products claim superior performance based upon the materials or methods of elevation. I don’t get those claims.
Along with green magic markers on CDs and audio bricks is another item called the wire conditioner. The claim is that unused wires do not sound the same as wires that have been used for a period of time. I don’t get this product category. And I don’t believe claims in the line like “Natural Quartz crystals along with proprietary materials cause a molecular restructuring of the media, which reduces stress, and significantly improves its mechanical, acoustic, electric, and optical characteristics.” All sounds like just pure marketing with no real benefits.
CD no evil, hear no evil. But the key thing about the CD was that it represented an obvious leap from earlier recording media that simply weren’t good enough for delivery of post-produced material to the consumer to one that was. Once you have made that leap, there is no requirement to go further. The 16 bits of CD were effectively extended to 18 bits by the development of noise shaping, which allows over 100dB signal to noise ratio. That falls a bit short of the 140dB maximum range of human hearing, but that has never been a real goal. If you improve the digital media, the sound quality limiting problem became the transducers; the headphones and the speakers.
We need to talk about SPEAKERS: Soz, ‘audiophiles’, only IT will break the sound barrier article says that today’s loudspeakers are nowhere near as good as they could be, due in no small measure to the presence of “traditional” audiophile products. that today’s loudspeakers are nowhere near as good as they could be, due in no small measure to the presence of “traditional” audiophile products. I can agree with this. Loudspeaker performance hasn’t tangibly improved in forty years and vast sums are spent addressing the wrong problems.
We need to talk about SPEAKERS: Soz, ‘audiophiles’, only IT will break the sound barrier article makes good points on design, DSPs and the debunking of traditional hi-fi. Science makes progress, pseudo-science doesn’t. Legacy loudspeakers are omni-directional at low frequencies, but as frequency rises, the radiation becomes more directional until at the highest frequencies the sound only emerges directly forwards. Thus to enjoy the full frequency range, the listener has to sit in the so-called sweet spot. As a result legacy loudspeakers with sweet spots need extensive room treatment to soak up the deficient off-axis sound. New tools that can change speaker system designs in the future are omni-directional speakers and DSP-based room correction. It’s a scenario ripe for “disruption”.
Computers have become an integrated part of many audio setups. Back in the day integrated audio solutions in PCs had trouble earning respect. Ode To Sound Blaster: Are Discrete Audio Cards Still Worth the Investment? posting tells that it’s been 25 years since the first Sound Blaster card was introduced (a pretty remarkable feat considering the diminished reliance on discrete audio in PCs) and many enthusiasts still consider a sound card an essential piece to the PC building puzzle. It seems that in general onboard sound is finally “Good Enough”, and has been “Good Enough” for a long time now. For most users it is hard to justify the high price of special sound card on PC anymore. There are still some PCs with bad sound hardware on motherboard and buttload of cheap USB adapters with very poor performance. However, what if you want the best sound possible, the lowest noise possible, and don’t really game or use the various audio enhancements? You just want a plain-vanilla sound card, but with the highest quality audio (products typically made for music makers). You can find some really good USB solutions that will blow on-board audio out of the water for about $100 or so.
Although solid-state technology overwhelmingly dominates today’s world of electronics, vacuum tubes are holding out in two small but vibrant areas. Some people like the sound of tubes. The Cool Sound of Tubes article says that a commercially viable number of people find that they prefer the sound produced by tubed equipment in three areas: musical-instrument (MI) amplifiers (mainly guitar amps), some processing devices used in recording studios, and a small but growing percentage of high-fidelity equipment at the high end of the audiophile market. Keep those filaments lit, Design your own Vacuum Tube Audio Equipment article claims that vacuum tubes do sound better than transistors (before you hate in the comments check out this scholarly article on the topic). The difficulty is cost; tube gear is very expensive because it uses lots of copper, iron, often point-to-point wired by hand, and requires a heavy metal chassis to support all of these parts. With this high cost and relative simplicity of circuitry (compared to modern electronics) comes good justification for building your own gear. Maybe this is one of the last frontiers of do-it-yourself that is actually worth doing.
