[hendubz]

Hi everyone,
 
First of all, I wanted to say hello with an introductory post. I'm relatively new to headphones but can see it becoming an expensive obsession very quickly and I'm already on the hunt for upgrades. The problem is, I want too many and find myself really drawn in by reviews, especially when they're full of praise for so many different types of headphones.
 
For me to ever buy a set of expensive (for me right now, that's anything > £200) headphones, I feel like I'd have to try them out first - otherwise I'd be freaking out until they arrived. Thankfully, I live in Bristol, UK and there's a big hi-fi show coming around in February. I've already got my ticket and am looking forward to being able to sample a lot of the brands that I'm keen on - especially AKG, HiFiMAN, Sennheiser (love my 558s right now!) and Grado. I've never been to a sound & vision show before though, so I wanted to ask a few questions about what to expect:
 

1. Are they loud? This feels like a stupid question but with so many speakers / people competing to be heard, does this mean it's not a good place to sample different setups?
2. Do I / can I bring my own source? This would just be a phone and maybe a portable amp but what are the options when it comes to trying out genres of music on headphones / speakers?
3. Can I buy things there and, if so, do vendors typically provide discounts? 

 
Thanks for any help you can provide. Looking forward to getting more involved with the community!

 

[SgtMattBaker]

Hi hendubz! I'm going too on sound & vision next year
 
1. I've never be on sound & vision show but usually speaker systems had listening room for each of them. Headphones section should be in other rooms. Anyway it's always pretty loud, people come there and talk, most of them don't realise that you hear everything when you listening open back headphones...
 
2. It's should be not a problem to connect your device to headphones.
 
3. Don't think so, never saw that it's possible to buy anything.