[mbamg]

Quote:

I can only think of less than 5% of total Head-Fiers that comes close to fitting the "Audiophile" description. Audiophiles are a rare breed of humans. It's quite the laughable subject because there is no such thing as this "perfect sound" and you see these "Audiophiles" continuing their endless search for this "perfect sound". They might come close, but they cannot be absolutely 100% satisfied. There is no such thing as true satisfaction. There's always something wrong, even a flaw worth 0.001% of importance can throw off the 100% satisfaction guaranteed. But I tell you this people, once you find this new piece of "Audiophile" gear along the journey, it may be the greatest sounding product your ears has ever heard of. You might stop there and say that it is "good enough", or simply lie to yourself that this is the perfect sound, but sooner or later you will advance onto another great sounding product. Nothing is perfect, neither are you. But once you get this "connection" between you and (a) certain product(s) (let it be an Amp, DAC, Turntable, Headphone, Speaker, IEM, ETC...) the feeling is just nostalgic. Every memory of every single IEM, headphone, Amp, source, cable, you attatch to, listen to, insert in, purchase, sell, regret... It all comes at once and all you say is... "To Head-Fi it is..."
 
So I'm not an Audiophile, nor can I be at this time (student life people... constantly short on money). But right now I'm happy. I love inserting a different CD into my Marantz 5003CD and I love flicking on both power switches on my Hifiman EF5. Plugging in my Grado SR225i almost completes it, but nothing beats me pressing "Play" on the remote and immersing myself into this new world of mine. That's the magic Head-Fi brings to me. Ever since I joined this community, I can strongly say that I am happier and smarter. Just wished my wallet could say the same, or at least retain it's weight...

 
Then I fit in this category. I do believe that I have experienced the perfect sound once in my life, but I've never been able to hear it since. It was at Splendid China Tower (near Pacific Mall) if anyone knows where that is. I was walking along, then I heard this sound, thinking there was a guzhen performance going on. I turned back and all I saw was a set of speakers and amps in a very high end audio equipment store.

 

[daniel521]

I'm not an audiophile yet, but I'm on the path of becoming one. I used to own a pair of beats studios about a year ago, but I thought they were very uncomfortable. A friend of mine told me how bose headphones were very comfy, so I was gonna buy them. I was about to order a pair of bose QC15s, but when my finger was less than a centimeter away from the mouse button, I decided to search "top ten headphones" in google. That's when I joined head-fi. If I hadn't taken that split second to think about searching up the best headphones in google before I clicked that mouse button, I would own a pair of bose headphones right now.

 

[grokit]

I started with my trusty Koss PRO 4AA headphones back in high school, they gave me a lot of enjoyment with records from Zappa, Travers, Hagar, Rush, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Nugent, early Van Halen, Foghat etc. Then in college years my headphone use declined but I had a roommate with Klipshorns : )  I bought his old Avid towers and Rotel integrated amp +tuner setup to use with my TT/cassette deck, and I was more into groups like ELP, Return to Forever, Bowie, Springsteen, Alan Parsons, Pink Floyd, King Crimson etc. at this point.
 
The Walkman didn't do it, but the Diskman got me going again later with headphones, while I had always kept listening to my old records, CDs and tapes out of home systems and boom boxes. Then I finally got another pair of headphones; they were the Sennheiser HD540RII, and they blew me away but eventually I sat on them and they broke. After I got my/the first iPod and started using a computer for playback, I replaced them with the HD555 and a cheap Chinese amp from fleaBay more suited for Grados. Needless to say I was unhappy with the results and finally landed on Head-fi and started to learn about impedance mismatches, amplifier synergy and whatnot.
 
I certainly wouldn't have called myself an audiophile in the beginning, but I have a background in music and have always enjoyed live concerts as well as music reproduced electronically. I've been a bit impulsive and could have taken this journey somewhat more efficiently, but my hifi learning curve has dramatically accelerated lately and I have enjoyed myself every step of the way. I don't rock quite as hard as I used to, but my taste in music has become somewhat more varied. I would say that bluesy, jazzy rock is still my preference, but I still love Zappa. I was exposed to classical music from Mozart to Glass from a relatively young age but have really grown to like reggae, ska, and world music quite a bit as well as some of the older jazz and blues masters and the list goes on!
 
I do feel that my listening discretion was always there in regards to SQ, but it is only in the last couple of years that I have been able to be somewhat satisfied with my own listening system (although I did put together some decent car systems along the way : )  There's always room for improvement obviously, but I do feel that I am approaching my personal end game at this point. And of course I will always be tempted by change for its own sake, so perhaps extended pause is more appropriate term than end game. I could see consolidating/simplifying someday, or perhaps cashing out and going stat, but I am extremely happy with what I have and will enjoy it with limited upgrades/tweaks for the foreseeable future.
 
