Hello,
I have been in this 'hobby', if one could in fact, call this a hobby, for a number of years. Throughout that time, I have foolishly spent thousands of dollars chasing the 'magic dragon', if you will. Chasing that, which we refer to as 'Audio Nirvana'. Trying to obtain the unattainable. The golden sound. The perfect sound. The BEST possible sound. Ahhhh, what a joke.
Like some of you, I have an affliction. I have an addiction. Rather, I have a fatal flaw. It is referred to as obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD.
I concede, I am not an audiophile. I WAS, however, a music lover.
As we all know, everyone's ears are shaped differently. Mine look very 'normal' in size and shape. However, they just don't allow for earbuds. Its very close, mind you, they simply just fall out too easily. First, I tried felt sleeves. In fact, I tried several thicknesses of felt sleeves. Still, they fell out. Next, I tried the plastic variety. Still, they fell out. 9 years ago, aftermarket ear hooks, ear wings, whatever you refer to them as, those plastic jobs that help hold earbuds in place, they were not prevalent, either they did not exist, or were not readily available to the market place.
Well, my love of music, and my need for headphones that fit drew me to the Mecca, that which is head-fi.org. And so, it began.
Somewhere along the line, my love of music, got replaced with a love of headphones. Which then spawned into an costly affair centered around boutique 2 channel audio gear. But that's a conversation for another forum.
Back to head-fi. During the past 9 years, I have purchased, owned or auditioned quite a number of headphones ranging from circumaural (around-ear) to supraaural (on-ear) as well in-ear monitors of varying prices. I admit to purchasing a number of FOTM variety (flavor of the month for those unfamiliar). I have also heavily modified my own headphones, ranging from experimenting with damping materials, varying amounts of damping, hard-wiring headphone cables, silver solder, solid wire, silver wire, braided wire, stranded wire, different dielectrics and jackets, connectors, adapters, etc., etc. OCD Madness.
I drank the kool-aid.
Thankfully, I am in recovery. Part of that recovery, is sharing my experience and possibly helping others avoid the 'mistakes' I have made.
I am reviving this dead thread with one objective in mind.
For the few, who may happen across this thread... I hope to enlighten those going down this dark evil path. Yes, you are spiraling down the rabbit hole. Yes, this is The Matrix. Unplug yourself. Dramatic enough!!?!?
The Truth is, there is no spoon. Wait, that's not it. The Truth is, there is NO golden grail for headphones. Stop spending your hard earned money chasing the magic dragon.
These Yuin PK1 headphones are The Truth.
Listen, all joking aside. These headphones, rather earbuds, yes they are earbuds, are simply outstanding. Attempting to dissect their performance in order to describe they sound signature is trivial. Forget the aesthetics, frequency response curves, measurements, marketing hype, reviewer awards and all that other noise. These earbuds are a revelation of sorts. They are wonderful.
But, yeah, there's always a but, these headphones have 2 flaws, both of which, are by design, and therefore, cannot be avoided:
1) They are earbuds, they do not isolate outside noise and they will leak a moderate amount of sound relative to the output level/volume.
2) They have 150ohms impedance, which means they require a little more juice than a typical device (smartphone, DAP, laptop, tablet, etc.) can output to really come alive.
With those caveats noted, do yourself a huge, huge favor. Get a pair of these earbuds. If your ears are shaped like mine, get some earhoox or something similar to help keep them in place. Once you give these a listen, through a device with some drive (ie. Audioquest Dragonfly v1.2, CEntrance DACport HD, Meridian Explorer, etc.) you will question why you would EVER need anything else much better than this.
[COLOR=808080]I don't post very often, but, how about that for a 400th post!?[/COLOR]
I hear you.
