Datstrayan...first welcome to head-fi man!! First words of advice...take a big ole' breath brother...now, take another one.Seriously though, that was quite a wall of text!! Throw a paragraph or something in there, anywhere please sir.
I enjoy your enthusiasm and wish you the best on your journey to enjoy hi quality music. If we can help you out don't hesitate to ask.
Matt
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Datstrayan...first welcome to head-fi man!! First words of advice...take a big ole' breath brother...now, take another one.Seriously though, that was quite a wall of text!! Throw a paragraph or something in there, anywhere please sir.
I enjoy your enthusiasm and wish you the best on your journey to enjoy hi quality music. If we can help you out don't hesitate to ask.
Matt
!. unfortunately nature or god....or both wanted me to type up a proper and grammatically correct version of my previous post (hence meaning it accidentally deleted itself, or i did.) so here goes. I'm going to retype that long long long LONG string of text. (but with paragraphs and grammar and stuff ;D!)
Datstrayan...first welcome to head-fi man!! First words of advice...take a big ole' breath brother...now, take another one.Seriously though, that was quite a wall of text!! Throw a paragraph or something in there, anywhere please sir.
I enjoy your enthusiasm and wish you the best on your journey to enjoy hi quality music. If we can help you out don't hesitate to ask.
Matt
@MattTCG @the-kraken @goldendarko Thanks guys for all the love
@mikemercer @jude @Gilly87 @Tyll Hertsens @Stillhart. Okay here goes. Hey Head-fiers I'm 19 year old something audio-beginner/enthusiast who dares not offend the audiophile community by calling himself an audiophile.that being said let me tell you the story of how my life got flipped,turned upside down. (how i became interested in good SQ)
It all started when i was about 10 years old, my parents deciding i was finally old enough for the gift of portable music, gave me an iPod nano....really old ipod nano...i think it was actually the first generation along with the (JVC pink i.e. buds) however overtime i grew tired of their dull sound, so i did what any hershey-addled child would do. thats right! i bought the JVC plus pink i.e. buds. oh yeah i was really rolling with the big boys now!
Later on in my life my parents decided it was time for me to reach my next evolution...these came in the form of the Skullcandy Aviator over ear headphones! oh yeah!!! money!!!. i was really banging to the beat of these hp for a long time....maybe until my tweens came along i was about 13 to 14 at this time. and guess what happened then...my baby sis who was around...4 at the time broke them...with a HAMMER. ._. . needless to say i ignored her....for days...as all tweens would.
Depressed and unwilling to go on in the narcissistic world of adults that didn't understand my problems i proudly entered my teens and rebelled against society by buying the monstrous bass demon twins known as the skull candy Skull-Crushers/Crushers. now if there is one word to describe these things....its BASS followed by BASS and then.... more BASS. seriously though these things had a vertical slider on the side of the cups, that if you moved them halfway up, the skin on your face would quite literally start vibrating. and if you turned them all the way up....well i haven't done drugs but if i ever did I'm pretty sure that the after-effects of those hp's are pretty much the same.
However in time i grew weary of these hp's and decided it was time to up my game yet again. now armed with an iPod touch 2nd gen and the Sol Republics Master Tracks i believed i had finally become the king...the peasant of audio that used to wander aimlessly looking for good audio had found his kingdom...and he was quite pleased. Jokes aside these things...are like beats...with better SQ and less distorted bass. well eventually i upgraded to the XC's ( the Sol republic model not the Audeze ones XD) anyways they were in a one world...clean. very nice SQ no distorted bass even at high volumes, played well with many a genre. but it was at this point that my transformation began.
