[wuwhere]

Welcome, to HF (Head-Fi but I call it House of Fun).
 
You will learn a lot here. From IEMs to orthos to stax, planar to electrostats. Closed or open cans. Multi-driver IEMs (8 tiny drivers in a CIEM).
Then you will know about solid state and vacuum tubes. This place is an encyclopedia of technology, past and present. There are so many intelligent bloggers here. This place is just amazing.

 

[GateKPR4]

Thank you Argyris,
you are right. I've never had a fat wallet and have always had fairly decent equipment that I enjoy listening with. I do notice I am getting all caught up in the gear and what I don't have. What I do have is actually a nice portable setup for myself. I enjoy both the IE2s and the SE215s The Walkman NWZ-S764 is actually a nice sounding player with a good battery life. It's actually a v2 because Sony made a few changes. They did fix the shuffle issue with this player so I'm really happy about that. I do want the best quality sound  and I think for now I've achieved that goal.

I'm still amazed at what I can hear now compared to what I could not hear before, like a door closing in the studio, the faint details that I couldn't hear before. I'll keep you advice in mind and enjoy what I do have. After all it is about enjoying music.

 

[GateKPR4]

I'm really enjoying the Shure SE215s with my Walkman. The version of the Walkman NWZ-S764 seems to have better battery life and I like the warmer sound over the zip clip. Even metal sounds good which is a plus, blues sounds awesome. I do notice some quality difference in older albums/CDs but I guess that's due to the quality of the equipment they had back in the 60s to record with. I don't know anything about the equipment used in a studio though there does seem to be a difference.
The Animals, The old Rolling Stones recordings seem to be lacking some quality though I still enjoy the music.

 

[Argyris]

A lot of the earliest stereo recordings also have hard-panned elements (drums all on one side, bass on the other, etc.). I don't know if you've come across any of that yet but it's kind of annoying to listen to on headphones, especially ones with decent enough imaging and soundstage that the unnatural, isolated positioning is painfully obvious.
 
As far as equipment, they did have different stuff back then (tubes were a lot more prevalent until at least the 70s when solid state was being widely adopted), but what's even more different is the way it was used. Modern recordings often employ a lot of volume compression and sculpted EQ enhancement to create a "produced" and "big" sound, as well as Autotune and other studio trickery to produce "perfect" takes. Back in the day they had none of that, and the upshot was that performances were a lot more natural and filled with idiosyncrasies and slightly "off" bits that added character but, as you've found, will show up with highly resolving audio equipment.
 
I prefer well-done old production, warts and all, to most of what goes on today. That doesn't mean that all modern production is bad. Up through the mid-90s a lot of it was pretty decent, and there are still some well-produced albums put out even today. Unfortunately, these days they mostly just try to make it as LOUD as possible without any attention to natural attack and decay, probably because only a tiny minority of people have anything better than a boombox or an XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXtra UltraBass eXXXXXXXtreme mini system and thus can't hear what's been sacrificed for the increased volume.
 
You've got that to look forward to as you climb up the equipment ladder. Some albums will just sound terrible, and there's pretty much nothing you can do about it except try to enjoy the music anyway. On the other hand, other albums will reveal unlocked potential, and that makes it all worth it in the end.

 

[GateKPR4]

I do notice what you mentioned esp. in older music though some of the old Beetles and Aerosmith did a really good job as far as sound quality. In the song Helter Skelter if you listen carefully you can hear Paul talking to john or George, couldn't make out what he was saying but it was not part of the song. I love it when I hear stuff in the background like that, I didn't hear any of that with the Bose. I still enjoy a lot of the older music though I think some recordings lost something when digitally remastered. Some songs just didn't sound the same.
 

 

[GateKPR4]

I did get caught up in the upgrading for a while but I'm over that for a while. My wallet did get thin but I'm enjoying what I have now. I did get the Cowon X7 and am fully enjoying it. The sound is great and with six sets of earphones I have a good verity of sound. Each has a unique sound and I enjoy them all. All depends on how I'm feeling which IEM'S I use. So far I like my T-Peos H100-RR hybrid the best. I do like my Rocket R-50's, they have a more upbeat fun sound. Most of the TWFK IEM's sound pretty much the same just a few subtle differences. I haven't been on much since I tend to get into buying mode when looking at all the new equipment. I have enough equipment now to last me quite a few years and don't really need anything else. I have three portables and two amps. I still love the sound of my Cowon i9 with the iBasso D-Zero, nice clean sound and easy on the ears. I don't need the amps with the X7, it seems to do a good job on it's own.