pjs37
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2014
- Posts
- 13
- Likes
- 10
So I have posted a few times but after lurking for several years and finally making an account I felt that I should do an introduction as well so here we go:
I like a whole assortment of things mostly computer and technology related as such I like: Flight Sims, PC Gaming, Digital Photography, Digital Piano and an assortment of other things. And of course I love listening to music.
My music tastes are Soundtracks and Classical mostly. Sometimes I delve into some indy rock and some DDR style songs but that is rare.
My music listening started as with many people getting a portable tape player, then a portable cd player. But I hardly listened to music then so I never worried about the audio quality or better yet I had no idea it was even a thing. I then got to college and when I started walking to classes from my apartment I eventually got an MP3 player followed by an iPod whcih was my go to device for years. At the sametime I started doing an internship in DE and was taking the train to work for a one hour commute. It was at that time I started looking for something to drown out the noise of the train. I ended up dumping my iPod ear buds for a pair a nice Shure IEM's which cost me about $100 and was my introduction into obsessing over headphones. I had no idea what I was doing and bought them because I had heard Shure was a good brand so I figured I couldn't go wrong. And they were quite good and isolated the audio very well at least with the foam tips. It was then I learned just how bad my cheap PC speakers were and endeavored to get better speakers and ended up with a set of Logitech Z560's for my PC. After that my Shure's died and I purchased a set of Creative Zen IEM's which I still own though never use. My wife (Who was my g/f at the time) had moved in together into an apartment and she introduced me into the whole world of being an audiophile. When she got her first tax return we went to Guitar Center and she spent several hours with her CD's trying out studio monitors for her PC. That was when I learned there is a lot more to speakers and headphones then just how "good" it sounds. After that I endeavored to find a suitable setup for listening to music on my commutes to work which were quite long. We eventually got Bose IE's which actually sounded ok but for me wasn't isolating enough on the train but quite comfortable. But I stuck with them for a while until the cables started decaying.
That is when I discovered Head-fi.org. I needed a set of IEM's that could really block out the noise on a train and unlike my creative IEM's not be so microphonic (A term I learned from Joker's huge thread on ear buds) As a result of reading that over and reading countless threads I settled on the Etymotics HF5's which I then purchased. They isolated quite well and sound good but the microphonics drove me nuts. By then I had stopped taking the train and went back to Bose and got a replacement for my IE's to the Bose IE2's for $50 since they were out of warranty. And they were my faithful headphones for a while and Head-fi.org was forgotten to me. One day a friend was looking for a replacement headset but she had a desktop microphone so I said why don't you just get a regular set of headphones. Going through my bookmarks I found it again and went through the buyers guide and reviews and found what i think fit her criteria quite well and recommended the Shure 440 based on what her needs were at the time thanks to a lot of threads on all the different headphones. After that I saw a pair of Harmon Kardon CL's on sale on Amazon and I looked them up here and it sounded like it was ok so I picked them up to hopefully get better sound at work.
It all went down hill from there. They were uncomfortable and extremely microphonic but good at isolating. But I was unimpressed with the audio quality which sounded rather muddled to me. I then decided to bite the bullet and get the main stay HP25-1 II's which were great but uncomfortable after a few hours. So my search continued until i saw someone selling a set of Viso HP50's here and I decided to give them a shot and now they are my currently go to portable headphones.
So that has been my journey so far I have learned so much from this community and will continue to learn more
I like a whole assortment of things mostly computer and technology related as such I like: Flight Sims, PC Gaming, Digital Photography, Digital Piano and an assortment of other things. And of course I love listening to music.
My music tastes are Soundtracks and Classical mostly. Sometimes I delve into some indy rock and some DDR style songs but that is rare.
My music listening started as with many people getting a portable tape player, then a portable cd player. But I hardly listened to music then so I never worried about the audio quality or better yet I had no idea it was even a thing. I then got to college and when I started walking to classes from my apartment I eventually got an MP3 player followed by an iPod whcih was my go to device for years. At the sametime I started doing an internship in DE and was taking the train to work for a one hour commute. It was at that time I started looking for something to drown out the noise of the train. I ended up dumping my iPod ear buds for a pair a nice Shure IEM's which cost me about $100 and was my introduction into obsessing over headphones. I had no idea what I was doing and bought them because I had heard Shure was a good brand so I figured I couldn't go wrong. And they were quite good and isolated the audio very well at least with the foam tips. It was then I learned just how bad my cheap PC speakers were and endeavored to get better speakers and ended up with a set of Logitech Z560's for my PC. After that my Shure's died and I purchased a set of Creative Zen IEM's which I still own though never use. My wife (Who was my g/f at the time) had moved in together into an apartment and she introduced me into the whole world of being an audiophile. When she got her first tax return we went to Guitar Center and she spent several hours with her CD's trying out studio monitors for her PC. That was when I learned there is a lot more to speakers and headphones then just how "good" it sounds. After that I endeavored to find a suitable setup for listening to music on my commutes to work which were quite long. We eventually got Bose IE's which actually sounded ok but for me wasn't isolating enough on the train but quite comfortable. But I stuck with them for a while until the cables started decaying.
That is when I discovered Head-fi.org. I needed a set of IEM's that could really block out the noise on a train and unlike my creative IEM's not be so microphonic (A term I learned from Joker's huge thread on ear buds) As a result of reading that over and reading countless threads I settled on the Etymotics HF5's which I then purchased. They isolated quite well and sound good but the microphonics drove me nuts. By then I had stopped taking the train and went back to Bose and got a replacement for my IE's to the Bose IE2's for $50 since they were out of warranty. And they were my faithful headphones for a while and Head-fi.org was forgotten to me. One day a friend was looking for a replacement headset but she had a desktop microphone so I said why don't you just get a regular set of headphones. Going through my bookmarks I found it again and went through the buyers guide and reviews and found what i think fit her criteria quite well and recommended the Shure 440 based on what her needs were at the time thanks to a lot of threads on all the different headphones. After that I saw a pair of Harmon Kardon CL's on sale on Amazon and I looked them up here and it sounded like it was ok so I picked them up to hopefully get better sound at work.
It all went down hill from there. They were uncomfortable and extremely microphonic but good at isolating. But I was unimpressed with the audio quality which sounded rather muddled to me. I then decided to bite the bullet and get the main stay HP25-1 II's which were great but uncomfortable after a few hours. So my search continued until i saw someone selling a set of Viso HP50's here and I decided to give them a shot and now they are my currently go to portable headphones.
So that has been my journey so far I have learned so much from this community and will continue to learn more