2,550 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analog playback adds wow and flutter, riaa filter and vinyl needle non-idealities cause their own non-idealities – digital does not add those irregularities
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top 25 reference tracks to demo your sound system, as voted by thousands of audiophiles: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/09/songs-voted-audiophiles-ultimate-demo-track/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sam Loose in theory yes, but in practice every analog medium is so noisy that this details gets totally buried.
Tomi Engdahl says:
For those saying DSP ‘kills timing’: which mechanism specifically? Is it the latency, pre-ringing, or group delay? Any measurements to illustrate it?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Room correction is often misunderstood. It’s not about aiming for a perfectly flat response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz that usually strips the music of its natural character. Proper digital room correction focuses on the modal region, typically below the Schröder frequency (around 200–300 Hz, depending on room size). In this range, the main issue isn’t resonances themselves, but exaggerated bass peaks caused by standing waves. By applying narrow cuts to tame these peaks, you reduce the room’s coloration without eliminating the natural energy of the sound. Done correctly, this lets you hear the recording much closer to how the mixing engineer intended, instead of the acoustic signature of your room.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Danijel Kostic
However, from what my experience has been….
Theirs no good substitute for a large room with some thick carpet for great sound! That’s the thinking in sound rooms and theaters… Acoustically dead.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here are 30 criminally underrated analog albums that prove analog still wins: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/05/underrated-analog-albums-prove-analog-wins/?utm_source=fb&utm_campaign=link_in_comment
Tomi Engdahl says:
Live and neutral wires twisted together inside one common shield is technically the right way. Three wires with separate shields braided together is worse no matter how they are wired.
Tomi Engdahl says:
As long as the cables are properly made and terminated with sufficient copper to transport the current, can insulate the voltage and where necessary shield against emissions then there is no physical reason other than poor amplifier design that they should sound different.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Did you hear the difference in a (correctly run) double-blind A/B test experiment? Because if not, no you didn’t.
Walt Williams so a wire changes the actual data? How do you know the “placement” and “decay” of the more expensive wire was incorrect compared to the cheaper one?
i’m sorry but even mid priced cables provide no difference. They just don’t. It’s simple physics.
McKechnie Connor no it doesn’t. You need to learn some physics and check electrical comparisons of cables. I was in a blind test and no one could tell the difference between 14awg Monoprice with a hangar attached vs the $20k AudioQuest. The guy that believes in it voted the hangar as #1 lol.
Provided that the cheap cable is actually to a spec for the use, it won’t change the sound AT ALL. Sufficient CSA for speakers, proper screening for signal, etc.
Walt Williams the difference between a good solder joint and a bad one is whether it works or not. The different between a good connector and a bad connector is resistance to damage or disconnect. I worked on satellite programs back in the day. If magic wire worked better, with our unlimited budget we would have used it.
Walt Williams Sure, they have to connect… I know that at 5m quantity you can buy the same microphone cable that the BBC use (a few milli volts) for less than £3/m. They KNOW what they are doing
As a sound guy, better cables to me are those which are more durable because of my use case. Can you hear a difference between a sufficient $10 cable and a robust $80 starquad with neutrik connectors? No. Will one last significantly longer before failure? Definitely.
Some cables are also superior in their workability over other’s. $40 china EtherCON cable and $150 SoundTools EtherCON cables are a great example. They don’t sound different (at short lengths) but one lays down flat and coils effortlessly, the other has to be more carefully coiled / uncoiled, and sometimes still doesn’t lay worth a shit, especially if it’s cold. These are all mechanical differences.
