[phangtonpower]

I always overly research things online before buying stuff. I've also always liked headphones and google lead me here

 

[Prog Rock Man]

My father had headphones for his system, so I would occasionally use them. Then it was the Sony Walkman and portable listening that really started it.

Later on, after a child had appeared in the family, I was flush and my Rega amp had no headphone jack, so I got a MF V2 with SR80s. Gradually headfi took over totally as it is compact and convenient. With children you get peace and dont need to worry about fingers poking into speakers and where to put the speakers.

 

[ductrung3993]

Google, like many others

 

[fatcat28037]

I didn't want to get into Head-Fi but my wife forced me. She said I wasn't spending enough money on myself.

 

[PursuitRacer]

This story goes back to 2004:

Growing up, I was always a little obsessive about the stuff I bought. If I was going to spend the little money I had it was going to be good stuff. I discovered the internet in 2000 when I was 14, my obsessiveness was free to research every purchase beyond reason.
Fast forward to 2004, DAPs were becoming more common and the IPod was so hot. I wanted a DAP, but the IPod was really expensive, I was too contrary to buy the same thing everyone else had, I wasn't much of an Apple fan, and it didn't play WMA (we can all laugh at this). The internets led me to the IRiver H120 which I bought on closeout at Best Buy.
Everyone on the IRiver forums talked up the SQ of the H120 and Ogg Vorbis. The 'phones of choice were the Shure E2c's. I was still listening to WMAs and MP3s through stock buds, but the seed was planted.
I switched to Rockbox earlier this year and started ripping in FLAC, it sounded better but I knew something was missing. I had a pair of Senn PXC 250s on loan and couldn't go back to stock buds. I was going to get some of the Shure E2c buds but they were no longer being produced. I googled "good headphones" and a review of some Grados came up. Some more searching lead me here where I knew I needed something better than the Senns. I got some SR80s yesterday.

 

[Pepsi]

I was actually ordering my Sennheiser HD650s on ebay, and the seller was from moon-audio, there was a link that lead to one of the reviews here on head-fi, and since then i've been using head fi as a reference for research on anything i might be interested in. I just finally decided to sign up and participate!

 

[hockeyb213]

Looking for a amp to improve my iem's at the time which were se530's gosh that was a while ago already haha.

 

[avatardelta]

I had made the switch from USB headsets to a xonar essence STX/HD 280 pro. After I bought them I started doing research to see how good a decision I had actually made.

I found head-fi, found my sound card was an excellent one (going to be switching op-amps here pretty soon), but my headphones were...entry level (albeit still decent).

 

[Uncle Erik]

I got an Audio Advisor catalog in the mail four years ago.

I had owned and loved the Sony MDR-V6 for many years, but the Sennheiser HD-650 in the catalog caught my eye. So, for Christmas, I decided to upgrade to a better pair of headphones. I also ordered a Creek OBH-11 to drive them.

The setup sounded good. Really good. So I went online to see if anyone else was listening to really good headphones.

 

[Drag0n]

I was an audiophile for years, and one day i found HeadWize. I stayed there for awhile then the site wasnt working anymore or something, i forget....so for awhile i looked at other sites, then i found HeadFi and lurked for a long time, and one day i wanted to comment, so i joined. I dont remember exactly how i actually found the site though. I must have been searching for headphones or something.

 

[macrog]

My parents inherited a nice stereo from my great uncle when I was 13 years old but no one else in my family were interested in using it. It was a pair of Tannoy Dual Concentic speakers with 12 inch drivers, Revox A77 reel to reel tapedeck, Garrad 401 turmtable with sme3012 tonearm and shure v15 cartridge. I cant remember the amp. It got me really passionate about music.

When I was 21 I bought my own stereo from an accident compensation payout. Perreaux pre powers JBL speakers, Mitchell Focus 1 turntable and a Technics CD player (CDs were relatively new then). Unfortunately I always noticed the flaws probably more than I enjoyed the music. Every flaw grated on me. Recreational drugs helped me to focus on the music and the journey offered.

