What got you into Audiophilia?

My mother got me into music, and my father got me into being an audiphile. He was always tweaking and adding more power to his set up in our home. Usually had about 3 sets of speakers he was working on tweaking at a time, that kind of thing.

I got into Head-fi after I started DJing. I was looking for a new 'DJ can' and while I found the A&H Xone 53 myself, Head-fi turned me onto my second favorite...HD 25-1 II. The rest is history as I'm about to purchase an LF. :D

Needed headphones. Decided to spend more than $20 for once, since I was listening to a lot of music. Bought Grado SR60i.

As for how I got into music, which is a more important question. I wouldn't be allowed to say on these forums, but it starts with a P and record companies would hate me for it even though it's the only reason I ever bought a CD.

I think a very common entry into the headphone part of Audiophilia (in contrast to the speaker kind.) is through the portable headphones. I came because I wanted headphones that blocked out external noise with my mp3 player. Then was hooked.

I guess it would be the Onkyo D-152E speakers, the last part that I acquired in my Hi-Fi system upgrade project. Before receiving those, I was using 256kbps Hi-SP Atrac3+ audio on standard legacy MiniDisc all formatted in Hi-MD mode, as well as on 1GB Hi-MD MiniDiscs, both in my Onkyo MD-105FX Hi-MD MiniDisc deck & Sony Hi-MD MiniDisc Walkmans, and it sounded good enough to my ears.

As I was listening to some music I'd just copied onto MD and that I knew particularly well since I had played the original CD repeatedly the previous day, although there weren't any artefacts or distortion, I suddenly felt there was something missing, some extra dimension, a more "live" sound, more depth and grander sound-stage.

So I compared extensively the same album on the original CD, on a 1GB Hi-MD MiniDisc in LPCM at 1411kbps, in Hi-SP at 256kbps and also at 352kbps.

Only the original CD and the MD in bit-perfect LPCM copy sounded right, had the full sound that you'd expect from a well recorded session.

In consequence I sold all my legacy "80 minutes" MiniDiscs and only bought 1GB Hi-MD MiniDisc from then on, since not quite half an hour of PCM audio on a standard MiniDisc isn't exactly useful.

My next revelation has been my Audio-Technica ATH-W5000's headphones. And now I'm looking into iBasso's new DAP, the DX100... "Sorry about your wallet", yes, right...

i got into it through the P word too. My earliest memory is making mixtapes tape to tape on my dad's 'music centre'.. being about 4 or 5 years old.. my uncle always had lots of audio gear.. and i always messed around.. radios, long play mods for walkmans, etc

i always had to have a tape walkman when i went out even aged 11... but we're not talking 'ophile stuff here.. i did control what i bought so i got decent reliable sources and earphones that didnt break the cables in 5 minutes but beyond that.. no. I was an 'ophile that hadn't yet discovered proper gear.. i'd always have 4 or 5 tapes and a couple of sets of batteries on me though

What really got me going was i had to replace an aging Aiwa one box stereo as the CD player no longer worked and i'd damaged one of the speakers playing things in high speed dubbing mode really loud for hours on end. This was 1998 (i was 16) and I had just become aware of the p word being much easier on the internet. So i took the old 386 computer my dad had given me and upgraded it to a P166MMX - took me three months to get the thing to boot up to the point of installing windows, as it was the first time i had ever been in a pc.

Got a soundblaster 128pci soundcard and hooked it up to the seperates hifi I bought to replace the Aiwa, always admired and wanted a seperate system. Never looked back. That system showed me what 'ophile stuff can do. I thank Mr Leak for that. His Stereo 20+ really changed my way of getting things. Eventually, i got tired of the low quality audio got from music that was p'd and everything i had that i liked, i bought on cd, and converted into my own higher quality mp3s... the end of my p word era..

Portable audio was always a big thing for me as i say but until very recently i used to buy base model sony earbuds as i found them to be the most reliable of the cheap earphones. Then i tried a set of slightly better, more expensive EX-35 IEMs.. and they shocked me how much better they sounded.

