[Proglover]

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You forgot to mention the only real reason to visit any foreign country - the beautiful women (and after that, the good beer!)Japan's on my list, but Sweden first!(Yes, I'm kidding. Sorta.)

Swedish women are beautiful. But I prefer Japanese women. And the headphone stores are sooooooooo much better here in Japan than in Sweden!

Well, I live in a country (Holland) next to Germany and also pretty close to Austria, so headphone wise.....
 
Danneq, not many kitchens beat the Japanese for me, I do have experience eating really good Japenese authentic stuff, long story. Offcourse I know nothing will beat fresh Japanese sushi. That's mainly because the Japanese people are very critical about fresh (raw) fish; if you want to sell sushi, you just have to have good quality, otherwise you're screwed there. Here in the Netherlands, too many cheap supermarket low quality sushi. Because they sell, they keep making it.
 
Sweden has it's classics also, some nice food there. They do a very good job in pickled fishes there, a.o.

 

[Marximus]

You use SA5000s at school?  Don't they leak a bunch?

 

[BlackbeardBen]

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Where in Sweden do you live?  I'm in Skövde studying this year, and HiFi Punkten (conveniently located downtown 100m from the bus station) is great.  Okay, not Japan/Korea/HK/et al., but I live in a city six times bigger in the US and all we have is a pair of Best Buys and an ABC Warehouse that's where the Circuit City used to be.
 
Okay, there's Audio Advisor an hour and a half away at least.  That's far enough that I've never been there.  But here in Sweden I can walk from the university to the shop in about five mintues, and they have most of the worthwhile AKG/Sennheiser/Beyerdynamic headphones available for audition, using whatever source or material you'd like.  But of course, all of them cost almost twice as much as they do in Germany or the US.  I'd say that's the biggest downside here.

 
My hometown in Sweden is Södertälje about 35 kilometers south of Stockholm. The stores I can think of where you can buy audio gear are places like El-giganten, SIBA and Onoff. They are probably a bit like Best Buy and Circuit City in the US in that they are electronics stores that also sell audio stuff.
 
I do know of an audio store in Stockholm where you might get to try headphones if you ask. But as you say, they are expensive in case you decide to buy. I am thinking of buying a pair of Sennheiser HD 25 1:II and a pair of AKG K518 LE next year, and if I order them from Germany they will still be cheaper with the shipping costs of about 25 euro included than if I buy them in Sweden...
On the other hand, European and American gear is more expensive in Japan than in Sweden. However the strong yen/weak dollar has led to prices being lowered. For example the HD 25 1:II was recently lowered from 29.800 yen to 23.800 yen at Yodobashi stores...

Yeah, I've been to El-Giganten and SIBA.  Basically they're the same as Best Buy, etc. - just smaller.  Their tech guys suck just as bad too.
 
Re: Buying from Germany - yeah, even once you include Sweden's comically high VAT.  I try not to complain about it too much since I'm not paying for my master's degree.  The new lower price for the HD 22-1 II in Japan actually seems lower than what you'd have to pay from Germany, thanks to the aforementioned shipping + VAT.  I'd compare prices first.
 
Speaking of the HD 25-1 II, that's what every single DJ here wears - I even saw a bartender with them once...
 
Anyway, it seems that unless you're obsessed with only either Japanese or German/Austrian headphones, the cheapest place to be is in the US.

 

[eric343]

Everyone loves how they sound... and everyone definitely loves how the HE90s feel. Mentioning the price always gets a 'wait... what?'

 

[ramicio]

I believe some higher force let me not listen to those headphones for a reason.  I didn't know much back then.

 

[Tessor]

Not exactly high end, but I've gotten plenty of weird looks because I own nearly a dozen functional sets of earbuds that I keep spread out for convenience. I'm never without some sort of headphones within reach.

 

[creamsoda]

for the interest of wowing non-audiophile friends, i simply have user preset on my J3 that floods their ears with bass.  problem solved.

 

[BlackbeardBen]

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for the interest of wowing non-audiophile friends, i simply have user preset on my J3 that floods their ears with bass.  problem solved.

Now that's a solution!

 

[moodyrn]

A friend of mine came over to my house one day showing off his new really expensive headphones. They were the hd280s. He bragged about them costing 100.00. Then asked me what do you have. I still can't help but give a little chuckle every time I think about it.

 

[sumathias]

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A friend of mine came over to my house one day showing off his new really expensive headphones. They were the hd280s. He bragged about them costing 100.00. Then asked me what do you have. I still can't help but give a little chuckle every time I think about it.

 
This made me go LOL
 

 

[moodyrn]

I couldn't even type that post with a straight face. Now I'm lol.

 

[BlackbeardBen]

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A friend of mine came over to my house one day showing off his new really expensive headphones. They were the hd280s. He bragged about them costing 100.00. Then asked me what do you have. I still can't help but give a little chuckle every time I think about it.

Headphones: Hifiman HE-6, Stax SR-Sigma, Stax SR-001 MKII, Sennheiser HD600,  Etymotic ER4P with 75ohm adapter, Amps: Stax SRM-T1S, Fisher X-100C, Motu 828 MKII.
 
lolololol
 
Did you actually show/tell him?

 

[moodyrn]

Yeah, I first pulled out the hd600s, since they were senns too. I told him "I have some sennheisers too, but mine might not be as good as yours". When he saw them, he noticed how much nicer they looked. When he listened to them, his mouth was wide open. He couldn't believe how much better they sounded than his. I didn't have my he-6s at that time, but did have some lambda sigs. So after listening to both of them he tried to make himself feel better by saying, well you have to have yours hooked to a big old amp to sound this good, all I need is an ipod. So I politely pulled out a pair of d2000s with d7000 cups I had at the time and plugged them into "his" ipod. Then he accused me of trying to make him look bad. After that I wouldn't even bother with the rest of my cans which at the time also included he-5s. Then I told him about headfi, and that everything I had compared to what others have would just be average. I don't know what he has now, but he wont even mention the word headphone around me anymore.

 

[Eric_C]

I guess if he was bragging about how much he paid for the HD 280, he had it coming to him...

 

[saber8689]

People freak out when they hear I spent over $200 on headphones...until they hear them.