Your head-fi story? how did you become an audiophile?

About 2.5-3 years ago I had some Razor gaming headset and the second pair broke on me, so I started doing research for a new pair and bought some Audio Technica ATH-A700's. When I got them I was floored at the masssiivveee difference in anything I had before. I used those most of the time at my computer. Never really had any experience with portable audio since I was home schooled for the duration of high school. After a while, I got tired of how hot the A700's were on my head, so I went to look around at new stuff back in October/November, and I got some HD595's for X-mas that year. Didn't like them a ton, so I also got some SR80i's to compare. Loved those, so I returned the HD595's. Came into some extra cash recently and was able to pick up my DT990's and the E7&E9 combo. That brings us up to now, enjoy music with my SR80i's and DT990's, content. For now.. 

Since i was 11yrs old im interested on headphones. I used cheap cans with my walkman everyday, it was my addiction. At the age of 18, started to get interested on sound quality, when i tried my friend pioneer vintage phones hooked up to his a/v receiver. 

Since then, i started buying quality hp's. 

ipod earbuds -> 6 months later mdr v150 (god awful, but I loved them) -> 3 years later -> sr80is

after about 20 months of abuse, my sr80is crapped out and I joined this site to ask about how I should get them fixed. I fixed them, but they died after about 4 more months. After fixing them and learning how easy and rewarding DIY is, I built my first amp (which was a freaking disaster, btw). Now I build amps every now and then for other head-fiers, and I'm waiting on my next rig. It'll probably be my last full size purchase until I leave college.

Computer -> gamma2 w/ sigma11 -> Speedball Crack -> HD650s

I've spent about $1200 over the course of two years, but I've learned a hell of a lot. My current rig costs maybe $800.

When I was 12, 6 months before I joined here, I bought V-Moda Bass Freqs for $30 from Circuit City. I loved them to death. They were great. They also fell apart though. After that I came here to ask about what I should get to replace them. Most people steered me into $100+ territory which is too much for the 13 year old I once was. Then I bought the Shure SE110's for $40 off of Amazon. I didn't like the lack of bass at first. But I heard the clarity and they grew on me. Then this summer, my Grandparents dog ate the tips of my Shure SE110's. Rather than buying a new set of tips I thought I should upgrade.

August 2010 - I bought the UE SuperFi 5vi's for $55. I like them, but they sound VERY similar quality wise to my Shure's except the mids were a tad sweeter but they didn't have nice treble like my Shure's did. I had been researching headphones a lot by this time. So I asked to buy a pair of Grado SR-225i's off of here used for my birthday. I got them September 2010. Then by October I got a uDac. Then by November I got Sennheiser HD650's. Then I got a Schiit Asgard for Christmas. Then I got a pair of K702's. Then I traded those for my current SM3's. 

So from August to now I went from Shure SE110's to uDac>Asgard>SM3. I may be getting a Stax setup soon. Not bad for being 15?

The HD 485's started this. :)

I grew up with a stereo fetish I inherited from my Dad, his old Magnavox tube stuff and Bose 901 speakers formed my appreciation of good sound.

My head-fi life started when I got my first decent cans around 1981 at 14 years old, a pair of Senheisers (forget which model, big n yellow ;) ) that I had through college (about 1987).

In college I did some radio and sound/video work (I studied film) and picked up my first set of Sony MDR-7506 I used for DJing and production/mixing, these lasted me into 92 or so when I lost all my gear in a hip hop group project that went bad (Craig one day I will find you in a dark alley....)

When I returned to NY from California I started doing some club DJing and live band sound so I got another set of MDR 7506's that I also used as portable headphones with a PCDP and then a portable MiniDisc. I still have this set, as well as 2 other pairs of 7506's I acquired during the following 10 years doing live and studio audio engineering. During my years working for one particular sound company I forgot my cans for a video shoot and my boss gave me his Grado RS1's for the shoot and I fell in love. A few weeks later I went to B&H and bought the most expensive Grados I could justify, a set of 325's and loved them to death until they mysteriously vanished along with 2 books of CD's when my wife and I moved to Virginia in 2003.

I discovered the Head-Fi forums a few years ago when I was building a new PC and was looking for a good soundcard to run HP's and speakers and the rest is history :)

Drew

Quote:

Originally Posted by drewfus420 

I grew up with a stereo fetish I inherited from my Dad, his old Magnavox tube stuff and Bose 901 speakers formed my appreciation of good sound.

 

My head-fi life started when I got my first decent cans around 1981 at 14 years old, a pair of Senheisers (forget which model, big n yellow ;) ) that I had through college (about 1987).

In college I did some radio and sound/video work (I studied film) and picked up my first set of Sony MDR-7506 I used for DJing and production/mixing, these lasted me into 92 or so when I lost all my gear in a hip hop group project that went bad (Craig one day I will find you in a dark alley....)

