[David222]

Assembling a quick-start guide for new folks just coming into the hobby. I was reading a post yesterday of some guy that seemed to be cycling through cans every week across all price ranges. He sounded both frustrated and confused. Most certainly not enjoying the experience.

Here are a few thoughts...

1. Ego: Avoid the words better and best for at least 1-2 years. Establish your personal baseline through experimentation. Find your likes/dislikes before attempting to approve upon anything. Otherwise, you'll throw good money against an undefined target (your personal sound preferences).

2. Budget: Start with sub $1k equipment even if not budget constrained. I made the mistake of starting with AMPs that were north of $1k. I had no idea how "good" they were. This is a huge problem for new hobbyists, as you'll a) not understand what you're hearing and b) attempt to approve upon an undefined personal preference (see #1 above).

3. Cans: If budget permits, begin testing with 2-3 cans across Warm, Neutral and Bright spectrum. You could consider the HD6XX (Warm), AKG 702 (Neutral), Koss KPH30i Clear (Neutral / Bright). I'm purposefully trying to provide budget concious options. You can also consider Grado's (Warm), HiFiMan Sundara (Neutral) and DT1990 (Bright). I started my journey with multiple cans (about 4-8 pair) but didn't invest enough time with each before jumping up to a $1k dynamic driver. Again, there are plenty of more expensive headphones, but even at $1k, you're not going to appreciate (fully) what you are hearing if you don't give the process some time and mature into the hobby. If you start off with expensive cans, at least do yourself a favor and have a few sub $500 so you can benchmark with what you've got.

4. Amplification: Most of your cans are likely not hard to drive. This is sort of a big d**k discussion point. Invest in what you need. You'll risk f'ing your cans with overpowered amplifiers and not achieving the maximum sonic experience due to miss-matched impedance. Some of your Planar Magnetics and more expensive Dynamic drivers will certainly need you to bring the rain, but most will be just fine with a Zen Can, Jot 2, RNHP, etc. Read, think, test and learn. Also, be sure to get a handle on solid-state amplifiers long before investing in tubes. I love tubes, but please stair-step your way into this, or you'll just fall flat on your face.

5. Source Files and DACs: If you do not have an extensive music library (like me) and are 100% streaming, understand that you're going to have more work to do in transporting your music back to a more analog/natural state. For some, this won't matter, you're not going to care. However, a percentage of folks out there will seek to smooth out and add "weight, body, texture" to the sound. If you love EDM, metal, etc., this is of no import, but if you love acoustic, jazz, classical/rock, extra homework here. How you "ingest" your digital signal and process will impact your experience. Carefully think what type of DAC will help your train get to your preferred station. This will likely take even more time than headphone and amplifier testing, so again, be patient, have fun and don't rush through the experience.

6. Truth Set: Setup a playlist of 10 songs you love and are well recorded (no noise, etc.). You'll need to familiarize with these and use repeatedly over time to help manage your way through 1-5 (above) ... ultimately arriving at your personal listening butter zone.

Most important --> Have Fun and Drink IPA Beer.

 

[megabigeye]

I think I know which thread you're talking about. I was going to jump in with some advice, but it seemed like the person was too caught up in just throwing money to the wind.

I like your list, even though I don't completely agree with all of it. Here's my own list / how I'd change your list:

1. Relax and enjoy the music. Headphones should just be a means to increasing enjoyment from music. So often I see people's main focus being the headphones and associated gear and they seem to forget about the music. They seem to get into an overly analytical frame of mind, constantly searching for their preferences, and completely neglecting the act of enjoying the music. People often say "it's all about the music" but act as though it's all about the gear.

2. Stop making comparisons and switching back and forth. Kinda like your "1" above. If you're constantly making comparisons, you're a) necessarily looking for faults which means you're not enjoying yourself, and b) not letting a headphone stand on its own merits— all headphones are good at some things and less good at other things. Continuously switching back and forth and comparing and obsessing over details is only going to make you pick whichever you hate the least. When you relax and listen to the music, rather than listening for faults and comparing, then you can tell whether or not a particular headphone is something you could live with.

3. Start small. I mostly agree with @David222's "2" above. I'll add c) if you start big you'll never know whether or not you could have achieved the same thing with a lot less money. I used to be a member of another forum where some people were trading their multi-thousand dollar amps for sub-fifty dollar amp boards... It wasn't that the new boards were some sort of break through of price and performance, but that those people had never given the inexpensive stuff a fair chance when they'd started. They assumed that more money is more better. It's not.

4. Start with one set of cans and work from there. In my opinion, there's no real reason to try multiple sets of headphones at once. My advice would be to start with one of the real classics like the HD 600/650/6XX or DT 770/880/990 or similar. Read up and decide which one seems most like something you'd enjoy before purchasing. Listen to that headphone and get to know it. Once you learn what you like and dislike about the headphone, it's going to be a lot easier to understand and articulate what you want in another headphone. A lot of people are familiar with the classic headphones, so you'll get better/broader answers to how to up-/side-grade when the need arises.

5. Take your time! This is related to my "1" and "2" above. If you're used to one headphone, pretty much any other headphone is going to sound wrong or bad by comparison. Your brain/mind is incredibly good at adapting and interpolating, but it needs a bit of time to get to that point. Head-Fi'ers call this "brain burn-in." You really can't tell how good a pair of headphones is within a few minutes, often not even within a few hours.

