RagingForces
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2009
- Posts
- 60
- Likes
- 10
I'm having a hard time with this hobby. Spend enough time on these forums and I come away with certain understandings about certain makes and models. Spend a couple months listening to several different headphones from all kinds of manufacturers. Spend money traveling to as many locations as I can that say they offer audiophile level headphones for sale and I can now begin to chime into forum posts myself. Spend hours upon hours online researching all the different factors that play into sound itself, let alone a specific configuration of audio reproducing gear and I begin to realize just how deep this subject goes. The more I know, the more I know that I do not know.
I do all this because i'm looking for a sound that i've envisioned in my head. Something that I have only witnessed in literally a couple of loudspeakers upon the hundreds i've auditioned, let alone headphones of which there are even fewer .... and it all sounds so easy to be honest. Clarity, detail, speed, separation, comfort. These among other attributes are thrown around like doubloons at Mardi Gras. To each their own I suppose, its a very subjective art but I may be failing to understand the artistry.
You see, years ago it was about the music. It still is, but with a stipulation now. It has to sound like this. It has to have these attributes. It doesn't really matter if Diana Krall sounds beautiful through this setup, if Metallica's early work can't blaze through the same setup its money wasted. After all, money is the only thing holding us back from filling up houses with enough audio gear to satisfy every track we own, let alone artist. That last bit spoken as my audiophile split personality
I've finally had a chance to audition two headphones that i'd been so eagerly anticipating to hear, back to back. I came away more confused than when I started. Each had things I enjoyed immensely but each failed to make me say yes, these are the ones. At least in the loudspeaker world i've found the makes and models that speak to me. I suppose in the broader sense, it only took roughly 16 years to find those from whence the journey began.
What does it mean when you fully comprehend that no amount of advise or coaching will give you what you are looking for?
Queue that famous quote from The Matrix...
I do all this because i'm looking for a sound that i've envisioned in my head. Something that I have only witnessed in literally a couple of loudspeakers upon the hundreds i've auditioned, let alone headphones of which there are even fewer .... and it all sounds so easy to be honest. Clarity, detail, speed, separation, comfort. These among other attributes are thrown around like doubloons at Mardi Gras. To each their own I suppose, its a very subjective art but I may be failing to understand the artistry.
You see, years ago it was about the music. It still is, but with a stipulation now. It has to sound like this. It has to have these attributes. It doesn't really matter if Diana Krall sounds beautiful through this setup, if Metallica's early work can't blaze through the same setup its money wasted. After all, money is the only thing holding us back from filling up houses with enough audio gear to satisfy every track we own, let alone artist. That last bit spoken as my audiophile split personality
I've finally had a chance to audition two headphones that i'd been so eagerly anticipating to hear, back to back. I came away more confused than when I started. Each had things I enjoyed immensely but each failed to make me say yes, these are the ones. At least in the loudspeaker world i've found the makes and models that speak to me. I suppose in the broader sense, it only took roughly 16 years to find those from whence the journey began.
What does it mean when you fully comprehend that no amount of advise or coaching will give you what you are looking for?
Queue that famous quote from The Matrix...