I Discovered Head-Fi an online community of what i thought back then as foolishly rich insane people. 15000$ for HEADPHONES+AMPS+CABLES+DAC?! are you people insane?! i could get a car with that money!. and so on, so i refused to make an account... but i was intrigued and so the deep seductive mystery of hi-fi audio overtook me. what was it that people were so fascinated in? i couldn't understand but eventually when the next headphone purchase came up i though what the hell. ill give it a shot and after days and i mean days as in 124 hours of combined research i decided to buy the Bowers & Wilkins P7 and boy!!! i was not disappointed! Beautiful SQ amazing Design, lightweight, comfortable. It was what i had been searching for all along and then finally i understood what the hype was about...except it wasn't hype..it was pure science...cold hard facts you might even say. and now i see the EL-8 and the PM-3 and i have to wonder...should i go for them...i was wondering this all week, as i tried to catch up with the forum posts. vowing to make an account and posting my thoughts and my appreciation for this community once i had reached the end.
Today is that day, finally i finished my frantic-reading and once i did so i checked for the nearest Audeze dealer here in the state of florida. i found one, drove to him and we talked and then he was kind enough to let me...a plebeian listen to his LCD-X with his Amp and his system running, me who doesn't even have a good dac, unless you count my Macbook, or an amp or anything like that. in fact i run these things through my headphone or simply through my mac if i want better SQ. and it really touched me that there were people who were so kind to show others the marvels of life. and thats what i love about this community and i really hope it stays that way thanks guys you've been my inspiration and truly you have opened up my world. and i couldn't be happier.
Also to mike mercer, jude, gilly, tyll, and stillhart i want to thank you guys. for giving me the chance to find out about these headphones and even if they aren't summit-fi as many people expect, I've learned that to reach summit-fi the best way to is to go up the scales. i went from 1 dollar earbuds to 499 dollar headphones and now I'm going up higher and I'm getting happier everytime. thank you guys.
P.S. this is my first post, so be gentle with me, after all it is my first(or a repost of it since it got deleted...curse you god/nature/both)
Four years ago I never thought someone would be grateful for something I wrote on the internet about headphone. I love that pursuing my hobby has helped someone else I bought a pair of SE215 next, based on joker's review, and slowly climbed my way up through the price brackets on his massive comparo, before finally giving in and buying full sized cans, DACs, amps... now I work for an audio company, helping them develop their new products, doing what I love, and got to hang out with Jude, and Mike Mercer, and Tyll at CES this year. So much awesome. Sorry about your wallet @MattTCG
@the-kraken
@goldendarko
Thanks guys for all the love
@mikemercer
@jude
@Gilly87
@Tyll Hertsens
@Stillhart
. Okay here goes. Hey Head-fiers I'm 19 year old something audio-beginner/enthusiast who dares not offend the audiophile community by calling himself an audiophile.that being said let me tell you the story of how my life got flipped,turned upside down. (how i became interested in good SQ)
It all started when i was about 10 years old, my parents deciding i was finally old enough for the gift of portable music, gave me an iPod nano....really old ipod nano...i think it was actually the first generation along with the (JVC pink i.e. buds) however overtime i grew tired of their dull sound, so i did what any hershey-addled child would do. thats right! i bought the JVC plus pink i.e. buds. oh yeah i was really rolling with the big boys now!
Later on in my life my parents decided it was time for me to reach my next evolution...these came in the form of the Skullcandy Aviator over ear headphones! oh yeah!!! money!!!. i was really banging to the beat of these hp for a long time....maybe until my tweens came along i was about 13 to 14 at this time. and guess what happened then...my baby sis who was around...4 at the time broke them...with a HAMMER. ._. . needless to say i ignored her....for days...as all tweens would.
Depressed and unwilling to go on in the narcissistic world of adults that didn't understand my problems i proudly entered my teens and rebelled against society by buying the monstrous bass demon twins known as the skull candy Skull-Crushers/Crushers. now if there is one word to describe these things....its BASS followed by BASS and then.... more BASS. seriously though these things had a vertical slider on the side of the cups, that if you moved them halfway up, the skin on your face would quite literally start vibrating. and if you turned them all the way up....well i haven't done drugs but if i ever did I'm pretty sure that the after-effects of those hp's are pretty much the same.
