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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?

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.

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.

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

coffeejunky ,

I spend about 300 euros on a really high end usb DAC for my desktop. I honestly don’t hear the difference between the desktop output and the expensive DAC. But I do totally hear the difference between a decent and cheap pair of headphones. I do still like my DAC because it’s able to power basically all large headphones and it also powers my speakers, so I don’t see it as money wasted.

SteposVenzny ,

I am very aware of the differences in quality but am mostly okay with bad equipment and/or bad settings. The most important thing is to be able to clearly see and hear what’s supposed to be clear and only especially incompetent or especially pretentious media doesn’t get mastered to work well on shoddy displays and/or speakers by those standards.

The one thing I absolutely cannot tolerate is HDR mode on TVs without enough of a maximum luminance to actually do HDR, so they and up looking way worse than SDR.

The idea of not caring about binocular quality is truly mystifying. Binoculars’ only job is to make things as easy to see as possible.

Moonguide ,

Depends. I’m aware of the difference, but how much I care about it depends entirely on how much I like the hobby or tech. If it’s food, PCs, and clothes (as in, no cheap materials that won’t last a year) I care and will go beyond reasonable expectations to ensure that whatever I buy or cook is the best within reason. Anything else, as long as it works.

I don’t have the energy for more than that.

Mothra ,
@Mothra@mander.xyz avatar

Depends. It’s a mix of all the reasons you’ve mentioned, and I’m sure this will vary from person to person. For me, high fidelity audio matters only with headphones, and if I’m listening to music. I can absolutely tell there is a difference with speakers but I don’t enjoy them as much so I don’t care as much.

Similarly I’m not much of a HD4k+ person when it comes to video. I do see the difference but for the most part my brain will filter most visual noise, issues and distortion away while I’m engaged in narrative. I don’t need large TVs nor too much high resolution. PC monitors/laptops/phone screens? I want every pixel you can give me, the higher the resolution the better. Completely different experience than TV. I’m annoyed when I can see the pixels on a screen I’m working on.

I’m with you on the binoculars and microscopes. Yeah, quality does make a huge difference and I would absolutely get the best if I can afford it.

Food- I’m a lazy cook and very picky about condiments. I really enjoy most foods plainly. I don’t mind if my stir fry got a bit soggy or if I forgot to salt the roast. I’ll eat it all the same and be content with it like it had been perfect. For me to really appreciate the difference in food quality you need to add significantly more than 1% effort, so I leave that to professional chefs.

andrewta ,

Do I value the better picture on a TV? Yes

Same with music. I don’t enjoy watching TV /movies using TV speakers.

Listening to music using phone speakers is not worth it at all.

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