[SteveA]

What was your first headphone experience? How has it shaped your approach to listening since?

I’ll start. My first experience was really with an earphone, not a headphone per se. My brother and I built crystal radios which used the little, high efficiency earphones popular in the ‘60s. These were tan with a 2 strand braided wire and about the diameter of a nickel. They featured a detachable clear tip meant to be inserted into the ear canal and hold them in place.

We detached the tip and positioned the transducer between our bedpillows and shams so we could covertly listen after lights out without our parents knowing. Fidelity was truly crappy but the music of the time didn’t care. The strongest station we could receive on our crystal sets was the local top 40 station playing everything from the Beatles and Stones to Ray Charles and Johnny Cash.

What I carried forth from this experience is great music can overcome poor fidelity but so-so music is never anything more no matter how expensive the playback system may be.

Steve

 

[feh1325]

when i was 9 or 10, i listened to my sister's linkin park album "hybrid theory"
i later had my friend burn me a copy...little did i know that it was encoded at 64 kbps

i listened to the cd 3-4 times a night at wayy too high of a volume with a really bad cd player and headphones from southwest airlines

 

[luidge]

I dont remember my first experience but i remember listening to some old school orange/yellow sport walkman with my cheap sony black headphones that cost me 15 bucks and thinking that it was the better sound i would get from my music...and another time when i got some cheap unknown headphones at 115$ and i remember them sounding close to my 15$ sony...so maybe BOSE product, cant remember...oh but as i think about it certainly not BOSE since BOSE cheapest product might be 200$ and more here in Canada

 

[F107plus5]

First time was listening to "short wave" on my Dads Hallicrafters ham rig. solid bakelite cans, only missing the '38 De Soto upholstery-type of fabric covers that were well worn, but somehow were never replaced.

Then there was the Pioneer set of phones I bought in Japan while in the Navy in the '60s so I could do a bit of guitar practicing with an amp with phone jack without unduely driving my shipmates to homicidal activities.

....I bought some MS-1s in March of '06.....too many demands on the home main system, and too many noisy little kids running 'round the house to listen anyway.

 

[Audiofiler]

Sony MDR-V12's..the first cans I saved for months to buy..they were $59.99 and had the leather headband..they were awesome, and used them even after my first Grado, the SR-200 from Joseph...some years later

 

[kramer5150]

1982 I was 11. Used to listen to Nat King Cole, Charlie Parker and Ray Charles on my uncles HD414 and Marantz receiver.

 

[GreatDane]

My first experience with headphones was in the late 70's when my father owned a K240M. I was about 10 or 11 years old. A couple years later I bought some Sennheisers that I paid $60 for at Circuit City...then my dog ate them.

 

[skyline889]

My first heapdhone experience was back when I was 6. Pulling weeds out of the front yard with a Sony cassette player, those cheapo $1 supra aural Sony cans, and my dad's copy of the Cascades, other oldies, and some rap I recorded off the radio. Fond memories...

 

[TimmyMac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyline889 My first heapdhone experience was back when I was 6. Pulling weeds out of the front yard with a Sony cassette player, those cheapo $1 supra aural Sony cans, and my dad's copy of the Cascades, other oldies, and some rap I recorded off the radio. Fond memories...

Hahaha yes! Ditto.

 

[Circle O Willis]

well not counting the crappy headphones i listened to as a kid, my first experience was really a couple days ago. a friend got me into this stuff and then let me try his setup out.

so i went from listening to iBuds to RS-1 and DT990's via Lavry DA10 and MPX-3 slam.....so i guess you could say i was spoiled early.

 

[norseman8485]

Around 9 or 10, with a cassette walkman, probably my dad's, crappy sony buds and an oldies tape from my parents' collection. Still remember that the tape was a hot pink colour. Went everywhere with that walkman, that single tape and thought I was the coolest thing to walk the earth.