I had been a very interested lurker for years here but decided that the time has come to join the community since great music with great sound really is the main passion in my life. I work in the musical instruments industry (high-end "boutique" electric guitars) and have been a musician and played the guitar for 40+ years. I used to own and operate a high-end guitar gear shop and worked at some major guitar companies in my career. At one point, I even managed an internationally recognized instrumental fusion band and have toured around the world with the band. So I approach the hifi audiophile world from the side where music and sound is created and it is quite fascinating to be on the "other side" now to enjoy the results, so to speak.
I've owned over a dozen high-end electric and acoustic guitars in the past (anywhere from $2K to over $5K) with all kinds of amplifiers, effects processors, pedals, cables, and recording equipment, etc. so, to me, the prices of
most audiophile gear seems fairly in line with professional quality musical instruments and pro audio gear. Of course, I don't think I will ever purchase a $100K+ two-channel system even if I could afford it but the same can be said for the world of high-end musical instruments where grand piano can easily go over $100K and vintage '58~59 Gibson Les Pauls can fetch $300K+.
I've listened to some amazing audiophile and pro audio systems (in world class studios) but my preference for personal listening has always been headphones. There's just a level of resolution, detail and a sense of immersion that I prefer without the costs and the efforts involved with setting up something similar with a speaker-based system. Over the years, I've come to see what a huge difference the room or venue has on the sound so I got involved with acoustic treatment and doing the sound (bunch of EQ and dynamics treatments with mixers and signal processors, etc.) for such environments and let's just say that's definitely
not something I'm interested in doing at home for personal musical enjoyment.
Headphones have sort of become like "guitars" to me in that each one serves a different purpose in getting a certain kind of sound and tonal signature. I used to think there would be an "endgame" headphone with the appropriate matching DAC/amp, etc. but found that's never going to happen. I've come to see and accept that listening to one particular headphone is like playing a particular guitar: it's great for
this but not so for something else while another headphone might be better for
that. It's like the difference between a Fender Strat and a Gibson Les Paul in electric guitars or a Martin D-28 and a Taylor 800 acoustic. In the amp world, it can be like the difference between a Marshall and a Fender or a Vox, etc. There are infinite number of tonal colors and variations.
At this point in my life (mid-50's), I've decided that listening to great music with great sound over playing the guitar or making music is really what I want to do. I'm now an exec and partner at a fast-growing high-end guitar company so I'm still involved in guitar product development, manufacturing and QC, and distribution but really don't have a desire to play much, if at all. I'd rather listen and enjoy while working or when relaxing at home. So, essentially, I've ditched many tens of thousands of dollars worth of guitar gear to finance my burgeoning audiophile gear and collection of headphones.
At the moment, I have the Chord stack of M Scaler, TT2 and TToby with Buchardt S400 speakers and the RAAL SR1a and LCD-4. For mobile, I have the LCDi4 for the daily nature hikes and JH Audio Layla custom IEM with Chord Mojo for the commutes around SoCal. I used the HD800 S through the original Hugo for nearly 5 years but what I have now is definitely a major upgrade over that combo. I have the Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC on order and expect to receive it in a couple of weeks. Obviously, I'm very excited over it and reminds me of a getting a custom high-end electric guitar some decades ago. I'm thinking that the TC will sit somewhere right in between the SR1a and the LCD-4. I love both for different things but neither is great for "everything" in general. Overall, I actually find the LCDi4 the most versatile tonally and it's just unbeatable in getting a top class sound with such a great portability factor.
Getting the TC already has me looking at what other things can be done or added to maximize its potential but I'll take my time and see how things go. There's the Formula S with Powerman combo, the WA-33 and I see that the AIC-10 is like the top of the chain but I doubt I'll ever spend $10K+ on a particular piece of gear. Up to $7~8K I think I can manage and stomach but more than that is kind of tough when I still have to get my second kid through college. Maybe stuff like that are still about a decade or so away when I'm closer to retirement.
Overall, I like to listen to almost everything but I'm mainly into the vast realm of classical (around 50%), then all the varieties of the jazz world (25%), then ambient electronic (10%) and the remainder would be rock, pop, metal, country, blues, folk, world, etc. So, generally speaking, I lean towards the utmost resolution, clarity, detail, and brighter tonality over the warm, lush, smooth, dark and rich end of the sonic spectrum. That being said, I find them all to be valid for different moods, musical genres and sounds. It's just not possible to get
all of that at once, just like it isn't possible to get everything out of one guitar and one guitar amp.
Well, happy to be on this journey and join this community of like-minded people around the world!
