How did YOU become an audiophile? - Page 6

I rolled of the bed. 

My audiophile story up to now....

One day when I'd just hit my teenage years my father came home with a top Bose system. Intrigued by this new level of sound quality I was experiencing, I went online and discovered how speakers work and that Bose aren't so good among other things.

A few years later I discovered head-fi, registered here and after reading around a bit I bought my first headphones from the classified forum - Ultrasone 650's. Then I left for a few years. I didn't have the money for an amp or dac so I didn't bother with them.

Shortly after leaving here I was after some open-can headphones for gaming and got Sennheiser 595's, largely cause they were super comfortable. I ended up listening to lots of music on them.

I slowly lost some interest in audiophilia... I've always listened to music off my PC or laptop (iPod in the car, exercising or travelling) and had the Logitech z5500 speaker system feed out of my x-fi sound card which was fine for me at the time.

Then in my last year of high school a couple of friends and I came across an amazing deal on some PA and lighting gear. We decided to buy it and rent it out for parties and functions. This resurrected my high-fi quest, first in speakers migrating from old school KEF's to Missions to modern PSB's to Linn Keilidh's at present, then back into headphones, with K702's, balanced K701's and now LCD-2's. Our sound and lighting business is still operating for our 4th year with 3 full systems (2 cheap active setups and a decent JBL passive setup, plus heaps of lights) and its the ultimate part time job for a University (College) student.

I've always loved playing music and listening to music, but through the years I've always used the default ipod earphones and a cheap $20 Sony headphone. A couple years ago I decided I want a high quality headphone that will block out all outside noise so I could get lost in the music. I researched for many weeks trying to find the perfect noise cancelling headphone and came across the Sennheiser PXC 350 which seemed like the perfect ones for me so I bought it. They did exactly what I wanted, I put them on, turn the noise cancelling on, and I get lost in the music and the sound quality was amazing to me as I've never heard anything else besides the $20 Sony headphones. At that time, I only wanted to invest in one headphone and stick with it forever, and the PXC 350 was it, but...

About a year later I went back to looking at headphones because I've always wondered how an open headphone would sound. So I researched a lot mostly searching these forums for topics already posted. I decided to go for the Grado SR80i and a FiiO E5 the beginning of 2011. I was very impressed, and when I went back to my old PXC 350, it didn't shine for me like it used to anymore . Soon after, I joined these forums and became addicted. After about a couple weeks on here, I plunged and got the Sennheiser HD600 with the FiiO E7/E9 combo. It was AMAZING like never before and I wanted more! My old PXC 350 was left in the dust and I decided to part with it for cash for other headphones I wanted to try. Couple weeks later I got the Beyerdynamic DT990/600ohm. Just recently, I purchased the Audio Techinca ATH-M50. In about a week I will be modding my SR80i into woodies, and soon after I will plunge for a Ultrasone PRO 900. I plan on stopping there, and will avoid these forums if at all possible. Just a little over a month on these forums and I've spent over $500+ on audio gear!!!

Advice to new people, leave these forums now or say goodbye to your wallet, I had to learn it the hard way.

I really do enjoy all these audio gear though. My wallet just keeps haunting me at night.