New Member Introductions thread

[haibrands]

Hi everyone, like the guy above I'm also trying to find an endgame IEM under $1000.. hoping that IEM is the U12T but currently playing around with cans instead of monitors

 

[broccoliflowers]

Hi everyone, I'm a longtime lurker, but recently made an account. For the past ~6 years my primary headphones have been LCD-XCs, but it's time to finally get some open backs. I recently demoed MM-500, LCD-X, and Clear MG, but none of them are quite what I'm looking for. I'm now considering LCD-5s, Susvaras, and 1266 Phi TCs among others, but my local shop doesn't have them in stock so I'm trying to get a better idea of what will be best for me. If I get something like Susvaras I'd finally have a good reason to build a CFA3 at least! Looking forward to learning more from everyone here

 

[IdleRover47]

Hello, I'm IdleRover and ive been in this hobby a couple of years. Mostly been into iems as of late, due to the ease of entry, but have been getting more into overheads.

 

[brightstar]

I was a member many years ago but had to re-register. I'm a long time music lover from having nice stereos to playing guitar. I just upgraded my stereo to a Rogue RP7 pre and a Stereo 100 amp to drive my Klipsch Heresy 4s. I just changed the pads on my HD650s and wow! So, sorry about my wallet! Now I find that my girlfriend likes when I listen with my headphones. She likes quiet in the house. That's good because I can buy new gear! I'm using my RP7 pre for now and a Music Hall 25.2. Unfortunately I like the 25.2 better for sound quality, but love the remote on the RP7. So... I'll be looking for a new head amp and new phones. I'm intrigued by the Rogue RH5 headphone amp. And thinking about a sennheiser HD660S2 or maybe the HD800S or the HD820. Or maybe try another brand though I am happy with the Sennheiser sound. I'm sure this group can help me shrink my wallet. Cheers!

 

[Troopaloop]

About three years ago, as I was going through a very difficult breakup, I realized that the escapism I craved could be obtained through an expensive new hobby! LOL.
But seriously, after a few years of collecting, I own about 25 pairs of IEMs, ten pairs of headphones, and a bunch of DACs, amplifiers, receivers and other audio marvels.

I find it not only sonically satisfying, but intellectually as well. It's just so INTERESTING. After all sorts of unhealthy addictions in my life, I have become addicted to something positive that never stops evolving.

My name is Nick, and it's nice to meet you all. Let's dig deeper into our passion together!

 

[Heinz335]

Hi, I'm new to the forum. My first post. A bit of background to my hobby. I'm 65 and have been into music and sound reproduction for more than 50 years. I also play some guitar in bands, go to concerts, from classical to jazz and rock. I come from the analog era and I still have my pure analog gear plus CD player since the late 80s. But I actually prefer to listen to vinyl. I don't change my gear often. I've been listening to my Mcintosh C22CE with MC275MK4 for 22 years. During the Corona period I remembered my youth, and for nostalgic reasons I bought fairly cheap used equipment that I used in the late 80s. I wanted to know how I felt about their sound today. Quad 34 with Quad 306 and because I was so enthusiastic, I also bought a Quad 606 power amplifier a year ago. Today this stuff runs regularly and the Mcintosh tubes have had a break for two years, except for a few occasions. I have replaced all the electrolytic capacitors in the Quad devices so that they don't leak, but otherwise everything is original. BTW I often read that people are looking for SS but with an unobtrusive sound, the old current dumping amps would be worth a try, especially if like me you have efficient speakers where it is important that anything less than 1 watt sounds good. My speakers are an older collection except for a new acquisition this June. But this is also an old speaker that I am lovingly restoring to its original state, a Klipschorn from 1973. It is my main speaker this year. As I listen to different styles of music, I change the speakers in my collection about once a year, Tannoy Canterbury from 1993, Klipsch LaScala from 1977, Stirling Broadcast LS3/5a V2 from 2006 and SB LS3/6 from 2016 to name the most important ones. But there are also old Quad ESLs.
Digital was difficult for me right from the start. If you have a nice record player and a nice collection of records then CD was always a bit of a stepmother. Nevertheless, I bought a Meridian CD player in 1992 and another Meridian G08 in 2004. I'm sharing this because I never wanted to fall down the rabbit hole of ongoing digital development. I had my peace for over 30 years when it came to digital. I had always wished since the first MP3 downloads about 25 years ago that there would be a faster internet and flac files would be available sometime in the future. I wasn't even thinking about streaming but downloads. Since about 8 years everything is different as you all know. I was a Tidal customer and for the last 3 years I've been with Qobuz.
My attitude to digital hardware for these services is ambivalent. I don't want to spend a lot of money on it. I thought, if the sound is “ok”, then I don't need more. I've had my second generation Bluesound Node for about 6 years now. I was satisfied, I thought an expensive DAC is not much better and I don't want to sink money into a technology that is completely outdated every 3 years.