6. Stop paying so much attention to graphs and specs. Don't get me wrong, I think graphs and specs can tell you a lot (everything?) about a piece of gear, but most people don't know how to read or to understand those graphs and specs. More isn't necessarily better and less isn't necessarily worse. This kind of misunderstanding can lead to a bias/preference before you've even listened to a piece of gear.

7. Take all reviews and opinions with a giant grain of salt. At best, everybody's hearing is slightly different, so one person's neutral may be another person's warm, may be another's bright. At worst, some people (including "professional" reviewers) don't have the faintest idea what they're talking about but will pass off their opinions as if they're God-given truths. Being able to read critically and to ask the right questions is critical.

8. Audition gear with music that you know and enjoy. If you listen to lo-fi or noise or scratched old vinyl or ancient compressed MP3s, you want your headphones to sound good with that music. Other people's auditioning playlists shouldn't matter to you unless you listen to the same sorts of music.

 

[Redcarmoose]

1)
Go to a Head-Fi meet or place to demo gear. There is no better way to learn your desired tone than by taking advantage of hearing someone else’s efforts. If anything this will show you the wide range of system costs and sound signatures. Even though you’ll be tempted to make judgments at this stage, try and learn why things are the way they are in systems. Meaning learn to see why one person uses a turntable, another a DAC, another a DAP as a source. There is no right or wrong to this and even at the start you may understand the pros and cons of sources. At my first meet I was introduced to a professional producer who played all his files as 320 kbps (or Apple AAC) from a computer. Another guy had a turntable etc etc. At your first meet remember that very soon you will be overwhelmed and loose your ability to listen critically. Take the stance that maybe everything is meant to be. Meaning you will meet-up with who your supposed to meet-up with and hear what your supposed to hear. There can be something to be learned at every step of the way!

2)
Don’t get discouraged by mistakes. All of us have purchased the wrong piece of gear. Try and learn that maybe there could be a reason for the purchase at a future time? Maybe not. Gear is always a stepping stone until you really find what you want to keep. Hindsight is 20/20, but you will not know what you like till you buy it and take it home and spend a long time with it. In some ways this is the opposite of #1.

3)
Realize that many concepts and ideas are conflicting and will never be answered. Meaning this hobby is made up of a wide range of beliefs and concepts. It doesn’t matter really what’s true or not. Have fun and don’t worry about the small stuff. Meaning put many concepts like to EQ/not to EQ, digital vs vinyl, cables choices, tube amps vs SS, importance of graphically testing FR, and DAC choice on the back burner. Meaning there are a lot of strong opinions in Head-Fi, no one is right or wrong. Everyone finds their own reality and truth.

 

[David222]

@megabigeye @Redcarmoose Great points! I agree.

1. Regarding graphs/specs --> Not a bad thing to simply begin a learning process / understand concepts. Certainly not good graphs becomes your sole means of defining enjoyment.

2. Online Reviews --> Great call out --> Should be viewed as background entertainment. Over time, if you find a personality you know from experience seems to enjoy a similar sound signature, then perhaps give that more weight, indeed proceed with caution prior to purchasing based on these reviews.

3. Mistakes --> Totally agree. Everyone will break something at some point Take a deep breadth. Learn. Move Forward.

I bet @DTgill and @jonathan c @Shane D @adydula would have some thoughts on this thread if they have a few minutes to spare this week.

 

[Corti]

Thanks guys.
Beginner here.. and really appreciate you taking the time to gather some important concepts for newcomers to the hobby on how to approach things to shed more light into the vast and at times complicated world of high fidelity audio.

I'll go and enjoy some tunes now

 

[Redcarmoose]

@megabigeye @Redcarmoose Great points! I agree.

1. Regarding graphs/specs --> Not a bad thing to simply begin a learning process / understand concepts. Certainly not good graphs becomes your sole means of defining enjoyment.

2. Online Reviews --> Great call out --> Should be viewed as background entertainment. Over time, if you find a personality you know from experience seems to enjoy a similar sound signature, then perhaps give that more weight, indeed proceed with caution prior to purchasing based on these reviews.

3. Mistakes --> Totally agree. Everyone will break something at some point Take a deep breadth. Learn. Move Forward.

I bet @DTgill and @jonathan c would have some thoughts on this thread if they have a few minutes to spare this week.

By mistakes I actually meant buying something that maybe isn’t your desired tone in the end. While it may end up being viewed as a mistake, things can still be learned from it. Maybe the headphone is not a keeper but it showed you a new sound signature that you may incorporate into another (almost perfect) purchase. Still it could be any piece of equipment.

 

[DTgill]

Do lots of reading...

Don't get sucked into the vortex of excitement. (Guilty as charged)

Your ears brain and thinking have to agree, don't say you like something just to fit in.

Sometimes it takes time you know if you'll like something, it might sound good during the honeymoon period, or it could take some time to decide if you like something.

Like others have said start out inexpensive and then decide where you want to go.
I have gotten some pretty good deals from here eBay, and Reverb.
Make sure you get some kind of return policy.
Why pay full price?