In the consumer space Andrew summed it up nicely. If the cheap cable meets the specification, the $500 cable won’t sound different.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The only reason for 24 and 32 bit is studio work. The extra resolution allows you to record an uncompressed track at lower levels to avoid clipping, then process it to bring it up in a mix without getting grainy. The final product will be rendered at 16
Tomi Engdahl says:
There is diferent but man you really have to work in audio most of the day to really care, the reason we do 24bit is for editing purposes, there is more data for plug-ins to produce a sound and yes sounds kinda better but mostly is because the dinamic range is better but at the end it does not matter tbh i prefer 16bit still
Tomi Engdahl says:
24 bit means something during the recording and production process. Its about headroom. The final mixed and mastered product will be indistinguishable
The only reason for 24 and 32 bit is studio work. The extra resolution allows you to record an uncompressed track at lower levels to avoid clipping, then process it to bring it up in a mix without getting grainy. The final product will be rendered at 16
as an engineer I have to say that operationally 16, 24, and 32 float are very different. they way individual tracks behave with processing is very different. that being said, we (humans) dont seem to like very dynamic things, so my job is mostly getting things to be less dynamic, not more. or even.. my job is to get everything to be the least dynamic while still pleasing.. which renders everything pointless. but i promise, come over, multitrack at 16 25 and 32f are very clearly different. 44,1 48, 96 whatever is barely noticable tho (actually its just not at all noticable to me )
Daniel Zaidenstadt for manipulation yeah, higher bit depth and sampling frequency can be very useful. For delivery? Not really.
Barely anyone can tell the difference between 14 bit and 16 bit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Philips CD104 is often called the Volkswagen Golf of CD players — simple, solid, and built to last. It uses two TDA1540P 14-bit DAC chips
10 Best Vintage CD Players That Still Beat Modern Units, As Voted by Audiophiles | Headphonesty https://share.google/sSQPwdLYhNOgFay2a
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2958724A/en
Tomi Engdahl says:
Floris Frieswijk twisting and/or shielding power cables is usually done for EMI reasons as the power cable can act as an emitter. Any high frequency coupled into the power cable is pretty easily handled by ferrite beads. And magnetic coupling from other power lines is at the same frequency so no big whoop unless you’ve got large coils of power cable laid over each other acting as transformers. Which can happen with big PA systems but for a home system? Nah.
Shielding, guarding and differential signals is not all that hard to understand. But most of these guys know just enough to be on top of Mt. Stupid on the Dunning-Kruger curve. This has them convinced they’re experts and absolutely certain they know more than everyone else. If you say something with complete belief you can usually find someone to convince you’re right. I had a PhD have an entire group built around him by the company I worked for who kept having “ground breaking” discoveries that would simply not work. He’d present his ideas to upper management who’d fund them and assign some poor bastard to turn it into a product. The poor bastard would bust his balls for months trying to make it work. My turn as poor bastard was using capacitance to determine needle depth in a self injector. PhD told a major drug company he could do it for under a dollar per unit. Great except it was never going to work. Capacitance of a needle stuck into a big bag of electrolyte (us) tends to be unreliable. A fact I pointed out at the initial meeting presenting the idea. They fixed my ass by putting me in charge of it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everything is a capacitor. Everything is an antenna. Don’t forget harmonics and inducance. I’m an electrician and the average house is has dogs hit electrical. I found 50v on a wire not connected to anything. I’ll tap a bond wire to a pipe and it’ll spark (obviously negligible current in either scenario). Now you might say the power supply will handle this. To an extent it will. In my last house (a townhouse) the bathroom fans turning on and off would make my speakers pop. I couldn’t run a schiit Valhalla headphone tubem amp without a ground isolator or I’d get a constant humm. If I built a house it would have perfect electrical and only cost maybe an extra couple grand and on top of the price of a house that’s nothing.
If other homes are sharing his transformer it becomes dirty power. SMPS without PFC, etc. Hydro power has become much more noisy since electronics moved away from linear power supplies.
If you consider the telegraph pole style of delivery of utilities to Japanese homes and businesses, also factor in the overcrowding of connections to these poles and the regional supplies then I think it’s totally justified.
Power conditioning is a thing. Smooth power = reliability and accurate replication. Been a thing in live music and recording studios for decades.