Now the next Bluesound Node is coming onto the market. I was wondering whether it would be right to replace the Node once again or whether it would be better to look at DAC alternatives. I looked for reviews and came across the Chord Mojo2. A lot of YT reviewers and influencers told me that I could use the Mojo2 as a DAC for my preamp. “Just set it to 2V and connect it to the preamp line in” That was the mainstream opinion. Ok so I bought a Mojo2. It is the most ambivalent experience I have had in my audiophile career. I was shocked at how good the mids and highs were. No comparison with my Node (which is now only used as a streamer). It could have been so nice... But the bass was absolutely unbearable. I suspect that the very efficient Klipschorn speakers have exacerbated this shortcoming. The bass was bloated, cloudy, uncontoured and boomy. I tried it over and over for five days because I've never heard such fantastic mids and highs digitally at home. But after about 45 minutes, I couldn't take the bass booming anymore.
I'm a technical layman but I suspect it might have something to do with the Mojo2 being a headphone amp. It is not a line out device. As an HP amp, the output impedance is less than 1 ohm and a typical line out these days is around 50 to 300 ohms. So with the output voltage set to 2V, do I have too many amps interfering with the pre amp input? Anyway, it sounded horrible in the bass. And all the YT reviews I've seen say you can use the Mojo2 as a source for preamps...I think this is wrong. Not for nothing there is the Chord Qutest (as I found out later) which is specially made for pre amps and offers a real line out and nothing else, no HP amp. That's why I returned the Mojo2 after 6 days and got a full refund. But a Qutest is too expensive for an experiment at the moment. Also, some people say that the sound character of the Qutest is not as nice as that of the Mojo2. Now I was interested in the subject (which I didn't really want originally) and I kept looking. I watched the presentations of Rob Watts on YT and I realized that there are different transducer methods. Honestly, it was like a revelation of what I had always felt. The criticism of Delta/Sigma converters in the presentation was completely in line with my impression of “digital” sound. Only, I had never heard anything other than D/S DACs, so my criticism was an unfair generalization. So, after some searching, I found Shiit's offering with the MM2. It fulfilled two conditions, firstly a real line out for my preamp and secondly not too expensive to try. I would like to tell you everything else in the MM2 thread and ask questions.

 

[johnkeith]

Hello,

My name is Frank and I'm a Headphone Addict, or so it's starting to seem like that. Just getting into headphones and wanted to say what a great site this is. It's already helped me in my first tube amp purchase and headphone upgrade

Awesome matt!

 

[johnkeith]

Hello,

My name is Frank and I'm a Headphone Addict, or so it's starting to seem like that. Just getting into headphones and wanted to say what a great site this is. It's already helped me in my first tube amp purchase and headphone upgrade

Hey Denon! Nice to meet you!

 

[brightstar]

About three years ago, as I was going through a very difficult breakup, I realized that the escapism I craved could be obtained through an expensive new hobby! LOL.
But seriously, after a few years of collecting, I own about 25 pairs of IEMs, ten pairs of headphones, and a bunch of DACs, amplifiers, receivers and other audio marvels.

