I had an argument with my room mate. He is wrong and I am right.

"Bandit" (2bandit) 10/02/2014 at 00:51 • Filed to: bandit does college

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He told me there was no difference in sound quality between his $5 apple ear buds/built in laptop speakers and my Ohm CAM-42s that I put in our dorm room. My Ohms were $850 when they were bought in 1993 or so and they sound glorious. How do I tell him he is wrong?

JustWaitingForAMate > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 00:53

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You wait till he's asleep, then you position them strategically around his bed.

Then play a selection of music to showcase the quality.

Might I suggest something from Slayer?

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 00:54

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Find the specs and compare with quantifiable Hz measurments

D > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 00:55

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time for an experiment! subject him to a back-to-back comparison, same song

Kanaric > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 00:55

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lmao ridiculous. Play something with rich sound, instrumental variety, and bass if he can't tell the difference then well then...... then that is sad lol.

What's with Apple fans thinking their shit earbuds sound good? I don't get it.

Jesse Shaffer > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 00:55

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You come to peace with the fact that people are different, and if ignorance won't listen - you move on.

Conan > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 00:56

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He never will. This is another one of your college classes. Stay enthusiast.

Bandit > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s 10/02/2014 at 00:58

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Mine is 32 - 20k apple have 20 - 20k... Mine have signifigantly lower impedance though 4ohm vs 32

Bandit > D 10/02/2014 at 00:59

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I did that last night with Nirvana. He still didn't hear the difference...

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 00:59

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Say that. Nothing says I told you so like Words he may or may not understand

RoadHead -- Armand > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 01:01

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Fuck hertz you guys. Just show him. Play them both side by side off with the same song on an iTunes mp3 on his speakers and a dank .FLAC or Phono off of your speakers. Blow his ears off. Make him wish he never knew sound, music and passion. And he will look into the beyond just beyond the veil. He will know.

Your boy, BJR > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 01:04

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Wake him up one morning at 5 with this:

Jeff-God-of-Biscuits > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 01:12

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Sign him up to receive literature from various hearing aid manufacturers.

Aaron James > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 01:12

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You're clearly right but it's not worth the conversation really. Most people believe what they believe and trying to convince them otherwise is a waste of time. Just laugh at him on the inside.

m2m, apex detective > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 01:14

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Guess he's used to those 128-192 kbps MP3s usually let you experience?

Maybe he just has shit ears. Happens.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 01:17

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he probably thinks 128 Kbit/sec is high quality.

I don't have the best speakers for my PC, but they do show a noticeable difference between 128 and 320 and FLAC on the same song.

Ferrero1911 > JustWaitingForAMate 10/02/2014 at 01:27

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Came here to say this. I would suggest sometime between 4 and 5am

CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 01:31

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Little FYI, never put apple earpods in water....the bass will decrease exceptionally, and the sound quality as well.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 02:07

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//facepalms aggressively

All Motor Is Best Motor > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 02:20

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As an "audiophile" (I really hate the pretentiousness that is attributed to the term, I just really like high end audio), I've found there really are some people who are completely ignorant, be it on purpose or just out of naiveté, to the differences in sound quality. It's a particular problem among people who cannot afford better audio equipment. There are also people who wish to believe everything they own is the best. These kind of people generally refuse to take the time to listen to the differences in quality among audio equipment.

There are also some people who simply don't understand how music can sound better/different/worse on different speakers and headphones. A lot of people simply see it as a matter of volume and bass. It's really, really hard to get both types of people to come around and hear the differences (especially the former, because they genuinely don't want to hear a difference). You have to have an open mind and be willing to sit down and listen for more than 5 minutes at a time to hear the differences in quality unless you are already open minded and experienced in higher end audio.

You can try and get him to sit down and really listen to some well recorded music. Don't play .mp3's as they're shit-tastic (yes, you CAN FUCKING HEAR A DIFFERENCE if you know what you're looking for). Use high res music or well recorded CD's. Sometimes classical/orchestral music isn't actually the best for demonstration purposes because much of it isn't recorded loudly (so as to preserve the dynamics in volume), and much of it is older recordings that don't sound all that great today.