Mark Raprager a thing or if it makes any difference is not the same, imho it’s snake oil
I am the only home on my transformer. My power quality looks like this. My system performs perfectly, no interference, no fluctuating. It’s not hard to design good power supplies.
The power supply filtering internal to any decent pierce of audio gear is more than adequate to filter the AC supply voltage. You don’t need separate power conditioners. More audiophile snake oil.
Read more: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/02/japanese-audiophile-builds-personal-utility-pole/
Instead of every audiophile now rushing out to do this, maybe they should first somehow prove the electrical grid is actually causing any problems with their stereos.
Anything can be filtered out at the power supply.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s missing from this is acknowledgment of the fact that for typical consumer speaker cables, the factors mentioned as so small that they are not likely to manifest in a way that’s perceivable… Maybe if the cables were very long, such as in a distributed system, but otherwise the effects would be negligible. And as my dad used to say, “not to beat a dead horse, but…”, as I’ve mentioned before on this forum, all of the hand wringing and obsession over speaker cables in the world of high end audio makes no sense at all when you consider that you can put the amps right behind, or even inside the speaker cabinets, and totally eliminate the need for expensive, esoteric cables! Dedicating so much of one’s attention and resources on something that’s largely unnecessary, i.e. long speaker cables… It’s just plain dumb!
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Myth: All audio cables sound the same.” Says the company that makes audio cables without submitting data or evidence to back up what they are saying. Gee, I guess we can trust them when they tell us they make the best sounding audio cables. Hey everybody, there’s a Snake Oil salesman in town. Gather round and bring your ignorance and gullibility…
Tomi Engdahl says:
”Easy to hear”. I believe you when I hear of one (1) blind tester who can tell the difference.
Professional musicians (whom I respect about a 100 times more than audiophiles with too much money) have a hard time hearing the difference between a $1000 violin and a $100 000 violin. At least which is the better one.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I agree they don’t all sound the same, but you just need good copper or silver with the simplest cotton or Teflon dielectric, and proper mounting of quality connectors which respect the impedance and transfer of the signal. And it doesn’t cost much.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hubs Dagrand Yes. The highest quality cable that will transfer power or signal with good shielding and solid connections can be made for not a lot of $. The idea there’s improvements to be had that you need to pay $50,000 for in a power cord is profoundly stupid.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It is a myth. That cable with fraying ends, chunks missing, oxidizing, and about 30 gauge definitely sounds different.
Mike Chin Don’t forget the dry soldered joints and burn’t through insulation. One would assume that comment to refer to all well made new cables?
Simon Batey it was very well made thank you very much. I paid alot for that
Recording studio owner here! Do they take into account all the cables and all the routing that a recording goes through before the master goes to their expensive turntable? Do they know all the microphones, gear and cables the producer used ? Did all the cables were touching the ground ? You see where I’m going with this?
None of the cable pushers have ever published a scientific explanation with exact measurements how and why their cable would sound different.
They all mention some physical characteristics of cables, but always in an unqualified and unmeasured way.
They never even give specifics why their $5,000 sounds better than their $1,000 cable. Zero.
All of those snake oil companies would be out of business tomorrow, if someone would come up with a pill against confirmation bias.
Especially design, they use only sound-friendly colors!
Tomi Engdahl says:
if the power fuse affects the sound, either your power supply is complete crap and/or you are not up to the task to objectively listen to what really causes difference or not
Tomi Engdahl says:
Richard Vandersteen has spent decades building speakers that audiophiles recognize for their focus on timing, phase, and natural presentation. And in a recent interview, he went further and argued that vinyl records still carry more musical information than today’s best digital formats.
He believes the difference shows up most in the way listeners perceive space and presence.
Here’s the full story: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/09/hifi-legend-vinyl-information-digital/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Grell explains how the very design that makes closed-backs popular for isolation could be fundamentally altering how your ears function. And there’s more going on than occlusion alone.