When I returned to NY from California I started doing some club DJing and live band sound so I got another set of MDR 7506's that I also used as portable headphones with a PCDP and then a portable MiniDisc. I still have this set, as well as 2 other pairs of 7506's I acquired during the following 10 years doing live and studio audio engineering. During my years working for one particular sound company I forgot my cans for a video shoot and my boss gave me his Grado RS1's for the shoot and I fell in love. A few weeks later I went to B&H and bought the most expensive Grados I could justify, a set of 325's and loved them to death until they mysteriously vanished along with 2 books of CD's when my wife and I moved to Virginia in 2003.

I discovered the Head-Fi forums a few years ago when I was building a new PC and was looking for a good soundcard to run HP's and speakers and the rest is history :)

 

Drew

HD414??? That's the only yellow senn I can think of, but they aren't big.

I was drunk one night and stumbled in front of my computer, finally winding up on eBay. I bought a pair of fake Beats by Dre Tour for $50 thinking I had gotten another great eBay deal. Once I figured out I had been jipped, I returned them with no delay for a full refund. That's when I got bit by the HiFi bug and felt something was missing musically. Picked up a set of M50s and now, I am constantly surfing these forums and trying to by a set of turntables to add to my rig.

. . . And I haven't looked back ever since.

Bob-

They had big yellow foam pads with a black plastic headband and I believe they were pre the HD414, best as I can recall they were a 200-something model

Quote:

Originally Posted by mralexosborn 
...........So from August to now I went from Shure SE110's to uDac>Asgard>SM3. I may be getting a Stax setup soon. Not bad for being 15?

Do you have two car payments, house payment, taxes, school costs, insurance premiums, family expenses, vacations, addictions, etc. ? At 15, I lived at home with my parents, working 70 hours a week at my dad's gas station. I didn't let my parents buy my clothes, food, etc. as it brought me a new found independence and respect. There's no age where hard work stops paying off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by drewfus420 

I grew up with a stereo fetish I inherited from my Dad, his old Magnavox tube stuff and Bose 901 speakers formed my appreciation of good sound.

 

My head-fi life started when I got my first decent cans around 1981 at 14 years old, a pair of Senheisers (forget which model, big n yellow ;) ) that I had through college (about 1987).

In college I did some radio and sound/video work (I studied film) and picked up my first set of Sony MDR-7506 I used for DJing and production/mixing, these lasted me into 92 or so when I lost all my gear in a hip hop group project that went bad (Craig one day I will find you in a dark alley....)

When I returned to NY from California I started doing some club DJing and live band sound so I got another set of MDR 7506's that I also used as portable headphones with a PCDP and then a portable MiniDisc. I still have this set, as well as 2 other pairs of 7506's I acquired during the following 10 years doing live and studio audio engineering. During my years working for one particular sound company I forgot my cans for a video shoot and my boss gave me his Grado RS1's for the shoot and I fell in love. A few weeks later I went to B&H and bought the most expensive Grados I could justify, a set of 325's and loved them to death until they mysteriously vanished along with 2 books of CD's when my wife and I moved to Virginia in 2003.

I discovered the Head-Fi forums a few years ago when I was building a new PC and was looking for a good soundcard to run HP's and speakers and the rest is history :)

 

Drew

That sucks man! :(
 

Coincidetally my story involves a pair of Sony MDR 150's too, it was a $20 Walmart solution to compensate for lack of audio in my laptop. Those tinny little laptop speakers dont even qualify as low fi. Anyway I got the MDR's. Then my laptop crapped out. My journey down the head fi rabbit hole sort of began with the new PC. The headphone out on my PC in a word sucks. I thought a better pair of headphones would solve my problem so I started shopping online for a better pair. All my searches kept pointing to Grado SR60's as being the biggest bang for your buck headphone ever. Didnt seem to be the case when I got them because the headphone out on my PC still sucked. By this time I had discovered head fi. So like anybody that spends too much time reading the nostrums posted in here I fell down the head fi rabbit hole. The flavor of the month at the time was the uDAC. So I got that plugged it in to my computer, paired it with my Grado's and entered the realm of head fi. 6 months after my initial foray into audiophillia I joined head fi and succumbed to the desire to upgrade. Since then I've had a pair of SR225's, a Denon d2000, an MS2i, and finally an HF2; and the uDAC was replaced with an Audio GD Sparrow.

Just prior to joining I got a Clip + and a pair of Skull Candy Titans that were exchanged for a pair of Porta Pro's. I'm currently waiting on a pair of Sunrise SW Xcapes to pair with my clip.

And I recently woodied my SR60's, recabled them with some 4 braided silver wire, and replaced the comfies with jumbo's.

I should be done but I think I have another purchase or two to make

Started with my sister's XD100. Then it all went downhill from there.

My first internet purchase was in 2005 for an iRiver iFP-799. The people on the bus were really noisy, and the stock earbuds wasn't so impressive, so I looked into some IEMs. That's when I joined Head-fi.

Actually, my story goes a bit back as well... My first CD player was when Pokemon season 1 aired. My first CD was a Pokemon CD too. It had no shock protection, so it was a pain to use. Come high school I bought a new Panasonic CD player and started building my music collection from there. I was an idiot back then and put the music up a bit too loud. Then see sentence 1.

And after my first IEM I went into portable amps, my first full-size (D1001), then into DIY amps/DACs/headphone mods. At this stage I have been going in circles, going into high end then low end.