#7. The “Open” ‘cans – Aren't They Much Like the Opened Cans?!

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#7. The “Open” ‘cans – Aren't They Much Like the Opened Cans?!

t’s a common knowledge that the best sounding headphones, including the most expensive ones, are all “open” design ones.
And it’s been taken for granted through the whole history of “portable” audio.
Through the years I’ve been doing stints as the Russian distributor for some top-notch headphone companies (including Grado and Audeze). At the time their portfolio included exclusively “open” design in their products.
Having this privilege I would use their products as gifts to a lot of my friends.

Then some time later I would inquire the recipients of those gifts about how did they like them. A typical response would follow: “Which headphones? Oh, yes-yes, the ones you gave me as a gift a few years ago…I remember, yes. But, honestly, after that first auditioning I never used them again”.
After my pressure of demanding an honest answer, people would admit that they never had an opportunity.
The same happened to me when Dragoslav Colich of Audeze sent me my first pair of LCD-3s.
I got them in New York and took them with me on my plane back to Moscow.
With high level of anticipation I took my emergency row seat on the plane and then unpacked the headphones from their original packaging and put them on my head…
…And then the plane started its engines…
Now I know that if I were to put them a few moments earlier, than my fellow passengers would have, most likely, demanded from me to lower the volume of the music I would play.
So these examples pose a question: in which likely scenarios people would use an open headphone?

Perhaps, I agree, you can use them at home, less likely, in a recording studio, and I can imagine a few other likely scenarios when it can be a viable option. But just a few...
But is that it?! Only listening in your room with your door shut? So your wife wouldn’t be screaming from the bedroom to “Lower the volume of your goddamned headphones!”?!
Why do we need to put ourselves in such a limited-capabilities position?!
Believe me, there are some other solutions with (even better) sonic results.
How about outside home, where I would imagine, the vast majority of headphone and earphone listening is taking, or can take, place?! For instance, riding a public transportation, like in the above example?!
Does such narrow-mind approach come from the long-term successful “open” ‘can marketing, their, with no doubt, sexy look, or what?
Especially, when you consider that their usage problem is exacerbated by the low sensitivity of the “open” designs, which prohibits them from using the headphones with the most common music players.
That’s why I am not sure that potential buyers of the open ‘can designs, at the point of purchase, are fully aware of all the limitations that exist in front of them.
Because, if they were, then, how would I get such survey results I’ve got, the same ones, even if their owners did pay for their best quality “open” headphones?!

Therefore, however much you try, you can’t get rid of an impression that the crème of the tops “open” “cans are like opened cans of some precious food.
They look very tantalizing on a store shelf, and, at first, they are delicious, but when you open such cans, you should enjoy the content of the can here and now, while it lasts (and try to be eating as close as possible to the cashier’s desk).
Because otherwise, if you’re hoping to keep a stash for a later moment, then, considering how capricious the content is, so you should keep it all the time in a tightly controlled environment of the refrigerator, hoping that an appropriate next moment to feast on it will come, and will come soon, the appropriate moment can never come again.
As the delicacies, once opened, and under normal conditions, would quickly become stale, and immediately cease to be edible.
And thereafter any interest to them is becoming lost...





26.01.2016 // Author:  (Bigmisha) // Number of views:  2015

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