[Selbi]

I've had a pretty weird thought experiment question cross my mind today.
 
This is for people who have the money/experience to go for the truly high-end stuff. People who have no problem to throw away their HD800 for HD800s, people who buy $2000 tube amps and put it next to their equally expensive solid state. Basically, people who make no compromises for music, because they got the money and resources to be like that. (I hope I'm not being a platonic jerk here, that's not my intention; just trying to get my thoughts across in my most laymen'ish way possible).
 
 
Let's imagine the following scenario:
 
From one day to another you suddenly become poor. Your house burns down and your insurance doesn't pay. Whatever the reason might be. So you have to sell almost anything, including your praised super expensive headphone equip, just so you can pay the next rent. No music beyond what the $10 earphones from the corner store have to offer for a looong time.
 
And then your bank account and life situation stabilizes again. Slowly. You will not see your precious high-end headphones for at least another couple years again, but you're getting there.
 
Now, the question is: What would you do in the meantime? Would you slowly step forward to that precious endgame equipment again and buy cheaper stuff in the meantime, taking upgrades over time, or would you save everything you can spare to get to your headphones as fast as possible again and live with the horrible sound you got right now for the time being?
 
The reason why I'm asking this is because I'm wondering if one could ever "go down" again, or if once you're in a certain elevated level of music equipment you're "trapped" in there, because you simply cannot live without that no-compromise, perfect sound.
 
 
Maybe, as a second question if you are a person to take individual steps instead of one big final hit, what would your road map of the individual headphones look like from cheap to endgame?

 

[ubs28]

1. Use Apple Earbuds until I have enough for the Shure SE846 + Chord Mojo. 
2. Save up for the Focal Utopia and use it with the Chord Mojo.
3. Save up for the Chord Dave and use it with the Focal Utopia.

 

[Rainstar]

ive done a similar road map, Started out as a poor college student could not afford anything other than $50-200 dollar headphones always used, to this day i have never bought new headphones.
 
had your typical OMG bass sounds so good and was a noob. then I went onto headphones with good treble, im really into headphones with great mids right now.
But there is no balance. I Systematically choose certain phones over others depending on song and genre and am extremely picky.
 
1-Buy a ath AD-900X, no amp is fine.
2-chord Mojo new, or burson Conductor/virtuoso used + whichever 1k headphone you think you want and be happy with what you have.
3-Upgrade your RCA/aes/ebu/usb/bnc/optical/toslink etc...., buy some Black boxes and get a good DAC
 
 
3.5-SR009+Blue Hawaii SE
 
 
 
4-Buy speakers, drop $20,000 on everything else to help those speakers sing. (dual mono block) pref for tube. and forget headphones ever existed. I use my phones when people are home. and blast like a demon when no one is home. but there are some 3D Imaging things headphones can do that my current speakers cannot ( maybe i need a spatializer and possible room acoustics i have not invested in)
 

I have skipped the upkeep of my desk for awhile

 

[Music Alchemist]

I actually am in a similar situation to what you described.
 
Spent five figures on my music collection. Had nearly five figures worth of audio equipment if you count musical instruments and such as well. Owned some nice headphones and heard even more expensive ones. (See profile.) The STAX systems I had were my favorites out of anything.
 
Now I'm using a humble Koss KTXPRO1. Costs $10 on Amazon, yet sounds better than at least half of all the headphones I've heard! Sometimes I even enjoy it more than the pricey stuff. Although it's technically inferior, it isn't that far behind the best headphones. The law of diminishing returns kicks in quick, lemme tell ya.
 
So yes, you can very well "go down again" and enjoy music just fine. (Though I can't enjoy music at all from Apple earbuds.)
 
That being said, I am getting tired of these and am anxious to get back in the high fidelity game.
 
Here is the actual roadmap I have set out for my ascension to headphone glory! (In chronological order, naturally.) Associated components are important too, so they will be covered. Note that the specifics can and do fluctuate due to many factors, so nothing is set in stone. And obviously, all this is under the assumption that I will eventually reach the level where I can afford everything listed.
 
AudioQuest NightHawk
 
Chord Mojo
 
At this point I would be inclined to save up for endgame headphones. Now here is where things get a little tricky. I'm still trying to decide whether I want more STAX, the Abyss, or perhaps both. I might settle for intermediary STAX headphones (like the SR-L700 or maybe cheaper models) before the better ones (SR-009, SR-007MK2, upcoming SR-009 successor).
 
Affordable amps for the STAX and/or Abyss.
 
