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Do you value high fidelity (audio, visual, or other)? Do you notice a difference?

It often surprises me to see people with time, money, and knowledge settling for subpar experiences that have night and day differences to me. Even at my brokest (pretty darn broke), speakers, headphones, and glasses were always worth researching and some saving up, and the difference between what I’d end up with and the average always feels like it paid off tenfold.

I’ve got a surprising number of friends/acquaintances who just don’t seem to care, though, and I am trying to understand if they just don’t experience the difference similarly or if they don’t mind. I know musicians who just continue using generation 1 airpods or the headphones included with their phone, birdwatchers who don’t care about their binoculars, people who don’t care if they could easily make their food taste better, and more examples of people who, in my opinion, could get 50% better results/experiences by putting in 1% more thought/effort.

When I’ve asked some friends about it, it sounds as much like they just don’t care as they don’t experience the difference as starkly as I do, but I have a hard time understanding that, as it’s most often an objective sensory difference. Like I experience the difference between different pairs of binoculars and speakers dramatically, and graphical analysis backs up the differences, so how could they sound/look negligibly different to others? Is it just a matter of my priorities not being others’ priorities, or do they actually experience the difference between various levels of quality as smaller than I seem to? What’s your take on both major and, at the high end, diminishing returns on higher quality sensory experiences?

HipsterTenZero ,
@HipsterTenZero@dormi.zone avatar

I grew up really poor, so high definition audio isn’t something i’ve really ever had access to growing up, and I’ve never felt like I was missing out once I had the money to spend on new stuff.

vortexal ,
@vortexal@lemmy.ml avatar

To some extent. For audio, I don’t really have to much experience with expensive headphones/earbuds but I do notice a difference. I still usually go with cheaper headphones though because the difference in audio quality and durability aren’t really enough to justify the price difference.

For visuals in games, I do prefer to have the best experience but what settings I use depends on the game. There are some settings that are universal to me, like for example, if anti-aliasing is available, I always have it set to 2x (or 1.5x if the game has it) because every option for anti-aliasing in every game I’ve tried looks exactly the same to me, so going higher is just a waste of system resources. For similar reasons, while both of my monitors support higher resolutions, I still prefer to use 720/768p.

I think the only time I really don’t care about visual quality, is just when I’m watching videos online.

SwingingTheLamp , (edited )

I had a 13" black and white television in my bedroom when I was a teen. The big, color Trinitron TV that we got later was amazing. Beyond that, I don’t recall the improvement in quality making sitcoms funnier, or the stories better.

In fact, to me, the old, fuzzy NTSC video is better in some ways. It helps with the suspension of disbelief, the feeling of watching a story on the screen. Even 1080p is sometimes too good, to the point that the actors fall into the Uncanny Valley, like I’m watching a live play, but not quite. Instead of a story, I see the makeup on skin, the wardrobe choices, the blocking, and the bad CGI backgrounds.

I can certainly hear the quality differences in audio, but I feel like past a certain minimum, I’m listening to the music, not the equipment. Like, my Shokz had a noticeable lack of bass when I got them, but I’ve adapted, and don’t hear them that way any longer. The convenience of open-ear headphones far exceeds any gain in quality.

Evotech ,

I mean, to a point.

In the end it’s all a matter of priority. Do I want a sound system for 10k+? Sure. But that money would probably be better spent elsewhere

For me, I wanted a 65inch OLED tv and splurged a bit on that, but on discount. And I got a surround sound Sonos setup. That’s good enough

minibyte ,

I’ve always been pretty picky with audio, but have made some changes recently. The 5.1 system was absolutely worth it. In fact, I got rid of my turntable speakers and just run it through the surround sound and it sounds great.

Although, for reference – even before tinnitus I couldn’t tell the difference between 320 and FLAC/lossless.

some_guy ,

Yes. I spend a good amount of money on my home theater equipment. I want to see and hear the best media available to me. It’s why I went all-in on amassing a large collection of Blu-Rays and ripped them to Plex uncompressed. But I settle for convenience most of the time with streaming for new content.

dan1101 ,

To me the recording and mastering makes more difference than the fidelity or absolute quality. I consider myself lucky that my ears aren’t that discerning.

minibyte ,

This is equally true with visual media. It seems like each time a Bluray remaster is released there’s the inevitable complaint that it looks horrible.

