Originally Posted by
Jon
eek... did you mispeak or is this your opinion or...
Sennheiser, Grados, blahblahblah etc. do not exclusively make headphones for "audiophiles". They certainly have headphones with the "audiophile" label attached, but that is less than 10 percent of these companies total product lines. Comments like these (all over the internet) give newcomers the false impression that they have to go through some ritual/meet some requirement to be "part of the club". Being an "audiophile" is not a club, it's a way of listening to music and paying attention to physics and mathematics and how it all interacts/relates (in a nutshell).
I do not need a pair of Sennheiser HD 800's to be an audiophile; having a pair of Sennheiser HD 800's does not automatically make me an audiophile.
And then, there's the whole iDevice debate. Most of these companies "purpose" is to make quality headphones/products, it has nothing to do with (again) being exclusive and using them on such and such device. I agree that it "defeats the purpose" if you're spending 300+ dollars on a pair of headphones ONLY for an iPod or whatever.
If you're ultimately implying there's no gain between using, say Sennheiser HD 595's over a pair of "default" apple earbuds when played back through an iDevice you're wrong.