I find it not only sonically satisfying, but intellectually as well. It's just so INTERESTING. After all sorts of unhealthy addictions in my life, I have become addicted to something positive that never stops evolving.

My name is Nick, and it's nice to meet you all. Let's dig deeper into our passion together!

Way to evolve in life Nick. We have to make our own meaning and keep evolving as our life situation changes and our health changes. I'm impressed by your shear number of gear! I love music but the gear is a huge bonus.

 

[brightstar]

Hi, I'm new to the forum. My first post. A bit of background to my hobby. I'm 65 and have been into music and sound reproduction for more than 50 years. I also play some guitar in bands, go to concerts, from classical to jazz and rock. I come from the analog era and I still have my pure analog gear plus CD player since the late 80s. But I actually prefer to listen to vinyl. I don't change my gear often. I've been listening to my Mcintosh C22CE with MC275MK4 for 22 years. During the Corona period I remembered my youth, and for nostalgic reasons I bought fairly cheap used equipment that I used in the late 80s. I wanted to know how I felt about their sound today. Quad 34 with Quad 306 and because I was so enthusiastic, I also bought a Quad 606 power amplifier a year ago. Today this stuff runs regularly and the Mcintosh tubes have had a break for two years, except for a few occasions. I have replaced all the electrolytic capacitors in the Quad devices so that they don't leak, but otherwise everything is original. BTW I often read that people are looking for SS but with an unobtrusive sound, the old current dumping amps would be worth a try, especially if like me you have efficient speakers where it is important that anything less than 1 watt sounds good. My speakers are an older collection except for a new acquisition this June. But this is also an old speaker that I am lovingly restoring to its original state, a Klipschorn from 1973. It is my main speaker this year. As I listen to different styles of music, I change the speakers in my collection about once a year, Tannoy Canterbury from 1993, Klipsch LaScala from 1977, Stirling Broadcast LS3/5a V2 from 2006 and SB LS3/6 from 2016 to name the most important ones. But there are also old Quad ESLs.
Digital was difficult for me right from the start. If you have a nice record player and a nice collection of records then CD was always a bit of a stepmother. Nevertheless, I bought a Meridian CD player in 1992 and another Meridian G08 in 2004. I'm sharing this because I never wanted to fall down the rabbit hole of ongoing digital development. I had my peace for over 30 years when it came to digital. I had always wished since the first MP3 downloads about 25 years ago that there would be a faster internet and flac files would be available sometime in the future. I wasn't even thinking about streaming but downloads. Since about 8 years everything is different as you all know. I was a Tidal customer and for the last 3 years I've been with Qobuz.
My attitude to digital hardware for these services is ambivalent. I don't want to spend a lot of money on it. I thought, if the sound is “ok”, then I don't need more. I've had my second generation Bluesound Node for about 6 years now. I was satisfied, I thought an expensive DAC is not much better and I don't want to sink money into a technology that is completely outdated every 3 years.

Now the next Bluesound Node is coming onto the market. I was wondering whether it would be right to replace the Node once again or whether it would be better to look at DAC alternatives. I looked for reviews and came across the Chord Mojo2. A lot of YT reviewers and influencers told me that I could use the Mojo2 as a DAC for my preamp. “Just set it to 2V and connect it to the preamp line in” That was the mainstream opinion. Ok so I bought a Mojo2. It is the most ambivalent experience I have had in my audiophile career. I was shocked at how good the mids and highs were. No comparison with my Node (which is now only used as a streamer). It could have been so nice... But the bass was absolutely unbearable. I suspect that the very efficient Klipschorn speakers have exacerbated this shortcoming. The bass was bloated, cloudy, uncontoured and boomy. I tried it over and over for five days because I've never heard such fantastic mids and highs digitally at home. But after about 45 minutes, I couldn't take the bass booming anymore.
I'm a technical layman but I suspect it might have something to do with the Mojo2 being a headphone amp. It is not a line out device. As an HP amp, the output impedance is less than 1 ohm and a typical line out these days is around 50 to 300 ohms. So with the output voltage set to 2V, do I have too many amps interfering with the pre amp input? Anyway, it sounded horrible in the bass. And all the YT reviews I've seen say you can use the Mojo2 as a source for preamps...I think this is wrong. Not for nothing there is the Chord Qutest (as I found out later) which is specially made for pre amps and offers a real line out and nothing else, no HP amp. That's why I returned the Mojo2 after 6 days and got a full refund. But a Qutest is too expensive for an experiment at the moment. Also, some people say that the sound character of the Qutest is not as nice as that of the Mojo2. Now I was interested in the subject (which I didn't really want originally) and I kept looking. I watched the presentations of Rob Watts on YT and I realized that there are different transducer methods. Honestly, it was like a revelation of what I had always felt. The criticism of Delta/Sigma converters in the presentation was completely in line with my impression of “digital” sound. Only, I had never heard anything other than D/S DACs, so my criticism was an unfair generalization. So, after some searching, I found Shiit's offering with the MM2. It fulfilled two conditions, firstly a real line out for my preamp and secondly not too expensive to try. I would like to tell you everything else in the MM2 thread and ask questions.

