I experienced a very long journey of self discovery in this hobby. Jumping back to my teens I discovered rock music and became genuinely interested in music after taking a plunge on the Linkin Park Meteora album, recommended a friend. That may have been the first time I was "hearing the difference" versus the regular pop my mom listened to on the radio and the countless country albums my father owned. So from about thirteen on to seventeen-ish I listened to lots of music but never really cared or knew about higher quality sources,amps,headphones, etc.
Then in my senior year some classmates and friends introduced me to a program called FL Studio. It was a lot of fun messing with the demo version, even if all I was doing was pulling over pre-made synths and drum loops. All I could make was generic techno but I kind of liked the sound of it. This started pulling me in a completely different direction as far as preferred genre and helped me understand what it is I liked about the music I listened to. I realized that even though I really liked listening to my rock collection I was completely pigeonholed into certain flavors and liked little else outside the three or four artists I had been listening to for years.
So now I started getting into electronic and video game music, slowly but surely. I began picking up on the musical themes in games I loved and realizing they were a very important part of the experience and changed the mood of each and every level. I found maybe 50% or more of the emotional impact for me came from the auditory experience and this was akin to a revelation for me. I bought a cheap 2.1 pc speaker setup to get a better experience with my games, music and to play with FL Studio. The next thing that hit me...
BASS. My first real experience with it came a long with these speakers. I had never had a sub of any kind before. After this I had a constant almost painful craving for more of it. The things I couldn't pinpoint before in my music I loved and only slightly noticed came out at me. The drums and the bass line. I messed around even more with FL Studio and joined a site called newgrounds.com. I then fully discovered electronic music and for a while all of my music came from the various artists that uploaded their tracks there. I had officially left all other genres at this point. The engaging bass and pumping rhythm was all I ever thought I would need.
So from here I had my cheap 2.1, and I now owned a car which again trumped my 2.1 speakers in overall quality but mostly bass quantity. I had also just started college and I would look forward to every commute just to take advantage of my car speakers. But I soon found that I wanted my music elsewhere. It wasn't convenient to be stuck to my car to listen to music and my cheap mp3 player and drugstore headphones just didn't deliver that same sound. So for a while I looked for headphones, browsed stores locally and online. at this time I had no exposure to Beats and knew of Bose but didn't have the budget to even touch them so I forgot about them.
Then Bestbuy exposed me to Sennheiser. Being a wannabe DJ/producer type I looked at their production section and saw tons of them. Upon searching around on amazon I found tons of great reviews. I settled on the Sennheiser eh150 as my first set after seeing them for sale in store. For about two years I had absolutely no regrets and loved the booming bass and what I considered at the time an involving sense of space. With these I also discovered Drum n' Bass and fell in love with the genre. Then Beats by Dre. showed up and everyone was suddenly talking about headphones. They talked of incredible bass and clarity. But they were still far and away out of a college student with no job sort of budget. But now I felt a possibility that there could be more bass out there. I searched around again and found two places: head-fi and headphone.com. From searching around I found many recommendations for the AKG K81 DJ as portable basshead phones. So I asked for a pair for Christmas and sure enough I got them.
But now this was not what I was expecting at all. This was the first time I was ever truly disappointed. I pulled the phones out put them on and played them through my ipod shuffle I got the previous year to compliment my eh150. THE BASS WAS SO WEAK I was in complete shock. Surely this couldn't be a basshead set. But I had heard of burn in and being that they were a gift I held on to them, giving them the benefit of the doubt. I attempted to simply focus on the lower frequencies since now they didn't just wash over me. They sounded so upfront in the upper frequencies to me. Looking back this may have been shock coming off the "Sennheiser veil" I had gotten so used to and seems prominent in their low tier headphones. After a few days though I noticed something. The k81 sounded bright to me, but the bass was still there. It went deep and had rumble, but also had higher frequencies. I had never heard a kick and snare in such astounding clarity! The detail and energy level walked all over my old headphones and after about a week I was sold on this new sound. Still a bass lover, but not only a bass lover anymore.
Now for probably the most pivotal part. I met someone, my current wife! By now I was heavy into Drum n' Bass and just starting to accept a little Dubstep. After a while of dating I discovered that our preference for sound was very different. She was by no means an audiophile, but was definitely not a basshead. She loves treble and lots of it o.O female voices with a high end sparkle. For a while I kinda fought her on it with the eq battle happening in the car. But it didn't take to long to notice that since being with her my sound preference changed yet again! I listened to my AKG K81... where are the highs? Why does it sound so muted and dark? I still heard and loved bass but now something was missing that I didn't notice before. During this time headphones around my neck all the time became cumbersome so I had a short thing with iems from Meelectronics. Oh and how the M9 answered my prayers for a while. Thunderous bass and super airy high notes. A new set of M6 came into my possession when I got the valentines day m6 bundle, black ones for me and pink for her.
I noticed again something changed however. From the M9 to the M6 I lost my soundstage! I liked the warm yet decently detailed sound and better mid focus but again I was slightly disappointed at first. Come summer I was on the prowl for a new set however, thanks to head-fi. I ended up grabbing some Etymotic HF3 and returning them. To cold and analytical for me despite the amazing detail that blew my socks off. Then I bought a pair of Meelectronics CC51. This I believe was the first time I felt I was taking a risk. "Armature like sound" went through my head as I didn't want the sterile sound of the Ety's, especially for my genres. I was confused as to whether it would be a warm enough sound or enough fun for me. I was rewarded for my risk. The bass was deeper than I had ever heard, the mids were liquid and more forward than anything save for the Etymotic's and the highs were detailed and non fatiguing. Perfection had it not been for the fit, I slowly began to realize after a few months that in-ear just wasn't for me. At least not for long listening sessions. But I was no longer afraid when I heard a set had balanced or neutral bass. I found almost all I wanted was depth and speed.
Finally fast forwarding to the current day, I am now happily wed and upon reading up some more on head-fi picked up a set of Superlux HD668b with an E6 to pair with the ipod touch 4g my wife got for me. Good stuff for doing dishes and things and being able to hear her still. She seemed to get particularly emotional listening to her music through them, saying they had the best female vocal presentation she had ever heard. Upon Christmas I had some spare money and wanted to grab a closed pair as well and ended up with Brainwavz HM5 and a Fiio E10. Also got the wife a pair of HM3 which she also seems to enjoy
Then my Dad bought me a pair of Koss Pro DJ 100 as well knowing how much I liked headphones :O. So now all in all I think I have settled on a mostly "neutral is best" attitude and I love my current headphones. The Koss Pro DJ 100 are my perfect portable and I switch between the HM5 and 668b at home. I listen to bass heavy genres Drum n' Bass and Dubstep along with IDM, Chillstep, etc. I love deep bass, great mids and extended highs with great soundstage and good imaging. I learned the value of a decent dac/amp and source and differences in lossless and lossy formats. I look forward to trying more headphones and setups in the future as well. Overall I think I have to thank head-fi despite the wallet impact, this place has opened up my audio world and I look forward to even more instances of self discovery and audio experience in the coming years. It has been a long journey and I am sure there is still lots more to come.
i moved up fast. upgraditis hits hard the more time you spend on head fi 
