That's totally wrong. Impedance is a measure of a kind of resistance.
Most of the interpretations the head-fi member makes of the video are understandable, but the conclusions and attitude are much more a reflection of head-fi and himself than anything in the video.
The best thing to do to pre-empt criticism is to be specific, and for the most part the video was specific. For the most part it was clear they are addressing headphone use, and it was clear they were concentrating on the quality of transduction. It's understandable that a viewer could come away with the impression that they are advocating no DSP for gaming. But, that position is nowhere in the video.
[EDIT: I apologize, they are in fact suggesting turning off surround DSP with headphones, for games that have a headphone mode, in order to have the game process the positional information and synthesize the surround sound itself.]
In some ways, videos like these are a litmus test for the viewer. There are constructive ways of addressing perceived weak points, and Logan in particular has over and over made himself available to corrections or arguments that make sense.
My bet is many of us are learning a great deal from the (huge) thread tied to the original video. I know I am.
I only joined the LTT forum because I was tired of people getting told they needed better source gear (like soundcards) to improve their listening experience and that sound was subjective so they really better experience it for themselves. Anyone who tells you this is a gearphile and not an audiophile. Sound is NOT subjective, there are measurable, scientific phenomenon that occur when you play music in either a track or a game. There is nobody who hears Linkin Park as a girl band. Anyone who continues to listen to the drivel that head-fi touts as the singular truth of audio (mostly that it is some mystical occurrence that can only be experienced on the high plane of Valhalla with $50,000 gear) will end their "audio journey" farther from the truth than where they started. It's not that people like the OP are lying to other people, the sad fact is they've been lying to themselves. The WORST part is that there are people that know better that push these myths to sell their stupidly expensive wonder gear. This is not new, but it has only recently entered the gaming sphere. I'm glad to see this video is raising awareness about the general issues with audiophile audio products being sold to gamers. I wish I could present the facts in scientific terms but it's very complex and hard to follow for many people. If the head-fi crowd can use cop-outs like "you have to listen to it first", I can use cop-outs like "high output impedance kills the power output to your headphones and changes how they sound, usually for the worse". Because it does.
A real audiophile will tell you about their favorite track of Led Zeppelin or ZZ Top and what they like most about it. They don't care if it's mp3 320 or DSD or what amp they listened to it with.
The message here is the same one I try to push. Enjoy your audio.
and i skimmed over some of this thread,and.. Fuck it, Im happy with my Tritton AX720's hooked into my on board optical output that has Dolby support, It suits me just fine!
a persons hearing ability is not his/her preference .. some people like warm sound signatures, some like bright sound signatures, some like mid centric signatures... and some people might like Linkin Park, some might not depending on lots of factors (vocals,instruments...etc).. some might like rock, some might not.. so the sound is subjective ... subjectiveness (personal preference) is not measurable...may be you can.. because you are part of the LTT...lol... you are completely misunderstanding the term "audiophile". yes an audiophile will tell what he like about a specific track.. but the hardware (amp/dac/headphone), record quality of the audio tracks behind him also equally important to get the preferred results..
That's not the way I approach it. I expect true pure audiophile grade equipment to reproduce the source as accurately as possible. Such that if I'm in the 10th row or recording booth of the London philharmonic, the sound I hear is duplicated on my equipment as cleanly and naturally as possible.
Now, if after the fact I prefer the sound colored by increasing bass or mids or whatever, I can. I expect the pure flat chain to reproduce as if I were there live.
BTW, Linkin Park does sound like girls...
I love how when the subject of audio comes up it always seems like opening a bag of pissed off cats.
This happens with video and optical perception too. Imagine if we had really sensitive tactile feedback controllers, or really sensitive hardware taste emitters. I think we're lucky to only be this far...
I think you missed the point of what h264 was saying. The hardware can be measured and tested without subjective bias, Some Headfi members seem to ignore this fact in favor of advising people to spend more money on gear that does not improve the audio signal. Perceptual bias/placebo effect is a real and very prominent psychological condition. If people do not understand how this effects our perception of audio quality then they should refrain from speaking on the subject, much less being derisory or derogatory toward someone who has a different opinion.
