Let's see. I got my Zen Vision: M last year. Since I haven't travelled much and since my commute to work is only a block, I never felt the need to do anything. My only "serious" pair of headphone, - and you will make fun of me for this - for the last two years have been Sony MDR V300. HA. Hey, it was a birthday present for me from my sisters who go to Cal. And they don't have a job.
So I was listening to these two bowls of uncomfortable, weak, cheap, ill-constructed pair at night and guess what? They finally gave up.
So two weeks ago, I started looking for headphones. I needed a good pair. I was, at first just shopping for IEMs, for the versatility. I need something I can take on 15 hour trips to Fiji/Australia (including short trips fto Arizon, Vegas, Texas for seminars, etc.)as well as something that would work at home with my PC or go out for a run with or walk to work listening to.
I started with the lower end stuff. But I knew true performance wasn't going to be found in Sony. Well at least not if I wanted to keep them for a long time. Not with IEMs. So I began my quest for replacement headphones. I noticed that I was starting to justify spending upwards of 200USD on IEMs. I looked at Shure, Etymotic Research, Ultimate Ears, V Moda, Sennheiser, and JAYS. Then for some wierd reason, I started looking at cans.
Sennheiser, Grado, Beyerdynamic, and the likes. I thought about the Sony 7506s as well. I hear they are great headphones and don't cost anywhere near as much as they should be.
So I was looking and on Monday morning last week, I discovered this site. I started reading up on HPs. By Monday afternoon, I had already purchased the HD 650. (yes I called in sick on Monday and Tuesday - I get paid salary, lucky me) On Tuesday, I was already obsessing about Music. I emptied my HD on my PC and ripped all my songs all over at 320kbps.
I then synced all the tracks to my Zen VM. Within that hour, I placed an order for Westone UM2, Tomahawk Amp, Silvercab LOD and Silvercab 6.3 to 3.5 adapter on qables.com.
Yesterday, I placed an order for Cardas 10ft cables for my HD 650 that I still don't have yet(it's coming in through expedited shipping).
I'm currently looking at over 1300USD in a hobby that I seriously started indulging in a week ago. I am waiting for tomorrow when all the stuff gets delivered to my work so I can bring it home with me at lunch time and spend an hour crapping my pants like a lucky person on christmas morning.
I already plan upgrading from Cardas to either Zu Mobius or Equinox cables if I absolutely need to. Thats almost another 200-400USD. And probably next year, getting a better setup for Home.
Not bad for a mechanic, is it? Lucky me. I really got bit by the bug. But that's just how I am with all of my hobbies. I hope this one sticks. To think I started out searching for a replacement for my MDR V300. I could've just spent 30USD and just bought a decent Sennheiser IEMs, but then we wouldn't be having this discussion, would we?
Peace to all.