Um, that’s film grain and it’s how the source was produced.

dan1101 ,

This is equally true with visual media

Yes, the style of graphics to me is more important than things like motion blur and god rays.

MerchantsOfMisery ,

I do value high fidelity media, but frankly I can’t say that I notice a difference between say, 320 kbps mp3 audio and FLAC audio-- and yes I have a nice DAC + headphones so there’s no bottlenecks. I used to have all my music as FLAC files but these days I don’t have the $$$ to buy more storage so I find myself converting everything to 320 kbps MP3 files and I’m okay with that.

For movies, I’ve only got 1080p monitors + a 720p projector so for the most part I just download 1080p movies. I burn movies and TV shows to Blu-Ray discs so for some S-tier stuff I’ll download the 4K release and burn it to a BD-R in hopes that someday I can afford 4K and all the damn PC hardware upgrades that’s going to require. But I’m in no rush, 1080p is fine by me and 720p on the projector is great.

I’m into photography, and I’m like you when it comes to lenses. Quality > quantity, any day of the week. I’d much rather choose a nice 40mm prime lens over a 17-70mm lens with mediocre glass.

My friends are kind of like yours but they know that when they want something of high quality, they can ask me and I’ll gladly do the research then give them several options. I really enjoy well-made products and I despise poorly-made products so much. As a result, I’m finally at that point in my life where quality purchases I made 15+ years ago are still working great and it feels good.

That said, I do try to keep my purchases to a minimum because it’s way too easy to fall for marketing + consumerism.

minibyte ,

Buy once, cry once. Ironically it’s saved me a ton of money in the past.

ChicagoCommunist , (edited )

There’s a degree to which this is a supply that creates demand, I feel. Maybe there’s a better way to put it.

When I had a 720p laptop, it was perfectly fine. I played games and watched movies and never felt like I was viewing things in low quality. Once I got 1080p, I could tell things were better, but they weren’t like shockingly, orgasmicly better. 720p, though, felt borderline unusable once I got used to 1080p.

The same thing happened prior to this with old box tvs/monitors, and with older video games. I played the shit out of FNV and the graphics and gameplay seemed fine. Having played modern games, though, FNV feels janky and LQ (despite having better than average writing).

I’m consciously avoiding 4K for this reason.

I’m coming around on audio to some degree, but still prefer to hit the “80% of perfect” before diminished returns start curving up, wrt earphones and such

Fizz ,
@Fizz@lemmy.nz avatar

I can’t tell the difference between good audio and great audio but I can definitely tell when it’s shit. I have no experience listening to high quality audio formats but I do have a pair of senhessier headphones that made me never want to go back to cheap gaming headphones.

You only know what you know. So if shit audio quality is all you know then you won’t value spending money on a better experience. Once you do get a taste of that better experience you will never want go back to that shit quality.

otp ,

I’m interested in this when buying a product, but I can’t always buy new products. I also tend to go with the “buy once, cry once” mentality, which means I get something with high fidelity, but it’s a rare occasion when I can upgrade something else.

InternetCitizen2 ,

I often can’t tell. I will also tweak other settings and my use so I am less bothered. I went from an Alienware m14 (2013) to a system 76 lemur pro 9 (2020) and was finally able to see the gap. I would make the font bigger or do things that took long during other chores, so the age didn’t always bother me. I’m still semi broke so I often compromise on my purchase of things when I am aware.

Ildsaye ,

All I really want from audio hardware is to have bass capability, and it does flabbergast me when someone uses their phone to try to persuade someone else of the merits of a video or song. I am completely insensitive to the difference between .flac and most .mp3s though, and in terms of video I’m generally perfectly happy with 720p and see no point in exceeding 1080 for any purpose besides archival. I’ve seen no reason to buy new tech for the past 15 years besides wear and tear.

keepcarrot ,

I notice it but don’t care. Also, is wifi “wire fidelity”? I notice and care when my wifi is crap

seaQueue ,
@seaQueue@lemmy.world avatar

I can tell the difference between a good basic pair of headphones and garbage pretty easily. There’s a noticeable difference between basic cans and higher end cans too but it’s a 15-20% improvement for a 500-10000% price increase.

If someone’s happy with older airpods then more power to them, I don’t need much more than a pair of Sennheiser HD598s myself. Would I take HD800/820s if offered for free? Absolutely. Will I pay $1600+ for them, not today.

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