I know, and I know why I join in the cat fight, I am autistic and as such have very little emotional reaction to people, but, I do however find that when false information and myths are being used to perpetuate an erroneous ideal I find it very difficult to not correct them. The audio debate is filled with as much erroneous information as the vaccine debate and the cure autism with diet debate. Conclusion in short: people are stupid.
Exactly this. You just need experience and to know your equipment inside and out. And when audiophiles say to listen as it was "intended" is also wrong. As "intended" is so that the track sounds right on all kinds of equipment and not just on reference grade stuff. Some of the best engineers just use $200 NS10 monitors, a B set of monitors, decent headphones and something shitty like a boombox or whatever. Audiophiles just need to admit that headphones are cool as fuck and so is chasing their ideal sound... If they really had a knack for working with sound, they'd have jobs in pro audio.
And It really doesn't take much money to get to over 90% of what you'd ever consider to be the sound you dig the most. All these other arguments make it sound like the 2% better will change your life. I remember selling my HD600's people were like dude why'd you sell you HD600's those are so much better than your M50's, You're an idiot!! No, I just didn't like the sound signature of the HD600's go away.
I don't understand why Head-Fi has anything to do with this discussion.
I did notice a difference in sound when I upgraded motherboards, due to a better onboard sound chip, but I will probably invest in a good amp before I think about getting a sound card.
Also, a good pair of headphones will immerse me more than a surround sound system, in my opinion. Honestly, a lot of this boils down to perception in opinion, but I will never personally understand why someone would opt for a surround sound headset over a good pair of stereo headphones, since the effect is the same either way. I don't know enough about audio to really get into the technical stuff, which made a lot of this video tough to understand.
It's not what you hear, but what you feel.
I know audio quality can be measured (snr/thd/dynamic range.... etc) .. most of the time people dont need a separate hardware like sound card/dac/amp for the most of the low impedance(low budget) headphones, if you dont need dsp technologies for gaming/movies... and I m not also a biggest fan of sound cards too due to their lack of driver support.. but do you believe, using a separate low output impedance amp will give you magical improvement on audio quality, over your current sound card amp? I know lots of people were like quick to take that point seriously and dump their sound cards because they also saying dsp technologies wont work too.. that's just sad.. for nearly 2 years I ve been using Dolby HTv4 and it gives incredible accurate positional clues and fantastic sense of depth when combining with a great headphones with nice imagine and sound stage.. I did lots of AB gaming testing with my onboard ALC898 vs my phoebus using Dolby HTv4.. when using realtek I couldn't even tell the enemies position all I could do right was guess whether they were left or right.. (very confusing front and back clues) most of the time I was turning all over the place to find where location of the sound ..and I cant even accurately guess the sense of depth of the sounds... but after using HTv4 I can accurately pin point the enemy location without opening my eyes.. and the sense of depth of the sound is just unbelievable. you can tell exactly where a specific sound comes from and you can exactly pin point your front and back sounds without even slight hesitation ... I also did some testing using Battlefield 3 headphone mode too..you can't just magically select the heaphone mode to get the binaural audio without using any dsp algorythem. that is just not possible for now.. and some might also argue dsp algorithms generate some annoying reverb sometimes.. yes that is true for some systems.. there is also a xear surround algorithm in my sound card and it also generates some annoying reverb effect despite its positional accuracy.. for my understanding Dolby dsp algorithms are the best without much reverb (specially DHTv4) ..
and I m not sure suddenly why sound cards are getting a bad rep.. these days some people also spending ridiculous amount of money for mechanical keyboards, gaming mouse and many pc peripherals.. there are also people who willing to spend $1000 for gtx titan to gain some few fps instead of getting something like gtx 780 for $500.. and some people upgrading their cpu/mobo every generation to get that tiny performance boost ... and I personally know a few persons who hate audiophile equipments and upgraded their ivy bridge system to Haswell by spending over $1000s.. and the performance difference is also not even noticeable. and some of them have over $400 extreme mobos and doesn't even know anything about overclocking too...
