I'm not an audiophile at all (I don't have the ear yet and definetly not the budget), but I can usually discern a decent pair of cans.A few years back, I've been caught up in this "trend'' stuff. The Beats weren't out yet, but the WeSC Oboe were the rage. I thankfully scored a free pair and I was convinced that they were the crap 'til the day I tried a pair a Porta Pro. I know they aren't "audiophile-grade" but I was impressed by the sound those little drivers could spit. They were a bit less trendy but still quite popular among the crowds I usually hang with (graphic designers, artists, etc...). I've been using Koss' since then until a few months back : they broke, definitly.
I've been touring the best buys and equivalent shops but I don't know why, I couldn't find headphones that were in my price range & that I liked. I've noticed that my ears became more sensitive lately (I could pick up quieter sound than before), and that I was more interested in a neutral sound than the big bassy headphones like the XB500 (which I still liked for it's comfy earpads).
I tried the Beats, and I have to admit that the expensive ones are interesting in their "mechanical feel" (I like the design of the swivel joint, but that's my interest in product design speaking, nothing else, however the "b" logo is horrible), but the sound (and price) was not for me. I saw a lot of people sporting those in Montreal and I was wondering if I "lost my hearing", if there was something that I couldn't discern that everyone else found in the Beats, or if everyone was just plain stupid to spend 400$ on those...
After seeing the post on doesitpew about frankensteining some cheap headphone with SFI drivers, I decided to give it a go.
I received the 120 Ohm SFI drivers a few days ago, so I just wired them up on a cheap extension cable and plugged on the macbook, listened a basic 256kb MP3 (Coltrane's Giant Steps) with VLC's volume quite high, and even without any kind of nicely damped enclosure and padding, I could hear that those 15€ drivers were the kind of sound I was looking for.
I can't wait to receive the donors (kanen km-880, like a lot of people using the SFIs), I have a few components to build a cheap cMoy with regular resistors / capacitors, and I'm starting to re-rip my CD collection to flacs and replugging my old kenwood turntable...
Re-reading what I wrote, I realize that you might not care, but thanks anyway for all the technical infos and stuff
Cheers