Quote:
Originally Posted by Mercuttio
I dunno man, I listened to a pair of them again tonight. Even properly sealed, they're just SO damned picky about what you plug them into. They're still not for me, no matter how rare.
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Heh, I auditioned the Qualia 010 so many times in Tokyo. I think I went to the Sony building and listened four times. The last 2 times I went, I went credit card in hand resolved to buy. But each time I came home empty handed. Every time I had thought, "I can't buy this, this just sounds bad."
Finally I got sick of it, and the last time, I just went in and made myself buy it without listening to it. Went straight up to the desk and sat down to be fitted. Well, that's not exactly true. I put on a demo pair in the display area, and yes, it sounded bad. So I quickly took them off and went in and bought it anyway.
Sounds weird, eh? Guess I bought them this way for a number of reasons.
I dunno, for me it takes at least 3 weeks to really understand what I'm hearing from a headphone, and I figured the 010 would be the same. Most things sound pretty good/but not good enough for me to buy when I first hear them.
I really realy liked my SA5k. So I figured dang, if I like the SA5k, how much better could the 010 be?
And heck, it looks damn cool. Everyone knows I like buying cool stuff.
Anyway, I bought them. Then I got them. When I first got them, I didn't hear the weird echoeyness or nasty sibilent highs that I had heard every time I had auditioned them before. I guess a month or two with the SA5k had gotten me prepared for that. But I seriously wondered if I had made a mistake as I really liked the SA5k a lot more. It was more upfront, punchier, had a more macho sound. Honestly, it sounded more like a Grado compared to the wimpy "refinement" of the 010.
But two weeks later I did a SA5k group buy, and it just so happened one buyer was the perfect candidate to sell the SA5k to, as he would give it a good home. I sold it to him, happy to do so, but almost immediately regretted it. I still thought (and still do, to this day, to some degree) that the SA5k was far better for my music.
So a few weeks later, I did another SA5k group buy and bought one for myself at that time. But by then, it was all over. The far superior soundstaging/imaging 3d nature of the 010 as well as a general preference for its more subtle but rewarding tone had won me over. Honestly, that second SA5k Mercuttio's borrownig has been on loan for about 9 months out of the last year, as I rarely listen to it. From time to time I'll listen to it - and recently it hit that great sweet spot for me again. But as much as I like it, and I like it a lot, it's an inferior headphone to me.
Heh, I could tell a similar story for the HP1000 or even the Sensaphonics or Shure E5c. But that's for another thread.
Best,
-Jason
