Hi, I'm Silver, I've been using this site for reaserch for a short while and it has been a ton of help. I enjoy good music and high power class 4 lasers (Member from Laserpointerforums).
I started my wallet draining headphone journey about a year or two ago when I got my first non $5 junk earbuds which happened to be the Sony MDR-EX15LP. I loved those cheap $15 buds and was my first small step into the audio world. I decided to upgrade about a month or two after that as I started to wonder what an extra $15 could do.
I purchaced the MDR-EX110AP after that and was slightly dissapointed as I thought at the time that twice the price would mean twice the quality. They sounded slightly better when it came to classical music and violins/chellos but seemed to have slightly less bass than my first pair of earbuds. So I upgraded yet again!
I ended up buying the MDR-XB50AP and let me tell ya, my eyes about poped out when I heard the bass on the 12mm drivers. I absolutly loved those cheap $50 jobs. I never knew earbuds could actually have some sub bass. Well, I kept those for quite a while but the design would hurt my ears after long periods of use. It was slightly awkward to wear. After another couple months, I decided to upgrade yet again. Btw, I use an Xperia Z3v as my audio source. I wanted another upgrade that was comfortable and had the same, if not more bass than my Sony XB50s.
After much reaserch, I ordered my current earbuds, the MDR-XB90EX. Imported from Japan and made with 16mm drivers, I expected some serious bass. Well, when they arrived, I was slightly dissapointed. Though they were much more comfortable, they only had slightly more bass than my XB50s and I thought I lost out on $80. Then I noticed I was almost maxing out the volume on my phone whenever I used them, so I thought the problem was my phone and the lack of power.
At the time, I had no idea headphone amps even existed so I went around looking for capable mp3 players. When I came across some Fiio amps, I wondered, "What the heck is that?" I looked into them out of curiosity and found that they can boost/amplify the signal from your phone/pc/mp3 player. So I bought the Fiio E11k as my first portable amp. With the bass booster on, it helped quite a bit and drove my power hungry XB90s quite well. It was slightly later that I learned that some portable amps also had DACs onboard and I then wondered why I didnt go for one of those. I thought an external sound card ought to be wayyy better than just a plain old amp.
So yet again, I dish out even more cash and buy a Fiio e18 smartphone amp/dac. The Xperia z3v is a very dac friendly phone and even has some menu options for sending digital audio through the micro usb port so setting it up with the Fiio e18 was very quick. No downloaded apps needed. Well, with everything strapped up and wired, I finally heard what the XB90s were supposed to sound like. My seeing balls just about fell out of thier sockets all over again. I LOVED that bass. With the bass booster on, amp set to high gain and volume turned up high, you could feel the vibrations of the driver in your ear. I havent even heard this buch bass from the overpriced beats sample headphones at Walmart.
Though, I knew I was dammaging my hearing when I turned the vomume up high enough to feel the earbuds vibrating. So I usurally listen in low gain with the volume set low. (2.5 to 3 out of 9 on the volume dial). I used listen to music from google play (with subscription) but I recently switched to TIDAL and decided to just pay the $20 a month for some fancy FLAC format streaming. It was after I switched to TIDAL that I wanted to make a real headphone upgrade and buy something audiophile grade for the FLAC music I was listening to.
And that is where I am now. I guess you could call me a Sony fanboy who prefers earbuds over headphones for portability. I wanted the XBA-H3 at first but I found that I could get a Sony XBA-A3 for slightly cheaper and slightly less bulky and with better sound as Ive heard from some on this site. I also looked at the Sony XBA-A2 because of all the good things said about its clairity in the mids and highs and still maintaining good quantities of bass. But I was also told that the XB90 has more (not higher quality) bass than the A3 and A2 which I found to be slightly dissapointing. I do enjoy the massive bass of the XB90s but I guess I could ask more on that subject in a later thread.
Wel, I apoligize for such the long first post but I hope to learn much from yall and have a great time at Head-Fi.
Silver
Haven't tried them yet as they have not arrived but I'm looking forward to it! Hope you can find the headphones and audio experience you are looking for.
