are we becoming a headphone society?

[ross g]

3 interesting things i heard about this year:

1. a MIT professor is designing a device that beams sound into a laser-like path. two people can stand next to each other, one person will hear a wall of sound and the other person wont hear a thing. perfect for music schools, large studios etc., but most importantly it will have military uses

3. i read in Future Music US about an up-and-coming dj who uses noise-cancelling headphones to work on mixes for live sets on the airplane to his next stops. not that special but kind of interesting to think about using noise-cancelling cans in the future.

1. i've read/heard something about that as well, highly directable sound waves...not sure how long it will take untill they can produce the technology for consumer use...

3. aren't those readily available today? i've seen phones at the hardware store that do noise cancelling/radio for construction workers....

[respirator]

This is a very interesting topic. I think we need to look at the way music is consumed. I think (without any statistical data to back it up) that it is safe to say that most music is consumed through inferior sound reproduction. iPods, car stereos, crappy computer speakers etc. Even at most concerts the reproduction is loud and poor. So I guess it is a fact of life as a person who produce music, that your product will be consumed in a way that is far from ideal. And perhaps this trend is self-reinforcing. You listen to something on your mp3-player using ear buds. Then you don’t need that snazzy hi-fi system but just hook-up some speakers to your lousy SoundBlaster sound card. Then you go to a concert and are content with bad sound quality. As long as it is loud. And the music you choose is based on anything but musical quality (hype, marketing, peer pressure, whatever). Anything new? Perhaps the scale of it. Is this a bad thing? I honestly don’t know.

So I think we’re becoming a society where music for a vast majority is becoming junk food. And junk food is easily consumed through ear buds. I myself can’t stand to listen to much music through ear buds. A quality set of headphones is another story - and the listening experience can be great (but as was said above: never for mixing).

[orangesuite]

The silent disco is a concept that has been done at Glastonbury after 3am in a few tents with wireless headphones - very bizarre. They have also done it in Glasgow a few times as well.

[P.T.]

I've been hearing about that technology where you can hear the sound but someone near you can't for years. I don't know if it is myth or just not perfected yet.

It's like stories I hear about flying cars. People come on the radio and say that they exist and that they have seen them fly. So, where are they?

[JamminFool]

check out this article in which pete townshend discusses headphones and deafness:

http://search.news.com/click?sl,news.56 ... 761%2Ehtml

[AndrewSimon]

I think for the majority of adult music consumers the only place where they sit and listen is the car.

Teens of course use earbuds.

[Hink]

hmmm what an interesting way for the RIAA to line their pockets again...being able to sell the headphone remix and the speaker mix....remastering of old music, twice the sales on new music...now remastered for portable systems...

hink, you were supposed to be getting a new private music room I thought,
what are you listening through

you must of mis-understood when I said someday I want a whisper room...but not here...we are out of space, maybe this summer we'll move and I can...I use headphones most of the time...dt770's, sony mdr7506's and audio-technica ath-m40fs...I also have a pair of Tannoy Proto j monitors...I have three different sets of headphnoes because I like the sound of each. But using one pair constantly causes ear fatigue, so cleansing the pallett so to speak with a different pair is helpful...

[flippya2000]

crappy (but loud enough) creative 2.1 speakers and about 20 million different headphones..The phones are for undercover/mobile activities (used all the time), the speakers are for when there aren't people around (rarely used at loud volumes)..have you ever had the entire street come knocking at your door to complain..? x)

Personally, I like in-ear headphones, small and unless your a nutta who likes to annoy people/damage ur ears, quiet to those around you. Also, the sound quality is good IMO - senheisser mx500s are the best ones I have & quite cheap too Hwr, these aren't good for studio work, but there a loads of 'what's the best monitor' threads for that anyways..

[Hink]

flippy, be real careful with those in ear headphones please...a study was done years ago using a walkmam and those kinda of earsets...it was found that at a volume level of 75% some permanent hearing damage started after about 30 days (I dont remember how long each day they called daily use)...far too many songwriters/musicians/engineers destroy their ears long before they learn how to use them...

[vtx]

This is a very interesting topic. I think we need to look at the way music is consumed. I think (without any statistical data to back it up) that it is safe to say that most music is consumed through inferior sound reproduction. iPods, car stereos, crappy computer speakers etc. Even at most concerts the reproduction is loud and poor. So I guess it is a fact of life as a person who produce music, that your product will be consumed in a way that is far from ideal. And perhaps this trend is self-reinforcing. You listen to something on your mp3-player using ear buds. Then you don’t need that snazzy hi-fi system but just hook-up some speakers to your lousy SoundBlaster sound card. Then you go to a concert and are content with bad sound quality. As long as it is loud. And the music you choose is based on anything but musical quality (hype, marketing, peer pressure, whatever). Anything new? Perhaps the scale of it. Is this a bad thing? I honestly don’t know.

So I think we’re becoming a society where music for a vast majority is becoming junk food. And junk food is easily consumed through ear buds. I myself can’t stand to listen to much music through ear buds. A quality set of headphones is another story - and the listening experience can be great (but as was said above: never for mixing).

I'm also finding people can go through their day with buds on and carry on normal day to day stuff, never taking the buds off,
carry on conversations, watch tv, reading a book,
like shutting the outside world off,
I'm buying my son a stereo.....

[CypherOne]

tiss, tiss, tiss, tiss sorry what were you saying? tiss, tiss, tiss, tiss

[vtx]

sss,boom,sss,boom, oh nothing, sss,boom, sss,boom

[deaf dunderkwac]

As its already been mentioned byall of you, I will just reinforce.
I had the opportunity to be involved with a survey about this same subject just a couple of years ago and:
90% of adults over the age of 30 rarely listen to music (only) outside of the daily commute.
Below 30- earbuds rule.
Hence my earlier comments.
My last comment (coming from a guy who's been a recording engineer all his life) It DOESN"T matter how good the mix is.
What matters is the song. The arrangement. The words.
If the quality of the recording is understandable, thats all that matters. Sometimes that doesn't even matter (see: Louie Louie)

[foosnark]

I almost always listen on headphones (at home), earbuds (at work or walking) or the car stereo. But when I'm gaming I hate using headphones, for whatever reason

When I don't do a car test my headphone mixes have a fair chance of sounding horrible on speakers, and I might not discover it until weeks later. I expect my MA-10A's to arrive via UPS sometime this week, but while I expect improved mixes I don't expect I'll be changing my listening habits, other than listening to a few very familiar CDs to get a feel for the monitors.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I have little choice but to use phones for listening, mixing, etc. as my apartment is a very noisy environment (4 fish tanks, 2 air filters) and short of having speakers up to window-shattering volume, I'd not hear all the nuances of the music.. and then, since I'm in a studio apartment with quiet neighbors there'd be dealing with them added to the mix if I had real monitors!

That said, I audition my tunes on everything I can get my hands on to help alleviate the problem. Of course, I'm not a "pro" musician in a "pro" studio trying to crank out best-selling CDs, so I think my approach is acceptable. So far, nobodys complained to me that my stuff sounds like it was mixed in headphones!