NymPHONOmaniac
Headphoneus Supremus
I'd like to say a few words on my philosophy as a newbie here.
First, I love Sennheiser - and for two reasons. Around 1980 I had a cheap model of theirs with yellow earpads, which were fabulous. And Sennheiser is a great and very competent company from lower Saxony in Germany, near one of the places I used to live. I have always been looking for the ultimate headphone: which means one close to perfect independent of price - but not outrageously expensive. I may have found exactly that in the HD 600.
10 years ago, when earphones above $50 started to appear ("earphones better than the ones that came with your mobile phone"), I grabbed the V-Moda Vibes (at a proud USD $139 - still don't know what to think of them). Next, I reverted to Sennheiser and got the CX-300 Precision Mk II - too muddy for many. And after a hiatus of a few years, I found the Sennheiser Momentum in-ear - highly praised but disappointing for me as the mids disappeared at the bottom of the "V". I then found the CX 5.00 on sale which have the same drivers as the Momentum and were equally disappointing. This was followed by another highly lauded model: Soundmagic E10C (quite frankly, the people at Whathifi must have been drunk: another mud slinger).
These disappointments started my listening spree in the budget area: Rock Zircon (horrible to my ears, great to many), tons of KZ models, Tennmak, VJJB, Joyroom, UiiSii, DZAT, Einsear, Boarseman, Plextone, Urbanfun, Takstar etc. etc. Unfortunately, Canada Post was not up at all to the task of timely delivery (an example: stuff arrived in Vancouver 5 days after ordering, and it took another 148 days on Canadian soil for delivery to Calgary). This catapulted me onto CTV television, who interviewed me in my living room on the shortcomings of the postal service.
Back to the brandname earphones: the most expensive inears I have are the B&W C5 Series 2, which I got on frequent-flyer points. I was actually considering the Brainwawvz B400, but I am generally afraid of ripping fragile earphones apart in some airplane or lose them on the bus. If the cheap ones break, the loss is smaller. The next reason why I went for the cheaper B100 is because a $200 earphone like the B400 is another bus stop: next you want the $400 and $800 earphone. My general logic here: at the time my Focal Sphear and B&W C5 Series 2 were the only earphone model of each company. And since both are reputable headphone producers, their only earphone model can't be bad.
Downside of all of the above: the cheap crap adds up and I could have had a few expensive earphones instead - but with the learning curve missing.
Before the in-ears, I indulged myself with some nice headphones whenever the price was right: the ever so solid Beyerdynamic Custom Pro (another great German company), the fantastic NAD Viso HP50 (best headphone I could think of just to run with a phone; also a great Canadian company), some AKGs and so on. My biggest oddity are the bulky "Teufel Massive Reloaded".
What I would still like to have: headphones by Grado and Focal. But, as they say "instant gratification is for dummies". And I would like to see Sennheiser produce some non "v"-shaped, affordable earphones.
And the ever expanding and improving Chifi market keeps on offering excellent stuff at skyrocketing price points.
The future is bright!
Nice presentation, welcome in risky Chifi world, and stay way from V shaped IEM, Zircon is a big exemple of that, I give it to my sista wich listen only to rap: this is quite the perfect crownd for this IEM. Perhaps you should try 50-100$ IEM and stop with the sub-50 one...I think lot of contenders can be insteresting for your ears, a very neutral IEM I find is the PMV A01 MK2, perfect for smarthphone as well and any source cause they are the must easy to drive IEM I got. For headphones the ISK HF2010 are quite impressive and ultra cheap, Superlux will disapoint you by there cheap construction and perhaps too bright sound. I adore Grado, but feel all the plastic models are too cheap for the price (aka, rattling noise cause of plastic grill with ALL of them Sr60, Alessandro and sr80), and, anothert time, the cable will ALWAYS broke too (even happen with my GS1000 that I have to sold cause repair was too expensive....its like selling my wife or mother=not cool). What I think about Sennheiser is mixed, they got the great drivers but not the great construction, for this, you need going hd600 and upper in price range...and the step is quite big! I'm against ultra cheaply made crap (not cool for environment!), and the last 30 years see this market grow (this is why we can find Sennheiser 70's model still working perfecly but rarely 90's-2000's ones). This is where china make his revange (some brands) and give better construction as well as sound value, I feel it will put pressure to unapolegical big brand and calm a little the impenitent luxury market (not sure about that....its just about symbolic buy must of time). The problem with chifi is the market is on fire for the better and the worst, but perhaps you should try big boys like LZ A3 or A4 and musicmaker IEM or earbuds....some brand are serious manufacturer, other are cloning master, other are look-at-me crap.