Newbies and escaping early bouts of upgraditis.

Hi all,

I am here to address the biggest problem that I suppose every new and budding audio enthusiast faces (strictly avoiding the term audiophile here, those people are crazy! ), based on my own personal experience. The problem occurs when you get to a website like Head-fi to get your first "audiophile" headphones and end up tumbling in dangerous waters where your wallet starts to dissolve rapidly in front of your eyes.

It starts when you get your first headphone and you end up looking for reasons to justify your purchase, even though you had thought of a million reasons for that before buying them anyway. Then you look at all those fancy reviews and comments from the more serious members of the board and it's natural to get sucked into the somewhat spicy, somewhat sweet, and mostly seductive description that will eventually lead you to your fantasized presentation of your favorite music.

And then it strikes! You look back at your setup and you go - "What! This isn't even close to what I can get. My next system is gonna be an Orpheus, or maybe Baby O because that one is so costly."

My advice to all those nurturing and frisky new entrants to the world of hi-fi audio is to stay back from all these thoughts and listen to more music. I am just presenting my own experience here. After getting really really excited from several months of head-fi reads (without even joining the boards! ) I bought some decent gear in the form of my AD700s and a Xonar essence STX. It all was going nice and easy but I was getting bored and decided to venture into some more posts to find ways to appreciate my purchase. One thing led to another and I soon started finding faults with my current setup (more like trying to find because my ears, as I have realized, are not even accustomed to finding the details revealed by it, completely). This then led to seeking out better options for future purchases and the never-ending search for ultimate satisfaction was beginning to grow inside me.

Then one fine day I decided to check out a really nice Jazz CD which I had for a long time but didn't listen to, because I was too busy procrastinating on Head-fi, and there it was. I was actually listening to the music and enjoying it.

So there you go! My advice (I am repeating it so often to burn into everyone's minds, more so my own) is that get the music that you want to hear. Forget about your gear and enjoy listening, after all that is why you bought it in the first place.

PS - Lots of appreciation for the great community here at head-fi. Without them I wouldn't have discovered my next purchase. Wait!

The worst part is that you get so much exotic gear with such supple reviews that you are bound to fall for it, even if you are extremely satisfied with your current setup. And then you seek out headphones that do one thing well and another to complement it, for example. It works well for people who are gifted both economically and most importantly with time.
In all it all boils down to getting experience. I am not proposing that we just stick to one piece of kit. It's just that people (read newbies) sometimes forget to evaluate their own limits before thinking that they have reached their equipment's, and end up being perennially unsatisfied and tantalized.

Indeed! I didn't start this thread to question anyone's hobbies (considering I spend half a day looking at computing and gadget sites, I am not in a position to judge anyone ). I apologize if I have given off the wrong impressions here.

What I mean to highlight is that people need to train their ears better, before judging equipment critically based just on reports given by more experienced members, and thus be in a position to understand what they want (it's very subjective after all). Again, this is more from personal experience and may not hold for everyone.

What is ironic is that you need to hear at least two different sounding headphones to get a taste of what you want, that alone is a reason to indulge further.

I also want that smiley! I don't know why but that AT smile makes me feel like an idiot.