My system will probably never be the absolute best, but I do have variety working for me and I feel that I have a top 5 ~ 10% type of system already. At this point it's all about personal preference and priorities, and to a much lesser extent the depth of one's pocket book. Sorry to ramble on, if you made it this far thanks for indulging me  ; )

 

[semicoln]

I've always been a big music fan but I've mainly used buds for the past few years or $30 Sony "studio" headphones before that. This summer I got a Best Buy gift card for my birthday and decided to get what I thought would be decent headphones. Walked into Best Buy and left with Sennheiser HD 219s, I remembered hearing that Senn was a good brand from somewhere so I probably couldn't go wrong. After a few weeks it hit me, I really didn't like the way they sounded for the $50 I spent on them. So I returned them but figured I should do some research before I just picked a replacement off of the shelf. I ordered the PX-100 IIs and man I was blown away by how good they sounded. But while I waited for them to be delivered (for some reason Best Buy doesn't carry these amazing portables in store) I read that a lot of people were going back and forth comparing them to the less expensive Koss PortaPros. At this point I was having fun reading different people's opinions on headphones. This made me curious as to how similar/different the less expensive headphones could be and since they were like $36 on amazon I ordered a pair. Both headphones were so great that they made me want to revisit music I liked but hadn't listened to in a long time. One thing leads to another on head-fi and I find myself getting curious about other kinds of headphones. I just started this journey less than 2 months ago but I'm already 3 pairs of headphones into it, looking at amps and ripping my CD collection in lossless. Hopefully I don't go much further because my wallet is sweating bullets.

EDIT: I don't really consider myself an audiophile yet by the way

 

[RushNerd]

Quote:

I started with my trusty Koss PRO 4AA headphones back in high school

LOL me too, no idea why other than they are Beatles mastering cans. Wow build quality/materials have made a quantum leap since.

 

[linglingjr]

Im not an "audiophile" but i started my higher listening with akg k272s. All the crappy $20 earbuds continued breaking so I decided to get full sized headphones. I did a ton of researching and entered the whole new world of quality products. Since then I've only bought two amps, a dac, and q701s (quite an upgrade from k272s)

 

[JonnyRocket]

I'm probably no where near "audiophile" level, that's a LOT more involved than I really want to go. I just like cruising the forums and gathering opinions (and tech data) on products and hopefully choosing the ones for me. Though I have played instruments since I was 16.

But really the moment I became completely aware and interested in the specifics of sound characteristics and how audio exactly works was when I played Prodigy's 'Fat of the Land' out of my Fisher receiver out to my 100w Pioneer tower speakers. Needless to say, the bass was out of this world and I had never heard anything like it. From there I had to find out everything I could on the new found world of low frequencies.

That's where it started for me too. I used to play Techmaster PEB through my parents KLH speakers and vibrate the livingroom. When I used my Walkman, I had the original headphones that came with it that had a band that went over my head. I'd put them on and always wear a hat over them because it pushed them up against my ears for a lot
more bass.

 

[Unfie]

When I was in Afghanistan in 2010, I was stationed at a combat outpost. When you're not catching terrorists, there isn't much else to do. So I noticed one of my co-workers wearing headphones. They were pretty cheap headphones, but he was happy with them nonetheless. With some free time to burn, I got curious as to what kind of headphones were out there. So I ended up searching for headphones on the internets and stumbled upon this website. Since I had little bit of extra money to burn, I decided to purchase the AT M50's as a starter headphone. I loved them, but I wanted a portable setup so I purchased the Westone W2 along with a Cowon J3.
 
After coming back to America, I eventually decided to go with an audio setup that could go with my computer but didn't take up too much space since I'm a single soldiers who apparently doesn't deserve to live in a real house (stuck in cramped barracks). So I decided to get the Headroom Desktop Amp along with the Senniheiser HD 650's. Small setup, but good quality rig! I'm somewhat afraid to try anything else because I might end up wanting to upgrade. I can't really afford to do that. I ended up breaking down and getting the Westone 4R to go with my Cowon J3, though.

 

[mbamg]

Quote:

When I was in Afghanistan in 2010, I was stationed at a combat outpost. When you're not catching terrorists, there isn't much else to do. So I noticed one of my co-workers wearing headphones. They were pretty cheap headphones, but he was happy with them nonetheless. With some free time to burn, I got curious as to what kind of headphones were out there. So I ended up searching for headphones on the internets and stumbled upon this website. Since I had little bit of extra money to burn, I decided to purchase the AT M50's as a starter headphone. I loved them, but I wanted a portable setup so I purchased the Westone W2 along with a Cowon J3.
 
After coming back to America, I eventually decided to go with an audio setup that could go with my computer but didn't take up too much space since I'm a single soldiers who apparently doesn't deserve to live in a real house (stuck in cramped barracks). So I decided to get the Headroom Desktop Amp along with the Senniheiser HD 650's. Small setup, but good quality rig! I'm somewhat afraid to try anything else because I might end up wanting to upgrade. I can't really afford to do that. I ended up breaking down and getting the Westone 4R to go with my Cowon J3, though.

 
I can think of so many reasons why wearing any form of isolation at an outpost is not a good idea...
 
Where were you stationed?

 

[Unfie]

Don't worry. I heard the explosions no matter what I was wearing. You can also tell the difference between US folks blowing up enemy caches and a terrorist riding up to the ECP in a motorcycle VBIED.
 