Next set of earphones i had to buy for a portable source, i decided to use the internet to look at forums to find good ones, was put on to the Sennheiser MX-880.. another radical change in how i buy things.. i'll never get a cheap pair of buds again lol

I think discussions on the P word could derail this topic but I agree that it does help Audiophilia.

by accidentaly landed on this forum

My first appreciation of sound came from live music. I used to see a lot of concerts and in different venues and I began to notice how in some places, the sound was just cosmically stunning. Of course, there were places too that had bad acoustics as well. 

I wanted to get an MP3 player so naturally I would google and found Cnet which is a gadget website. They would do these reviews of MP3 players and naturally, the headphones would be mentioned. Then I would read read reviews at Amazon.com of these headphones and the reviewers would mention the Headroom amps like the portable ones to pair with Grados.

One thing lead to another and I found Head-fi. Now I am a proud audiophile and my ears have reached heaven.

I believe there have already been multiple threads on this. Great thread!

P word, and eventually wondering what all this 'lossless' stuff I was seeing like FLAC and ALAC.

Googled it, wikipedia explained alot of it, then friend who started making amps and stuff explained the rest and told me about the forum. 

Looked on the forum, bought 595s and here we are.

Sorry, I'm at a loss here, p word??

Been into music since childhood, but I was always worried that high-end gear might have the same problems I had with budget gear, most of all, eventually losing the signal to one ear.  I had acquired my dad's MDR-V6s until they broke, and had purchased MDR-V600s thinking they were the same thing.  But honestly even then I spent a lot more of my time with MDR-V150s because it was more convenient than dealing with a heavy, coiled cord.  I did a decent amount of headphone research a fair number of years ago, but for various reasons it didn't go anywhere.  I do remember two particular things standing out from that research though even years down the road.  One was that DT-770s were bass monsters if you had a good setup (back at this point I envisioned the "headphone amplifiers" people were plugging them into looking more like refrigerator-sized racks, and probably just as expensive).  The other thing was that I kept hearing that Grados were the kings of rock, and up until the last few years my tastes have always been pretty centered on rock and even moreso, metal. 

So finally last summer I put in a large CD order at Amazon, and on a complete whim I decided to also treat myself to some good headphones, and added the SR-60i to the cart.  When I finally received them I thought they sounded good, but not bassy enough.  So I started doing research, somewhere in that process stumbled upon this forum, which was a treasure trove of information and recommendations, and since then it's been a whirlwind of research and steadily increasing headphone purchases.  Now I finally find myself satisfied for now, the first time I've really taken a breath since my journey snowballed.  It's like I've climbed to the top of the mountain and everything looks amazing from this vantage point.  I do see other taller mountains off in the distance though.  But those journeys are for later. 

My father had an amazing car rig, and home rig. In fact, insurance would not pay for his claim for his jacked car system, simply because no one in hell back then actually spent a 5-figure sum before adjusting for inflation on a casette system. It escapes me how he managed to convince the mother otherwise.

His home rig was great too, if my memory serves. The component list, at different points in time, comprised of Triad speakers, Dynaudio, Fisher, Luxman, Altec Lansing when it wasn't making generic computer speakers. Apparently, the cartridge in his vinyl rig was silver-coloured, came in a fantastic lacquered wood box, was made in Japan, and the brand name started with a 'K'. Just as the blood drained out of my face, he told me it cost ~$350 then. Phew. And I thought my mother threw out a Kondo Io, after she forced my dad to sell off the rig, or dump it as we moved.

Yep. That got me on my way.

My dad bought me my first pair of expensive earphones, as I looked towards a more full size setup I looked towards low end Sony/Panasonic. I then had remembered my friend who would talk about Sennheisers, After, doing some research, and help from my  friend, I decided on Shures, as they were closed back. I haven't looked back since.