SOtM sMS-200 network player
 
Paul Hynes SR7 linear power supply
 
Chord DAVE
 
Small Green Computer sonicTransporter i5 music server + 4 TB SSD + Roon music player lifetime membership
 
Endgame amps for the STAX and/or Abyss.
 
Potential snake oil like cables, power management, vibration control, etc.
 
Perhaps top everything off with the Sennheiser HE 1. (But I'd want to compare it to STAX and/or the Abyss first to see how much better it sounds.)
 
Hopefully no speakers, since I prefer headphones over speakers and don't want to bother with the complexity of building speaker systems, especially since I'm obsessed with the best and would want to eventually go after the most expensive stuff, which for speakers means millions.

 
Although your query was posed to those who currently own four figures worth of audio equipment, I figured my story was worth mentioning, since this isn't merely a hypothetical scenario; it's what I'm really going through right now.

 

[Muinarc]

I'd keep my K501's and go back up from there.

 

[DiamondD]

I'd go to a live concert. (ACL, FFF Fest, SXSW, etc...) Many are free, and you can enjoy food and drinks. Music is a social experience, and you can take friends and meet new like-minded people. Time to enjoy music with other people. Listing to headphones by yourself is for another day.

 

[Mani ATH 87]

The end game for me is mid tier headphones.I have a bunch of them, along with mid tier amps. I just don't view the high end as being worth the money, it's not that I couldn't hit the summit, god knows I've spent enough on various equipment.

I just fail to see the justification in spending $4000 on a headphone when you can get 95% of the performance for less then $1000. The pricing structure in the headphone game just doesn't make sense to me. Many people get into this hobby and they keep getting this itch to spend more and more on new equipment, willing to dish out absurd amount of cash for microscopic upgrades. All power to them, but that's just not me. My ears don't hear the upgrades so I just can't justify spending the money. 

So I'd just re buy those middle of the road headphones and be complete satisfied

 

[paradoxper]

Pretty simple for me;I'd rather DIE!

 
Build back up to whatever 'status' I was at before. However, the focus has never been about the gear -- it's about the music and always has been.
 
As DiamondD has said (he's the only one that gets it) get out to shows and continue sourcing music and enjoying that with any playback medium possible. 

 

[Music Alchemist]

As DiamondD has said (he's the only one that gets it) get out to shows

 
Not everyone likes concerts.

 

[Selbi]

Not everyone likes concerts.

I do, but to me concerts and home audio are two substantially different things that shouldn't be put into the same drawer.

 

[Tom Yum Goong]

Small steps because it will make you realize that the super expensive endgame stuff just might not be worth your time and money.

 

[Music Alchemist]

I do, but to me concerts and home audio are two substantially different things that shouldn't be put into the same drawer.

 
I'm super into metal, but hate metal concerts because the sound quality is all but destroyed. (And that's saying a lot, for a genre where part of the sound is intentionally destroyed, with the electric guitars on studio recordings.) Same goes for most non-acoustic concerts. Acoustic concerts typically have excellent sound quality. I actually have more experience performing in acoustic venues (orchestras, jazz band, wind ensembles, etc.) than attending them in the audience. So I'm not saying concerts are bad or anything. But when it comes to listening to music, at least for me, it often involves material I wouldn't be able to hear at a concert in the first place. Plus I like to be able to control which song I hear at any given moment. Live performances and home audio certainly are quite different, and I doubt we will ever be able to fully replicate the sound of real instruments with speakers or headphones. Thankfully, you can get "most" of the sound quality of very expensive headphone systems with headphones under $100 if you choose the right ones. (The best I've heard in that range was a vintage STAX electret.) After that, you can definitely get noticeable improvements, but it tends to be subtle refinements more than things that totally change the sound.

 

[Selbi]

I'm super into metal, but hate metal concerts because the sound quality is all but destroyed.

This could be just me but I don't really care about that in a metal concert, as I'm just there to sing along, play air guitar, and move my head to a 4/4 beat. Metal concerts aren't meant to be enjoyed for the audio quality but for the social experience.

 

[Music Alchemist]

This could be just me but I don't really care about that in a metal concert, as I'm just there to sing along, play air guitar, and move my head to a 4/4 beat. Metal concerts aren't meant to be enjoyed for the audio quality but for the social experience.

 
That's what everyone says, and that doesn't matter to me, personally. (Though I can't deny I enjoyed doing just what you described when I saw my favorite band live. It's just that it sounded so bad that even when it was a band I love so much, I didn't want to experience that again, all in all.)
 
P.S. Feel free to join us in the metal thread!