[p a t r i c k]

I've been listening to music on audio systems since the late 70s when I built my first record player based system.
 
In the late 70s headphones were around of course. An elder brother of mine had a pair of the Sennheiser HD414s for example and I remember listening with them.
 
It wasn't until the early 90s that I really started listening to music with headphones. I obtained a pair of Sennheiser HD540 Reference Gold headphones and a rather nice solid state class A amplifier built by a UK company which was called Moth but they had no relation to the present day US company.
 
Those HD540s really came into their own for me when I moved to London in the early 90s. I had been living in Ireland in a detached house and in that it was fine to play music without annoying anyone, but in London I had a tiny flat with neighbours in the building all around. So, in London I used my HD540s 90% of the time. I had always had a interest in classical music but in London this blossomed and took over. I think that there might have been several reasons for this, one was that classical music, for me, suited headphone listening better, another reason was that in London it was so easy to go to classical music events, very high quality classical music was so available there. So I really stopped listening to the rock/pop music and found myself a classical music fiend.
 
Today I live in a detached house, albeit a small one in a city called Brighton & Hove near London. I could listen to music on a regular audio system but I rarely do, I prefer listening on headphones, they are so much better for me, I've got into the habit of it now.
 
Over the last couple of decades headphones really have grown in popularity amazingly. At the beginning of the 90s when my headphone listening began there was a much smaller number of headphone manufacturers I think, and headphones did not have the same level of attention from the audio press that they have today.
 
It is now totally acceptable to walk around with full size headphones. Back in the 80s when we had Sony's Walkman it would have been quite brave to wear full sized headphones like that. I don't know if many portable amplifiers were available at that time. I did have a Sony Walkman in the early 80s in fact, but this had very small headphones and in fact I never got into the way of it back then.

 

[wemedge]

Thank you for sharing. I too, prefer to listen to music through headphones. I remember the first time I heard music through headphones- in the 80s on a Sony Walkman through stock headphones- I think it would be hard for the current generation with all the wonderful options available now to imagine how remarkable an experience this was (well, it was to me anyway).
 
Strangely, I've never owned a real nice pair (again to me) of full-sized headphones until recently when I acquired the Grado SR225i, RSi and the Magnum-modded Allesandro MS2. I have a simple setup with an Ipod Touch through a National headphone amp, and am enjoying that immensely. I listen mostly to jazz.

 

[MomijiTMO]

Things are pretty different now. There is a lot of headphone improvements compared to 10 years ago. Headphones are popular and are fashion items now thanks to the Beats movement.

 

[Happy Camper]

I think more audiophiles are seeing headphones as a quality option. They will spend if it meets performance expectations and the new crop of reference headphones are equal to or surpass even the best of the best the market offered until now. As bud-x gains income power, they will migrate to Hi-Fi.

I grew up with headphones until I got out of the Navy. Gave them up for several iterations of speaker systems over 30 years. I've since had a need for what headphones offer and have been back under the headscape now for 6 years. My speakers have seen little music time since and even less now that the HE-6s have been properly amped and matched with a quality source. Computer audio has taken hold.

 

[p a t r i c k]

Quote:

Thank you for sharing. I too, prefer to listen to music through headphones. I remember the first time I heard music through headphones- in the 80s on a Sony Walkman through stock headphones- I think it would be hard for the current generation with all the wonderful options available now to imagine how remarkable an experience this was (well, it was to me anyway).
 
Strangely, I've never owned a real nice pair (again to me) of full-sized headphones until recently when I acquired the Grado SR225i, RSi and the Magnum-modded Allesandro MS2. I have a simple setup with an Ipod Touch through a National headphone amp, and am enjoying that immensely. I listen mostly to jazz.

 
The Sony Walkman was indeed an amazing device. I remember being just amazed at how you could walk around listening to music in such good quality.
 
The Sony Walkman brought a massive increase in sales of cassette tapes. We tend to think that the CD killed of LPs as the main medium for recorded music, but in the UK for the most popular music, cassette sales were greater than LP sales. Also the big compilations of singles really started to happen on cassettes. This was because with you Sony Walkman and other cassette portables it was handy simply to have a cassette with all the current singles on it.
 

 

[p a t r i c k]

Quote:

Things are pretty different now. There is a lot of headphone improvements compared to 10 years ago. Headphones are popular and are fashion items now thanks to the Beats movement.

 
Yes, the unique thing about headphones for me is that they are the only audio component that you wear, and if you are going to use them out and about then the look does become relevant, at least for some individuals.
 

 

[p a t r i c k]

Quote:

I think more audiophiles are seeing headphones as a quality option. They will spend if it meets performance expectations and the new crop of reference headphones are equal to or surpass even the best of the best the market offered until now. As bud-x gains income power, they will migrate to Hi-Fi.

I grew up with headphones until I got out of the Navy. Gave them up for several iterations of speaker systems over 30 years. I've since had a need for what headphones offer and have been back under the headscape now for 6 years. My speakers have seen little music time since and even less now that the HE-6s have been properly amped and matched with a quality source. Computer audio has taken hold.

 
In fact I am now in the process of moving from using my CD player as the primary source, to using my computer. I have been resistant, I think because my CD player is so good, but I am trying out some different players on my computer now and I'm becoming increasing impressed by what is possible.
 
I have quite a lot of CDs and each day I put another few onto the computer.
 
I have a pair of speakers for my computer and these are the only "hi fi" speakers I have now. I do listen to the radio on a couple of Internet radios I have. However a when I feel the desire to just sit back and listen to music I automatically reach for my headphones (most likely my AKG K702s).