I upgraded often and at least every 6 months bought some new bit to replace a weakness in the system.

I have had Perreaux, naim, linn, plinius, creek, grail amps amongst many others
Speakers have included Yamaha ns1000s, B&W DM14s, Naim SBLs, Quad 2905s, Monitor audio gr60s, GS60s and now pl300s

Sources have been many varied including Linn, Naim, Kenwood, Technics, Wadia, Cambridge, Mitchell.

Current system is relatively budget comparatively with Computer to musiland monitor 02us to Audio-gd reference 1 to Linn Kairn(sps) preamp to bi-amped Linn Lk280/sparks to monitor audio pl300 speakers. I really like the sound and don't notice deficiencies as much now.

Headphone wise I use Shure se420 iems on the end of my iaudio X5, Ipod 160gb and Ipod touch 64gb. I discovered head-fi when searching for reviews of head phones for the iaudio.

I am about to embark on high end head phones as my stereo has been evicted from the lounge where it has dominated life for too long (from my wifes perspective). The system is moving into a back room which is small and compromised thus high end head phones are my only option for similar quality sound to what I have now. I have already decided on Sennheiser HD800 and an Audio-gd Phoenix amp.

Stereos and music have been a great but very expensive hobby. The 1 thing I have learned is that it is better to wait and not compromise on purchases rather than compromise because you feel impatient. There were many steps along the way that I should have missed gear wise. Head-fi is a great resource and my purchase of the audio-gd reference 1 was purely on opinion here. It was scary to purchase something I had never heard but wow was it worth it.

 

[derek800]

I was listening to music through my cheap apple ibuds one day and the left ear went out, so I went to target and picked up some cheap Philips SHL9500's on sale for about $13.00. They actually sounded really good for the price, but I caught the upgrade bug, and I started googling reviews and came upon this site, and here I am.

 

[pimfram]

The headphones I had been using for a few years broke and sounded like crap to begin with, so I was researching for which ones to get next and came across the site. So many insightful post and information. A great resource for anything headphone-related.

 

[Arainach]

I've performed music and had a decent ear for quite a while, so when a friend (KyPeN on these forums, not that he visits frequently) introduced me to his HD-280 and MS-1, I was hooked.

 

[justhavingfun]

Wow, so many great stories in this thread. Like many of you, I was interested in listening music ever since I was a child. Listening to radio stations was my way of music listening back in late sixties and I was in my teen years, reel to reel, 8 tracks, then to cassettes although vinyls were always in the mixes. Even with CDs and mp3 in full swing, my love of vinyls are still going stronger ever before.

As far as headphones are concern, I was listening to those big'ol full size ones back in 70's where my dad bought. It wasn't until early 80's that I first got taste of good headphone sound. I just got a gift from my friend some portable FM radio transmitter with a headphone. I loved the sound coming from this portable radio which lead me to portable cassette player. I couldn't afford the Sony Walkman so bought cheap knock off brand which didn't sound too good. I eventually bought decent sounding Sony Walkman which stayed with me for several years.

After joining the Army in mid 80's, I searched for decent sounding portable systems with headphones to be used during those long months of deployments. I went through several of those systems which include cassettes players as well as portable CD players. In searching for better headphones, I discovered HeadRoom long before Head-fi. There I purchased my first headphone amps and headphones. For my portable setup, I ended up with Panasonic PCDP, Ety ER4S, and Total Airhead. And for my home setup, KOSS ESP950. These setups served me well number of years.

Then, I discovered Head-fi back in 2005 and I was amazed with so many gears are available for headphone sound systems. For number of years, many more headphones and amps went through my home, nothing too hifi but certainly decent equipments which gives me great satisfaction. My journey through head-fi world was very exciting and I imagine it will continue for long time to come.