Your best bet is to use really well recorded music. Shy away from any kind of rock and roll, hard rock, metal, pop, etc as that's generally poorly recorded, especially old stuff that was converted to digital format from vinyl. If you want I can point you to some well recorded albums, but I cannot guarantee it will be your kind of music.

All Motor Is Best Motor > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 02:23

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I wanted to add that your setup there is completely ridiculous and you should feel ridiculous. Xbox on top of the microwave? Tv on top of the fridge? Hilarious.

All Motor Is Best Motor > Jeff-God-of-Biscuits 10/02/2014 at 02:28

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Okay, okay, that's really clever!

bhardoin > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 03:22

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Confront him with waveform analysis data, or let it go and allow him to continue to live his life in ignorance.

gazorpazorpfield > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 03:51

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Given that you're probably listening to bleep-bloop garbage on compressed mp3 format, he's right.

YSI-what can brown do for you > JustWaitingForAMate 10/02/2014 at 05:32

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Slayer fixes everything!!! Piece by piece!

BeardyMcJew > Kanaric 10/02/2014 at 05:48

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Those cheap earbuds sounded pretty good to me (the iPhone 5 ones, the previous ones were awful) for what they were. But I think it depends on how they rest in your ears.

If they rest correctly, they use your ear canal as a tiny amphitheater and the sound is richer than it has any right to be from a cheap pair of earbuds; if they don't you're basically listening to everything through a 1930's newsreel sound filter.

Don't get me wrong, high quality earbuds are still unambiguously better. Especially if you plan to use them while moving. At all.

theloudmouth > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 06:34

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You accept some people in this world will never bend to logic and/or reason and there is little to nothing you can do haha.

The Compromiser > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 07:02

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Only one way to solve this disagreement. ..

DANCEOFF!!!

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 07:23

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You need to play music with a very wide dynamic and frequency range, preferably with very soft sections so that compression artifacts come out.

Or you start talking to him in sign language, because he's very likely with enough hearing loss that he can't pick up on sonic variations around 440Hz and that means he would find it hard to know what you are saying without resorting to lip reading.

quarterlifecrisis > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 08:12

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I'm switching from HR guy to guy who spent about 8 years running sound as a second income.

Some people really can't hear the difference. Yup, there's my technical response. But also, Nirvana is not what I would use for something like that. It's not a very...tonal...band.

Beyond that, let it go. It's not worth having an ongoing argument about. You're right, I know you're right (and really...in the grand scheme...that's all that matters.)

nafsucof > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 09:50

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Play the beginning of Batman the animated series really loud the explosion over your nice speakers should tickle his spine unlike the laptop speakers which will just Crackle.

zeontestpilot > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 10:09

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Well, good luck with that then. People are stubborn.

Though you can listen to your speakers and pretend to talk to yourself saying "man, the sound quality is so good" or "it feels like it's being performed live!", and so on. Then if you listen to headphones or the like, say something like "I can't hear the bass" or, "when is the wind chimes coming in?"

Essentially, make him think you (or him) are crazy. It probably won't change his mind, but it'll be hilarious since your messing with his head, lol.

Bandit > All Motor Is Best Motor 10/02/2014 at 10:40

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Hey! It's a dorm room. You become creative when your entire room is just 14' x 11'

tromoly > Bandit 10/02/2014 at 10:48

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His little earbuds have a single, tiny cone trying to do the high, mid, and low ranges, and because they're tiny cones they're best at high with a slight bit of mid range.

Your Ohm CAM-42s have dedicated drivers and cones for each range, meaning each cone can be tuned for one specific range to ensure it produces the best sound in that frequency range with the least distortion.

Hope that helps, if not I'll ring a few sound engineer buddies for further advice.

Stef Schrader > Bandit 10/03/2014 at 02:00

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Two words:

brown

noise

mattc993 > Bandit 10/03/2014 at 13:43

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There is no convincing of people like this. Go forth and live your life, knowing that you're better than him.

I'm actually being 100% less sarcastic than you think I am here.

ACESandEIGHTS > Bandit 10/03/2014 at 14:06

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Dorm room or coffin hotel? That is a funny picture.