Full story: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/09/closed-back-headphones-detuning-hearing-headphone-engineer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/152ziox/why_do_most_people_believe_cables_are_snake_oil/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/09/tiny-vinyl-is-a-new-pocketable-record-format-for-the-spotify-age/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/12/favorite-music-format-says/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.headphonesty.com/2021/05/introduction-to-roon/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Whether it is 4.4mm or 3.5mm DOES NOT matter. Whether it is actually balanced (as in differential output aka balanced audio) or not is. As long as the output circuit is balanced, what plug your headphone is using (i.e.4.4mm TRRRS, 3.5mm TRRS, 2.5mm TRRS or XLR) is only a question of what is most convenient to you.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://urleq.com/#home
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Hi-Fi industry isn’t exactly known for playing fair, and it’s not just the big corporations pulling the strings.
This article breaks down the hidden challenges of Hi-Fi reviewing and the ways companies influence what you see, hear, and ultimately believe about high-end audio.
Full story: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/03/dark-side-audio-reviewing-viewers-companies/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full story: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/05/new-sound-curve-harmans-gold-standard-data/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Learn more about this ‘audiophile-grade carrot’: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/12/man-uses-baby-carrot-rca-adapter/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The audiophile version is the organic carrot.
But is it an oxygen free carrot?
Must be good for optical digital, since it improves vision…
Lemons work well, for a while. Really test the quality of the gold-plating.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can someone explain how a single carrot can transfer both the signal on both the positive and negative wires simultaneously? Fishy I say…
Jon McElvain this is a ground lift cable. Works when there are other ground connection like other interconnection cable, grounded equipment, screwed to metal rack etc…
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s a complete list of the most expensive headphones in the world today: https://www.headphonesty.com/2021/03/most-expensive-headphones/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full story: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/06/mainstream-music-sounding-worse-ever/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here are more painfully hilarious memes only audiophiles will understand: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/11/memes-true-audiophiles-understand/?utm_source=fb&utm_campaign=link_in_comment
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full list: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/06/most-recommended-albums-audiophile-forums/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here are more memes every music lover will feel deep in their soul: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/11/memes-every-music-lover-feel-deep-soul/?utm_source=fb&utm_campaign=link_in_comment
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full list: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/07/bluetooth-headphones-work-better-on-android-ios/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The audiophile world is always full of promises about amazing new technologies that can improve the listening experience. But as we’ve seen time and time again, not all that glitters is gold.
Chronological order:
1) belt drive better than idler.
2) solid state better than tubes and the whole specification paradigm of low noise, low thd, lots of dummy load watts etc
3) digital is ‘perfect’ and CDs last forever…
4) room correction and DSP will sort all problems.
5) Anything multichannel
6) Established western audio brands that are manufactured in the far east (and often owned by investors in the far east)
Full list: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/07/revolutionary-audiophile-products-turned-out-scams/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s what the science says about very high frequencies, what engineers measure when ultrasonics are present, and why differences you hear often track changes inside the normal 20 Hz to 20 kHz range.
Full story: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/09/science-ended-super-tweeter-myth-new-studies/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full list: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/06/best-songs-test-headphones/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here are the top 20 audio brands that deserve more recognition, according to thousands of audiophiles: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/09/audio-brands-deserve-recognition-thousands-audiophiles/
Tomi Engdahl says:
We asked thousands of audiophiles to name their single must-play track and broke down what each one actually reveals about a system.
Here are their 25 most recommended tracks: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/09/songs-voted-audiophiles-ultimate-demo-track/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Audiophiles hate getting ripped off, and a new survey reveals exactly what pushes their buttons.
Full story: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/09/most-overpriced-audio-products-ranked-audiophiles/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Today’s manufacturers and reviewers bow before measurement graphs and specification sheets. But these measurements tell only part of the story.
In fact, sometimes they push companies to design technically impressive gear that’s not so enjoyable in real life
Full story: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/01/obsession-measurements-leading-worse-sounding-gear/