[ThanatosVI]

So wanted to ask you all the most cliche question ever (no, I am not HR person), where do you see yourself in 5 years? Haha

Is your plan to add new items to your collection, be it a new headphone, dac or amp. Or are you saving up for that one TOTL you have been dreaming about? Or, instead you are planning to squeeze out the last % from your current setups, by swapping cables, going battery power, upsampling in HQPlayer? Or are you completely nuts, already owning TOTL setup and planning to switch completely from TOTL Planar setup to Electrostats?

Anyway, thanks for sharing!

Lovely one.

I already have a TOTL setup. 5 years is reasonably long in Hifi tho.
In 5 years I will probably own the new Meze flagship, which might or might not come in 5 years. However I have so much confidence in Meze tunings, that I'll even buy blind without reviews.

Maybe I'll own a Woo Wa33 in addition to my Octave V16

If there comes an electrostat that solved the "lack of bass" most estats suffer from, then I see a Woo 3ES in my future together with the yet to be released electrostat (like Arperio and He1 fixed it, but at a price for mere mortals)

Potentially I might want to test a Rockna Wavedream SE in those 5 years and keep either my Wavelight or switch, depending on whichever sounds better to my ears.

Apart from that it's hard to tell, the rest is really up to new releases and how they sound.
If nothing new gets released that Ticks all my boxes, I could also happily still have what I do now and be perfectly content

 

[mammal]

If there comes an electrostat that solved the "lack of bass" most estats suffer from, then I see a Woo 3ES in my future together with the yet to be released electrostat (like Arperio and He1 fixed it, but at a price for mere mortals)

Oh I like your thinking!

 

[paradoxper]

So wanted to ask you all the most cliche question ever (no, I am not HR person), where do you see yourself in 5 years? Haha

Is your plan to add new items to your collection, be it a new headphone, dac or amp. Or are you saving up for that one TOTL you have been dreaming about? Or, instead you are planning to squeeze out the last % from your current setups, by swapping cables, going battery power, upsampling in HQPlayer? Or are you completely nuts, already owning TOTL setup and planning to switch completely from TOTL Planar setup to Electrostats?

Anyway, thanks for sharing!

The answer here is always speakers. As if you pursue the nth there, provide the right room, headphones simply can not compete.

I think I'll wait for the SR1ab. Although my headphones are complete as is my speaker rig.

Time to max out a new hobby.

 

[ThanatosVI]

SR1ab

Can you give me rough details about differences to thr SR1a?

I am not up to date here

 

[paradoxper]

Can you give me rough details about differences to thr SR1a?

I am not up to date here

Considering 5 years. The hope is perhaps a new model maybe with more driver mass. Who knows what they could do with a revised SR1a driver.

If they can provide more bass output, they will have solved the headphone game.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Considering 5 years. The hope is perhaps a new model maybe with more driver mass. Who knows what they could do with a revised SR1a driver.

If they can provide more bass out, they will have solved the headphone game.

Ok so pure Spekulation at this point, I actually had my hopes up for a RAAL with more Bass

Googling SR1AB only brought Intel Prozessor results.

 

[paradoxper]

Ok so pure Spekulation at this point, I actually had my hopes up for a RAAL with more Bass

Googling SR1AB only brought Intel Prozessor results.

Entirely. It's likely we don't see a SR1a Two for ten years considering RAAL-requisites professional market approach.

 

[chrisnyc75]

So how deep does the rabbit hole actually go?

What did you think of head-fi before you bought your first pair of headphones? What budget did you start with? What sounded too crazy and you believed "I would never do that"?

For me, it all started with a Chord Mojo and a pair of CIEMs, as always wanted to have something bespoke/custom made for myself. Since then, I have spent 30k on my current gear + loss of selling everything I tried and did not like. That's 10x of what I originally had dedicated to this hobby.

How has this hobby treated you so far? What did you do you have never thought you would / or swore to never do?

Thanks for sharing!

Well, for me all of this started with simply looking for a new pair of earbuds to do double duty for gaming and the gym (it seems I overshot the mark just a bit! lol). I've never been one to do anything half-a**, and I'm always geeking out over one thing or another, so a little digging turned into a lot of digging turned into a passion. I agonized over the first purchase, though - a Focal Elex. $700 seemed an insane amount of money to spend on a headphone - I think because I had only ever heard mediocre headphones I had no point of reference to believe a headphone could possibly sound worth $700. And then I heard them. And the rest is history. The Elex is no longer with me, but the thrill of that first listen certainly is. It wasn't long after that first listen that I decided assembling my perfect hifi system was going to be a long term project on which I would spare no expense - I'm not in this to build "good enough", I'm here to build something "GREAT". YOLO.

