[GanChan]

I've hit that painful (

) wall when someone realizes he not only doesn't have golden ears, he isn't even much of an audiophile.

I was trying various headphones on my new Mac Mini today:

A900=Fabulous! Easily driven, plenty of mids, bowel-emptying bass

HD590=Fabulous! Requires a little treble EQ and higher volume level, but tremendous comfort, thumpy bass, and DETAIL

HD497=Fabulous! Details less obvious but still there, VERY easily driven, less soundstage than the others but nice close presentation, solid in all registers

Conclusion: I'm an audio gimp!

 

[KyPeN]

Consider yourself lucky...

 

[James63]

That made me laugh. You just love your music that is all. I have days like that too, were every CD just sounds great. I also have days when I question why I use headphones.........then I remember......I use them because they are good.

By the way I think macs actual have an ok headphone jack, but I have not heard a mac mini.

 

[Mr.Sneis]

Be happy you are pleased with all of your cans

!

 

[Bolt San]

Well, none of those headphones are necessarily bad... listen to some V-600s and then remind yourself that people like them.

 

[mulveling]

Dude,
It's time to sell all your gear and pick up a pair of Koss PortaPros

 

[Yellowjacket]

I tried Shure E3C and they didn't sound much better than my Sony EX51SL (though the Shure weren't burned in too much)

Consider yourself lucky like I did that I didn't need new IEMs.

Now the Senn HD600 sounds much better than HD280 so I had to spring for them.

 

[Elephas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GanChan ...isn't even much of an audiophile.

I'm envious.

I actually used Bose TriPorts for 2 years, ignorant of the tremendous wallet-draining power of Head-Fi-land.

Then, a fateful Google search and a few months later, I find myself on Head-Fi more often than my wallet would prefer reading and dreaming about HE90s and R10s.

 

[Teerawit]

It just seems like you aren't picky with your headphones' sound signatures. I feel that way too -- I like anything that sounds good. Analyzing all the little nit-picky detail takes a long time, like several weeks. During that time your wallet is safe

 

[GanChan]

It may just be that I'm lucking out with the synergy between these phones and the Mac Mini. The differences between them do become more pronounced on my stereo receiver.

I guess it's true that since I've established a certain baseline, I have simply gotten kind of comfortable there. If I have common sense, I will settle down here on the foothills of Head-Fi. I guess part of the problem is that the next step is the big-money step, because it probably also involves a good amp, a top-dollar source, and blah blah blah. If I then discover that this is somewhere I WANT to be, then I will have no money left for stuff like, you know, music.

Maybe I'll just replace the stock cable on my 590s with a $25 line-level 3.5"-to 2.5" cable and call it a day.

For now.

P.S. I think a lot of the whole buying craze is less about "upgraditis" and more simply curiosity about how many different sound posiibilities there are on a given price-performance level.