Dude, you are a gear head! I bet you have hung out at The Gear Page too? My experience is similar to yours. I'm 66. I've had many rounds of Klipsch speakers. I miss my Belles. Heresy 4s fit my room now. The Bluesound Node is a revelation. I subscribe to Tidal and Qobuz. I have kept my vinyl but CDs are gone. I'm using a Denafrips Pontus 2 DAC and the headphone amp in my RP7 preamplifier. My old Music Hall 25.2 has power to spare and sounds better. I finally went to a remote on my RP7 preamplifier. The volume control in the Bluesound software degrades the sound!! I'll go back and read your post again. I just skimmed it for now cuz it's 3AM and my coffee has not quite kicked in.

 

[John5]

Hi head gear enthusiasts! I've been a regular visitor to the head-fi site and registered a few months ago. Recently I've also started actively participating in a few threads. I learn a lot from users with the same gear and appreciate all the useful info.

 

[CJ200]

Hi everyone, greetings. I've been lurking for quite some time, before finally signing up the other day. A lot of friendly and knowledgable people around here .

As for my audio story, I used to listen to CDs a lot back in the day and was very happy with my JBL speakers. Alas, after moving around quite a bit, they had to go, finding a new home with a friend. Fast forward a decade and I got a pair of noise chancelling Bose earphones as a present. Initially, I liked them, but somehow got tired of the sound. After that, I sort of settled to listen to Airpods exclusively for a long time. Eventually, I got decent Sony headphones for work, which showed me that there was a different sound out there. As of late, I've looking into getting IEM's, specifically 64 Audio and Symphonium, as a more portable option.

 

[xtremepsionic]

Found this forum after watching youtube reviews for months. I'm mostly interested in good sound on a small budget, and the mysteries of what sound stage and resolution means in terms of measurable qualities. Had HD598s for years, recently got a HD600, DT1990 and a DCA Aeon RT closed.

Hope to learn more and enjoy music, and visit CanJam Socal 2024!

 

[DeadwoodHero]

Hey, I am a newbie here as well. Well, I’ve been looking at this website for years. I just never registered why I don’t really know. I was one night sitting in my room and the window was open and I heard a scratching noise I went to the window and something seized me and bit me on the neck and later that day I found out that it was the IEM bug and, since then, you know I have all the hallmarks of the disease. Continuous purchasing of IEMs when the last one I bought is just as good as the one I’m buying now. IEMs sitting in a drawer that I haven’t used in a year because I’ve bought 10 more and I want to use them instead. Dongles of all sorts to every device known to God. One has a better resistance . This one has a little more impedance. And now I’m looking at Daps. It’s never ending cycle of a money sucking hell pit.

And you know what it’s OK because I’ve got nothing else to do. My kids are all grown. My grandkids are growing up so what the hell. Anyway, it’s great to be a new person here. I hope everyone has a great day and remember to stay safe.

 

[Vamp898]

Big welcome to all the new people here and enjoy the ride =)