However in time i grew weary of these hp's and decided it was time to up my game yet again. now armed with an iPod touch 2nd gen and the Sol Republics Master Tracks i believed i had finally become the king...the peasant of audio that used to wander aimlessly looking for good audio had found his kingdom...and he was quite pleased. Jokes aside these things...are like beats...with better SQ and less distorted bass. well eventually i upgraded to the XC's ( the Sol republic model not the Audeze ones XD) anyways they were in a one world...clean. very nice SQ no distorted bass even at high volumes, played well with many a genre. but it was at this point that my transformation began.
I Discovered Head-Fi an online community of what i thought back then as foolishly rich insane people. 15000$ for HEADPHONES+AMPS+CABLES+DAC?! are you people insane?! i could get a car with that money!. and so on, so i refused to make an account... but i was intrigued and so the deep seductive mystery of hi-fi audio overtook me. what was it that people were so fascinated in? i couldn't understand but eventually when the next headphone purchase came up i though what the hell. ill give it a shot and after days and i mean days as in 124 hours of combined research i decided to buy the Bowers & Wilkins P7 and boy!!! i was not disappointed! Beautiful SQ amazing Design, lightweight, comfortable. It was what i had been searching for all along and then finally i understood what the hype was about...except it wasn't hype..it was pure science...cold hard facts you might even say. and now i see the EL-8 and the PM-3 and i have to wonder...should i go for them...i was wondering this all week, as i tried to catch up with the forum posts. vowing to make an account and posting my thoughts and my appreciation for this community once i had reached the end.
Today is that day, finally i finished my frantic-reading and once i did so i checked for the nearest Audeze dealer here in the state of florida. i found one, drove to him and we talked and then he was kind enough to let me...a plebeian listen to his LCD-X with his Amp and his system running, me who doesn't even have a good dac, unless you count my Macbook, or an amp or anything like that. in fact i run these things through my headphone or simply through my mac if i want better SQ. and it really touched me that there were people who were so kind to show others the marvels of life. and thats what i love about this community and i really hope it stays that way thanks guys you've been my inspiration and truly you have opened up my world. and i couldn't be happier.
Also to mike mercer, jude, gilly, tyll, and stillhart i want to thank you guys. for giving me the chance to find out about these headphones and even if they aren't summit-fi as many people expect, I've learned that to reach summit-fi the best way to is to go up the scales. i went from 1 dollar earbuds to 499 dollar headphones and now I'm going up higher and I'm getting happier everytime. thank you guys.
P.S. this is my first post, so be gentle with me, after all it is my first(or a repost of it since it got deleted...curse you god/nature/both)
Took the words right outta my mouth Matt!!
WELL SAID sir.
I'm workin' on my CES article for ETM - then, some in-depth impressions - now that some time has passed.
I'll just say this for now - like I often say in my reviews: We're all individuals, and therefore we will interpret things differently. It doesn't matter what the delivery mechanism is:
We're ALL reacting to the MUSIC playback, and music is an art-form (just as the high end gear is) so, when it comes to music, it's still in the ears of the beholder.
However, while Tyll and I have vastly different approaches to reviewing gear (I came up under Harry Pearson at The Absolute Sound, so, as many of you know, he NEVER wanted test/lab results published in TAS - as he believed in describing the musicality of the system - and how it made him feel) - we actually have similar tastes often when it comes to cans we like, and cans we dislike. I also enjoy our conversations very much (Tyll and I) as he appreciates my approach and I always learn something from his!
But I was surprised by his comments about both cans being "bass-light"! But I would NEVER claim anybodies observations are wrong!
As Jude said - we're all just offering our opinions... However, I really doubt that Palmer Luckey (creator of Oculus Rift) would have utilized the new EL-8s (and they used LCD-XCs as well) if they were too light in the bass dept. for the Oculus - Audeze - SubPac demonstration at CES! THAT was truly something special!!!!
"Bass-light" is a phrase I wouldn't use to describe the sonics of either version. And: When demo-ing the EL-8s at their booth when I first got there (the finished product - as I got to hear the prototype, and that wasn't, to my ears, bass-light either) I was sure to use some of my favorite acoustic - singer/songwriter stuff, jazz, AND some of my beloved electronic music to gather my initial impressions.