I was in RC south. I'll leave it at that.

 

[mbamg]

Quote:

Don't worry. I heard the explosions no matter what I was wearing. You can also tell the difference between US folks blowing up enemy caches and a terrorist riding up to the ECP in a motorcycle VBIED.
 
I was in RC south. I'll leave it at that.

 
Harsh area, I've heard.

 

[dolor]

Quote:

I bought a pair of Dr. Dres and realized how crap they were.

Same here. Luckily it was a fake pair but the sound was the same as the original so my wallet did not take a good pounding.  

 

[streetdragon]

i found an unknown model IEM, they sounded really good for me (used to using $5 headsets) then my friend who has a srh240 bought me a hd202 for my birthday, i loved them. half a year later my friend upgraded to a srh940. i was stunned by the detail on it, and soon wanted an upgrade, went to do research and found headfi and then bought a hd558 4 months later. i tried beats at the shop and complained it sounded bad. and the funny thing is during that time i was still quite noob and didnt know what was beats. 

 

[FortLaudSTU]

A few months ago I was researching wireless bluetooth headphones on the Internet.  It seemed that any search I did brought me here to Head-fi.  It didn't take very long for me to give up my search for bluetooth headphones because of all I read about sound quality.  Up until then it was always about convenience for me and hadn't given sound quality much thought.
 
So, my next decision was whether to get open or closed headphones.  Judging by all I read, open was the right choice for me.
 
Then, to decide which headphones to buy.  I started off with a pair of Grado SR60's.  The reason I chose Grado after lurking the Head-fi forums is because those who owned them seemed to be obsessed with them. I also kept reading about the Sennheiser 'veil' and that scared me.
 
After spending a week with my new Grados, I realized that I made a mistake.  My ears were hurting me after listening to those things any longer than an hour (from the treble, not from the pads).  
 
I returned the Grados and picked up a pair of Sennheiser 598's.  Well, if being able to listen to music for hours on end in extreme comfort and still enjoying clear details is what is meant as the 'veil', then I love the veil!  If grados are bright and Senns are dark, I guess I prefer dark.
 
The next step was to revamp my music library and rip my music collection to Apple Lossless.  Until then, I was listening to mp3s with no concern over bitrate.  
 
Everything began sounding just so wonderfully clear and I was very happy with my setup.  But I still craved to try an amp.  Although I fully understood that the 598's didn't need more than my iPod touch to drive them, I took the plunge anyway, along with an LOD cable, I got the Fiio e11 portable amp.
 
The last 2 parts of my new quest were to get a custom cable for the 598's which I did (shorter with a 3.5 end) and come up with a solution to keep my iPod touch and e11 amp together (rubber bands and Velcro weren't cutting it).  I got a case from Target and modded it and it worked out beautifully, now everything is protected and convenient.  I will post pics but apparently will not be able to in the forums until I make my first 10 posts.  I would love to give back to this forum.  I have learned so much and am getting a lot of joy listening to music with my new setup.

 

[wolfetan44]

Quote:

A few months ago I was researching wireless bluetooth headphones on the Internet.  It seemed that any search I did brought me here to Head-fi.  It didn't take very long for me to give up my search for bluetooth headphones because of all I read about sound quality.  Up until then it was always about convenience for me and hadn't given sound quality much thought.
 
So, my next decision was whether to get open or closed headphones.  Judging by all I read, open was the right choice for me.
 
Then, to decide which headphones to buy.  I started off with a pair of Grado SR60's.  The reason I chose Grado after lurking the Head-fi forums is because those who owned them seemed to be obsessed with them. I also kept reading about the Sennheiser 'veil' and that scared me.
 
After spending a week with my new Grados, I realized that I made a mistake.  My ears were hurting me after listening to those things any longer than an hour (from the treble, not from the pads).  
 
I returned the Grados and picked up a pair of Sennheiser 598's.  Well, if being able to listen to music for hours on end in extreme comfort and still enjoying clear details is what is meant as the 'veil', then I love the veil!  If grados are bright and Senns are dark, I guess I prefer dark.
 
The next step was to revamp my music library and rip my music collection to Apple Lossless.  Until then, I was listening to mp3s with no concern over bitrate.  
 
Everything began sounding just so wonderfully clear and I was very happy with my setup.  But I still craved to try an amp.  Although I fully understood that the 598's didn't need more than my iPod touch to drive them, I took the plunge anyway, along with an LOD cable, I got the Fiio e11 portable amp.
 
The last 2 parts of my new quest were to get a custom cable for the 598's which I did (shorter with a 3.5 end) and come up with a solution to keep my iPod touch and e11 amp together (rubber bands and Velcro weren't cutting it).  I got a case from Target and modded it and it worked out beautifully, now everything is protected and convenient.  I will post pics but apparently will not be able to in the forums until I make my first 10 posts.  I would love to give back to this forum.  I have learned so much and am getting a lot of joy listening to music with my new setup.

Actually 598's do need an amp. They are 250 Ohms if I remember correctly.