I DO LOVE TO SPEND SOME DOSH ON SUM CDS

Was it worth it?

How do you know sound quality just by listening to it? Obviously noticeable faults can be easily heard, but I mean, something that's listenable versus something that supposedly sounds amazing?

>>10460
If I understand it right, pure quality is something of a moving target. There are people trained to listen to the utmost quality; the "audio fidelity" to the original source, or how close it sounds to being in the room with instruments. What affects this is that, throughout the industry, as time goes on, sounds get re-used, rerecorded, and and sometimes in inferior ways. The very act of creating a record is supposedly done by taking a master copy that corrodes over time with each copy made for distribution. A lot of quality is apparently somewhat lost in trans-coding live instrumentation into algorithmically generated mp3 sound files.

That said, most mp3s come in the 132 to 320 kbps range. The higher the kbps, the smoother the algorithmic curve of the sound is, the "crisper" the audio is, aka individual tracks and elements of the song become clearer. Most music cds are in the 320 range? In any case, most people don't notice sound differences outside that range, or at least not if they aren't trained to do so.

What I tend to look for in headphones and audio equipment is clarity and durability. You can always crank the volume, but that shit can damage your hearing over time. But if you can get a clear sound at low volume then it's only gonna sound better the louder it gets.

>>10456
>HD598
I got my pair back when it was $170. After the HD700, Sennheiser price-fixed all their headphones at MSRP and now it's hard to find it for less than $250. I wouldn't recommend it at that price.

>>10460
It's hard to explain, but I'll try.

Cheaper (as in build quality) speakers/headphones usually either sound flat, distorted, or have really overextended bass. Better ones usually address one or more of those problems. I use Sennheiser HD598s driven by a Fiio E10. The sound is reasonable on most songs. The mids are forward, and fucking AMAZING for songs with a ton of vocals, the highs are turned down a bit to prevent fatigue, and the bass is really light (probably the biggest flaw of the headphones.) The (comparatively) balanced sound and soundstage make the whole headphone shine. Media with good dynamic range make you feel like you're right there. They don't sound as good as my goal headphones, the Hifiman HE-500s, but they're more comfortable and have a better soundstage (which is great for games and movies.)

Reduced distortion is a given on better headphones, but the most common flaws of higher tier headphones are reduced bass (because cheap bassy headphones have given bass itself a bad name for a lot of people) and increased, harsh highs (I CAN HEAR SO MANY DETAILS NOW LOLOLOLOL). Do your research before buying speakers/headphones, and ALWAYS DEMO EQUIPMENT IN PERSON BEFORE BUYING IT. Conventions and audio shops are good for this. Some companies have loan programs too that let you try stuff for a month before buying them.