As stated in my previous posts (yeah its tough to see em now - as this thread has been movin'):
I thought the closed-backs rendered the emotive nuance of Ani DiFrancos' vocals beautifully during the playback of "Hearse" off her Which Side Are You On? record (my review of that album HERE). They also captured the spaciousness/dimensionality + unique timbre of the strings in Mogwais' "Special N" off Les Revenants (my full album review HERE). I love this track, and when I heard that record for the first time - using my HD800s and E.A.R HP4 during that listening sesh - I lost it. The imagery just struck a nerve with me, and so that's my benchmark when listening to this record on something new. Does the system reproduce the sound in a way that gets me in the gut, and renders me an emotional wreck for that 5-7 minutes (however long it is)?
The open-back EL-8s were equal to this sonic acid test. And if I thought they were bright - there's NO way I could've continued to listen past the first 8 bars or so. NOT THE CASE there. I loved the presentation the open EL-8s offered-up - using my Glove Audio A1 DAC/Amp + AK120 for source/amp/DAC. As a matter of fact I took a much-needed long walk with a pair and the Glove in Vegas Wed. night (trying to calm myself down - as we thought I lost my pair of LCD-XCs at the restaurant that night - got em back thank God) - but I took this walk to try and clear my mind and calm down - and there was only a pair of open-back EL-8s available at that point, late at night in the hotel - and I heard my entire CES 2015 Playlist on that walk, with tracks ranging from "Everything in it's Right Place" by Radiohead to "One Mic" by Nas and "A Song for You" by Donny Hathaway
And, when it came to the bass - I used Jim Hall's version of Rodrigos' Concierto (for acoustic bass/jazz) off CTI Records 40th Anniversary Edition and "Bette Noire" off Hecqs' Avenger and Recondites "Garbo" off his latest Iffy album (my review HERE). The open 8s certainly seemed to have an edge when it came to the acoustic bass in Concierto. The detail - both micro and macro-dynamic detail retrieval was layered with greater intensity, and the space between the notes and the instruments was more akin to the sound I get from my LCD-2F on this track through the open 8s. However, playing it on the closed-backs didn't disappoint - and it certainly didn't sound bass-light to me. Plus, to give em both a bass work-out I chose Hecq's brilliant "Bette Noire". Anybody who knows Hecqs' "Bette Noire" off Avenger (@goldendarko
- as I remember you're a fan of this record too) knows that this track not only has sub-bass that will make you smile if your systems up to the task, or, piss you off and show you immediately if its lacking sub-bass - but it's also a magnificently intricate composition (Hecq, while he's an electronic artist, is also a classically trained pianist) - and the open EL-8s handled the track better than I expected, and while the bass was lighter than the closed-backs - it certainly didn't present itself as being light in that department. The closed-backs were my preference here, and the reproduction, from top to bottom was tight, focused, airy, and had plenty of slam for my taste!
So YES, it's interesting to see the varying opinions here. - BUT:
Again, as Jude said (that response was so SPOT ON @jude
) we're only expressing opinions, and, at this stage we're all (those of us who've heard them) basing these observations on our experiences with the units at CES - or our pre-production models. So, as I said earlier in this post (sorry, I went off - tried to make this one brief, but those who know me know I can't shut the ___ up most of the time) I'll be offering up some in-depth impressions based on the production model ASAP!!
Wow dude, thank *you* for sharing your storyI never thought someone would be so grateful for something I wrote on the internet.
It's true though; you really do have to move up steadily to appreciate the gains in quality. If I throw my T90s on someone who has never heard a real studio-grade headphone, at least something like the Sony V6, they're like "yeah it sounds ok," or, god forbid, "I can't hear the bass..." ;_;
I worked my way up from consumer level gear, just like you. My journey began with a pair of broken Skullcandies and a trip to RadioShack to replace them. I'll never forget standing there, looking at the wall of in ears, reaching for another pair of cheapies, wondering if the salesman was just trying to take my money when he told me "Yeah the Sony's cost twice as much but they sound way better. You should buy them for sure." I had a friend who worked at RatShack so I knew they made commission, and headphones were one of the easiest things to make commission on. But I had just gotten a new job, and I was sick of Skullcandy buds breaking on me every few months, so I said "**** it, ring me up!" I paid $40; knowing what I know now, I could have gotten better for less than half that (MP8320 ftw...), but it didn't matter, because on the walk home, for the first time in my life, I *felt* bass with a set of headphones. To me, at the time, it was like having speakers in my ears. I didn't even know in-ears could DO that.