 

[mammal]

Well, for me all of this started with simply looking for a new pair of earbuds to do double duty for gaming and the gym (it seems I overshot the mark just a bit! lol). I've never been one to do anything half-a**, and I'm always geeking out over one thing or another, so a little digging turned into a lot of digging turned into a passion. I agonized over the first purchase, though - a Focal Elex. $700 seemed an insane amount of money to spend on a headphone - I think because I had only ever heard mediocre headphones I had no point of reference to believe a headphone could possibly sound worth $700. And then I heard them. And the rest is history. The Elex is no longer with me, but the thrill of that first listen certainly is. It wasn't long after that first listen that I decided assembling my perfect hifi system was going to be a long term project on which I would spare no expense - I'm not in this to build "good enough", I'm here to build something "GREAT". YOLO.

Thanks for sharing! It's crazy how this hobby pulls you in and makes you want to "max it out". Imagine having unlimited funds, I don't think I would be buying more than one island or one planet, but I sure would own all TOTL headphones and associated electronics, haha.

 

[marcus2704]

I call this a hobby, my wife calls it an addiction, and to be honest it does cause issues between us. I listen to a LOT of music since working from home and thats in part how I justify my purchases.

My first mid-fi purchase was the HD800S and the HDV820 combo which I enjoyed greatly for a few years. When Covid hit, and I got to WFH, the upgrade bug bit me hard. I bought a Chord TT2 and Meze headphones. Very nice, but then I got a Chord TToby, sold the Meze's, and bought HifiMan Susvaras. Incredible I thought, my TOTL system is complete. Then I got a MScaler, however that didnt work out for me as I could literally tell no difference between it being part of the chain or not, and it also had a fault so that went back to the retailer. Now I am awaiting delivery of Abyss AB-1266 TCs.

Yet, despite all this, I cant stop thinking about the Abyss Diana Phis, which look on paper to strike the perfect balance between much of the sound of the Abyss, in a gorgeous small form factor, and am also waiting to demo these.

I call it a 'journey' of which there is no end, a 'hobby' I am passionate about, but outsiders probably look at it with a very different viewpoint.

 

[ThanatosVI]

I call this a hobby, my wife calls it an addiction, and to be honest it does cause issues between us. I listen to a LOT of music since working from home and thats in part how I justify my purchases.

My first mid-fi purchase was the HD800S and the HDV820 combo which I enjoyed greatly for a few years. When Covid hit, and I got to WFH, the upgrade bug bit me hard. I bought a Chord TT2 and Meze headphones. Very nice, but then I got a Chord TToby, sold the Meze's, and bought HifiMan Susvaras. Incredible I thought, my TOTL system is complete. Now I am awaiting delivery of Abyss AB-1266 TCs.

Yet, despite all this, I cant stop thinking about the Abyss Diana Phis, which look on paper to strike the perfect balance between much of the sound of the Abyss, in a gorgeous small form factor, and am also waiting to demo these.

I call it a 'journey' of which there is no end, a 'hobby' I am passionate about, but outsiders probably look at it with a very different viewpoint.

There is a fine line between being passionate about the hobby and an addiction.

If it causes issues between you and your wife you should assess the topic extra carefully.

Sure the small improvements on the way to the perfect system are satisfying, but are these Increments worth trouble in your relationship?
Gotta ask that yourself.

I know I'm no fun here, but addictions are a serious topic and often start with denial

 

[eee1111]

It’s good to have a hobby
It’s bad to spend everything on it

I’ve been moving up the ladder of quality for a long time. I’m not sure there is a true endgame. Sometimes you end up regretting selling stuff.
As for calling it an addiction….maybe it is. There are a ton of headphones and speakers and amps and not enough time or money.

find a sweet spot and enjoy the music

 

[mammal]

So what have you all been looking into lately? I will be testing Viva Egoista 845 SET tube amplifier soon, curious to hear how much it will change the music I enjoy today from Bartok directly. I tried hard convincing dealers / manufacturers to also lend me Woo Audio WA33 and Riviera AIC-10, but no luck. I get why Woo is difficult to get here in Europe (their amps are build to order in NY USA), but Riviera? Italy is right next to me.

 

[chesebert]

Viva will be better. You can't expect too much from integrated headamp. Mid tier headamp GS1 from 20 years ago will likely best the integrated unit in Bartok.

 

[normie610]

So what have you all been looking into lately? I will be testing Viva Egoista 845 SET tube amplifier soon, curious to hear how much it will change the music I enjoy today from Bartok directly. I tried hard convincing dealers / manufacturers to also lend me Woo Audio WA33 and Riviera AIC-10, but no luck. I get why Woo is difficult to get here in Europe (their amps are build to order in NY USA), but Riviera? Italy is right next to me.

And I thought the reason you went with Bartok is to have a hassle-free all in one solution?