Azure
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2004
- Posts
- 4,449
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- 11
My M3 finally came today from SFT Audio. It looked good (Though the metal had a bunch of "burn" marks or whatever those brown-ish stains are supposed to be). Nice and heavy. I immediately plugged it in and gave it a listen.
The first thing I noticed when I plugged it in was "Where's the bass?" After a few more minutes of listening I discovered more bass. However, it was in the form of impact and not quantity. The M3 seems to have less bass than my stereo's amp, but the M3 does have more impact on its bass. The sound is a tad bit softer/smoother, making it a bit more coherent and identifiable.
That's it. It costed me $360 shipped and those are the only differences I've detected. I know a bunch of people are going to say that my source is at fault, but I know that's a load of bull. I realize that this hobby isn't for me. A source probably wouldn't make any difference at all, especially considering what little difference there was between my stereo's supposedly low-quality headphone amp and the M3. People might say that I can't be this sure since I've never listening to a good, high quality source. However, I know from prior experience that it won't make any bit of a difference at all. This prior experience is from my experience the SR-80s. The difference between the A500s and SR-80s was minimal (Less bass, more forward sound). I've realized that you guys (Or rather, audiophiles in general) are so enthusiastic about this hobby that they over-exaggerate (understatement) every detail. I honestly doubt my hearing is at fault, but rather that I'm listening with all honesty and reporting the real deal, without the audiophile's exaggerated words; just honestly reporting what the actual difference is to those that aren't detail-freaks (no offense) and want an honest/realistic opinion.
So, now I'm sitting here with a $360 metal block that can barely out perform the miniscule headphone circuitry in my 7+ year old budget home stereo system. I'm thinking I should just sell this thing (Though I know that I'm still going to take a hard hit when I resell it since I had to pay $45 for shipping and I had to pay for the PayPal fee) and spend the money to some good, tangible use (Video games, music CDs).
EDIT: I'm thinking about selling my SA5k's as well to downgrade to the SA1k's.
The first thing I noticed when I plugged it in was "Where's the bass?" After a few more minutes of listening I discovered more bass. However, it was in the form of impact and not quantity. The M3 seems to have less bass than my stereo's amp, but the M3 does have more impact on its bass. The sound is a tad bit softer/smoother, making it a bit more coherent and identifiable.
That's it. It costed me $360 shipped and those are the only differences I've detected. I know a bunch of people are going to say that my source is at fault, but I know that's a load of bull. I realize that this hobby isn't for me. A source probably wouldn't make any difference at all, especially considering what little difference there was between my stereo's supposedly low-quality headphone amp and the M3. People might say that I can't be this sure since I've never listening to a good, high quality source. However, I know from prior experience that it won't make any bit of a difference at all. This prior experience is from my experience the SR-80s. The difference between the A500s and SR-80s was minimal (Less bass, more forward sound). I've realized that you guys (Or rather, audiophiles in general) are so enthusiastic about this hobby that they over-exaggerate (understatement) every detail. I honestly doubt my hearing is at fault, but rather that I'm listening with all honesty and reporting the real deal, without the audiophile's exaggerated words; just honestly reporting what the actual difference is to those that aren't detail-freaks (no offense) and want an honest/realistic opinion.
So, now I'm sitting here with a $360 metal block that can barely out perform the miniscule headphone circuitry in my 7+ year old budget home stereo system. I'm thinking I should just sell this thing (Though I know that I'm still going to take a hard hit when I resell it since I had to pay $45 for shipping and I had to pay for the PayPal fee) and spend the money to some good, tangible use (Video games, music CDs).
EDIT: I'm thinking about selling my SA5k's as well to downgrade to the SA1k's.