I was so blown away that, when my Sonys broke, I was ready to go all in. Dr Dre Beats had come out not long before, and I saw all the ads and heard "how the artists intended to hear it," etc etc. I figured, the sales guy didn't lead me astray the first time; maybe audio gear is one place where the truth lives up to the hype.
Wow, was I pissed when I discovered the truth. I figured for $150, I should get three times the sound of the Sonys, and the flat cable means they'll be super durable, so its probably worth it!
Grrrrrr.
Needless to say, I was VERY disappointed. My $40 Sonys sounded WAY better. I felt so cheated. I was baffled that they were making any money at all; how could people not tell that these things sounded AWFUL? I spent HOURS in my bedroom, trying all the different triple flange tips, positioning the cables, shoving them WAY into my ears, doing ANYTHING I could to try to justify the extra $110 I had just spent, apparently on a fancy box, extra tips, a flat cable, and Dr Dre's stupid, sleezy face on the package.
After two days of spending most of my free time trying to convince myself I hadn't been totally ripped off, I returned the Beats, and bought another pair of Sonys, and felt a little better...but I was traumatized. That sounds drastic, but I was really, really bothered by this. I could not believe I had bought the hype; I was so angry at myself for believing the bullschiit, and at Dr Dre for betraying me. What a dick. How was he getting away with this? Are people really such sheep?
And so I took to the internet to find the truth. In any prior century I would have probably spent the rest of my life as a madman raving on a city street corner, but with the power of Google at my fingertips, I was quickly vindicated: most reviews drew the same conclusions I had.
That was all well and good, and I didn't feel quite so pathetic any more, seeing how others had fallen for it too, but I had been so convinced that the Beats would sound 3x as good as my Sonys that I was still left wanting more. The Sonys were fine, but I had prepared myself for sonic bliss, and with those high expectations now cemented in my mind, they just didn't sound as amazing as they used to. Well, I reasoned, RadioShack hadn't let me down yet; let's see what happens when I double my bet at their table.
This time, I walked out with a pair of VMODAs that a different salesperson recommended me. To my relief, they were better than the Beats and the Sonys...but still not quite what I had been after. I liked them, but I had spent almost twice as much, and I definitely wasn't hearing almost twice the sound. They were...a bit better. I wanted a LOT better.
They were the most expensive in ears sold at Ratshack at the time, so again I took to the Internets. This time, I started reading any reviews I could get my hands on. I scoured the web for hours, reading reviews from Amazon, BestBuy's website, CNET...anything I could find. It looked like nearly everyone enjoyed the Klipsch S4, so I figured it was a safe bet for my next purchase. After all, everyone seemed to love them, and they were no more expensive than my VMODAs.
And then I read a review of the S4 that used some interesting, more technical-sounding language than the others. Most people had given the S4 rave reviews, but the guy who sounded like he knew what he was talking about said they were "mediocre at best" with "bloated bass" and "strident treble." I still felt so awful for getting ripped off by Beats that even one bad review made me think twice. I looked this guy's Amazon account up, and read all of his reviews; there weren't that many, he wasn't especially prolific, but in the last one I read, he mentioned Head-Fi.
And so here I amI bought a pair of SE215 next, based on joker's review, and slowly climbed my way up through the price brackets on his massive comparo, before finally giving in and buying full sized cans, DACs, amps... now I work for a ******* audio company, helping them develop their new products, doing what I love, and got to hang out with Jude, and Mike Mercer, and Tyll from InnerFidelity at CES this year. ******* awesome.
So yeah. Welcome to Head-FiSorry about your wallet
but thats just my two cents keep up the awesome job guys !