Switching from a soundcard to a low output impedance source will make some headphones sound very different (read: like they're supposed to sound). However, anyone who immediately jumps out any buys another source when they already have a soundcard is missing the point, and I don't really feel sorry for them not asking more questions before spending money.
This software argument, however, I feel is getting way out of hand. If you like your fancy effects then use them - I could care less. Buying hardware in order to receive software, is completely illogical for consumer grade products imo. It makes sense for multi-thousand dollar Cisco routers because they actually put effort into the software, but you're lucky if you can get your soundcard drivers installed, let alone get all the features to work correctly.
No, the point of the video is to slow people down, to let them know there's other (possibly better and/or cheaper) options, and to confuse them just enough to ask for specific advise for their scenario. There is no one size fits all.
Technically, auditory perceptions are what some hairs in your head feel.
I couldn't even tell the enemies position all I could do right was guess whether they were left or right.. (very confusing front and back clues) most of the time I was turning all over the place to find where location of the sound
Sounds like you're in the market for some glasses instead :P I never understood this problem. If he's in front of you, you'll see him soon enough, if he's behind you, you'll find out soon enough, and not necessarily by dying. How bad a player must you be to NEED this kind of information? Sure I won't deny it's nice to know whether it's in front or behind you, but do you really need it that much that it becomes a problem?
I actually kinda like not knowing the exact position, gives the game a more exciting feeling (whereishe whereishe whereishe THEREGOTYOU).
Most of the time I just play on my cheap 2.1 speakers (I'm quite happy with them, yes), so it's impossible to get a correct position from that, and the headphones I have atm don't give me a great position either. But I don't need it, it wouldn't make me a better player at all. And getting headphones that might possibly give the correct position is not worth the money because headphones hurt my head too much to want to use them (I only have some for when I can't use my speakers for whatever reason or for when I'm not home).
A lot of fuzz about nothing tbh.
I think you are missing the point, then why some people prefer 120hz lcds.. most of us can play at typical 60hz lcds.. you might also ask why spending money for those kind of technologies too. soon some lcds will implement G-sync technology and it will cost money too. but it ll eliminate screen tearing and give more smooth gamepay experience too... you, me might not need those technologies soon.. but there are people who appreciate better gaming experience than typical people.. same thing applies to sound too.. you might not need these dsp algorithms.. but there plenty of people who appreciate immersive gaming experience... yes you can always stick with your cheap speakers and headphone...
I wasnt trying to appreciate any fancy effects, I wanted to pointout that selecting any gaming preset like headphone mode wont magically make your audio binaural....
p. s = if you think "Buying hardware in order to receive software, is completely illogical" then you shouldn't be buying hardware like graphics cards too..
I honestly don't see the "snobbery" in the Audiophile community that Logan and others keep ranting about. Especially not on reputable sites. What is actually happening is, as always, humans that don't know what they are talking about, or are not well versed on a topic, make excuses or reasons to excuse their ignorance. They label audiophiles "snobbish" because they talk with authority on the topic due to vast experience. You are confusing your lack of knowledge and skewing it as condescension. Tyll from Innerfidelity is a great example. An extremely knowledgeable, reasonable and likable man and far from the "snobbery" Logan mentions. Look at the people he interviews. They have an amazing knowledge of Audio and are extremely humble, helpful and informative people. Those talking like snobs and know it alls are people only new to audio and are overcompensating for a lack of true knowledge. These people do not represent the Audiophile community. Of course being the internet you are always going to come across those that think their possessions are indicative of their worth as a person. Do ignore them. I would appreciate it if The Tek would not enhance derogatory stereotypes, or reinforce condescending behavior toward persons of knowledge that are more than happy to do the legwork by testing, reviewing and recommending great audio products enabling you to make informed choices with your hard earned money. Oh and Logan it is really more indicative of a Politician to attempt to undermine your opponents in an argument by attacking them personally with slurs such as "schill" or "moron" etc in order to try and strengthen your argument. Such low tactics, I feel, are beneath you.