> The audio business has merged with the "home theatre" business. The pursuit of audiophile quality was always a boutique/niche market.

That's not really what they meant - most people do not have "home theaters" they have a soundbar or a couple of bluetooth speakers.

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crazygringo 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Although on the other hand, if you listen with AirPods Pro streaming 5.1, you get a better surround sound and audio experience than 99.9% of speaker setups. For just a couple hundred bucks.

Even beyond the audio quality and spatial processing, the noise reduction is magic that speakers can't do. It's amazing how much more detail you can hear when the sound of the HVAC is removed, the hum of the refrigerator, the rumble of traffic. Not to mention the total elimination of sonic reflections off your walls and ceiling that muddy the sound from speakers, unless you're applying treatments.

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majormajor 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah while home audio tech has moved sideways, consumer headphone tech has gone through the roof in every way.

But you touch on another of my pet peeves - took some work, but getting rid of those noises in my tv-watching space was very worth it.

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vachina 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

AirPods sounds like audio solutions for poor people. Having to resort to tricks to mask the deficiencies in their lives.

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heresie-dabord 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> ou get a better surround sound and audio experience than 99.9% of speaker setups

Headphones and earbuds are not the way everyone listens to music, though.

With a good amplifier and speakers, I can be seated a few metres away and enjoy classical music and jazz with comfort and very realistic acoustics.

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baq 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Nobody is saying headphones can’t deliver a good experience, but you can’t cheat physics when going below a couple hundred hertz.

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crazygringo 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Not sure what you're saying -- you know that in-ear sealed headphones (like AirPods Pro) have phenomenal bass? There's no leakage path, and no destructive interference issues. All the issues with driving bass in speakers just... don't apply with sealed headphones. It's basically perfect bass.

The only thing you don't get is the full-body shaking sensation that massive speaker bass provides. But that's not even audio. That's more like amusement-park ride stuff. (Not to say it isn't great too.)

I mean, tell me what you think of the frequency response below 200 Hz here:

https://storage.googleapis.com/headphones_com_blog_files/app... (from https://headphones.com/blogs/reviews/apple-airpods-pro-2nd-g...)

	▲	majormajor 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I have AirPods Pro (and like the B&O EX much better, personally), but I wouldn't use them for bass-heavy stuff even compared to over-the-ear ones, let alone a system with big woofers. It's just not the same as filling a room, and not just in an "amusement-park" way.

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TacticalCoder 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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