[Aerotec]

So... Here I am.

I have always loved my home stereo but despite buying some E3Cs a few years back (and sticking them in a drawer cos I never took to them) I decided to take a look at this portable hifi as I am starting to do 3hr train commutes to my partner and as we are moving in together I will need to downsize my kit. In other words I need to ditch the full hifi and enjoy the world of portable hifi and a modest home system for my fullsize cans.

But I suffer from head-fi-upgrade-itis which I am sure you have all suffered/enjoyed. I have been trawling this site since I joined last month, followed many links to some great posts and external sites and am slowly getting my head around the different headphones, IEMs, portable amps, LODs etc etc. My head hurts!

Now what I am curious about is how did you get to the system you have just now? I am prepared to spend a reasonable amount to get good kit though happy to hold off for a good deal or 2nd hand bargain.

I have just upgraded my E3Cs (that I found in a box start of December, listened and loved them and it relit my headphones passion!) to SE530PTHs. I picked up a PA2V2 amp and a cheap LOD. So I now have a reasonably good system to get me going.

But what next? The amp is a short term solution, I think I want a tomohawk as these seem well matched to the 530s. But I also want to have a play with same full size phones. I was looking at SR60s, then I went to 80s, now I want 325i's! What will I want tomorrow!

What did you do? Did you jump in to the best kit you could afford or is there a pleasure in appreciating the cheaper kit such as the SR60s? Then enjoy moving up to the 80/125s and so on?

I am happy to just pick up some cheap SR60s and sell them on when I move on but equally would be happy to jump in further up the upgrade path. I am just confused as to what to do next!

So many headphones...so little time!

 

[Aerotec]

Shame there is no netflix/lovefilm for head gear. Would be great to order up some headphones and amp to try out for a few weeks!

 

[krmathis]

It all started in 2003 when I bought my first iPod.
Used the Apple iBuds that followed it for a while, but quickly wanted more. Searched the local stores and found some Koss The Plug, which I bought blind. They were not for me though, so shortly after I bought the Apple In-Ears. They only lasted a year or so, and I did not bother getting them fixed (I am sure they are still around here somewhere).
So in 2006 (I think) I bought a pair of Westone UM2, which lasted my until last spring when the cable corroded and shorted. Since then its been Apple iBuds...

Looking to score a decent IEM in the not too distant future.

 

[mark2410]

ditto on the thinking it would be great to be able to try things, however im sure my wallet would disagree, mostly it means im not likely to buy amps

 

[mark2410]

oh forgot to say, started with cx300 but was getting really tired of thier overwhelming bass, saw Shure E2 on website going cheap so thought i would go buy some, they didint have so going past amp3's shop i saw the se210 and got a pair of them instead. loved the clarity it was like a revelation but jumping from the cx300 there just felt like no bass at all. as it was coming up to exam time i thought do i faff about or just say screw it and get the se530's? well i got the 530's

 

[jaykay]

I kind of stumbled upon this hobby by accident. For me it started when I picked up a pair of sennheiser hd555 for my counterstrike needs. It was recommended on a large gamer site that I used to frequent so I thought "what the heck, why not?" I thought the sound was great and a huge improvement over my computer headsets that I used to use, but I never thought I'd be where I am now..lol. A few months later someone on fatwallet posted a deal on ksc75's for $10 and was really raving about how great they sounded. Once again, I figured "why not?" and picked them up. I then googled for reviews on the ksc75s and stumbled upon this website. My wallet hasn't been the same since..

I lurked the forums for about a year before I picked up marshmallows then superfi.5 pro's for my on the go needs. Then went on to purchase es7s and d1000s when they became popular fotm's. Somewhere along the way I picked up my first amp, a porta corda mkIII.

I have since sold off all my old gear and have become content with my current setup. Icon Mobile/Lyrix amps > denon d2000, westone 3, pk3. So about 4 years after my first headphone purchase, I've managed to make my wallet ~$1400 lighter

...but hey at least my ears are

 

[ottoyu34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif oh forgot to say, started with cx300 but was getting really tired of thier overwhelming bass, saw Shure E2 on website going cheap so thought i would go buy some, they didint have so going past amp3's shop i saw the se210 and got a pair of them instead. loved the clarity it was like a revelation but jumping from the cx300 there just felt like no bass at all. as it was coming up to exam time i thought do i faff about or just say screw it and get the se530's? well i got the 530's

May I ask. How would you compare the se530 to se210 in terms of the bass.
Becuase I was testing out/listening to a pair of se210 and they have to little bass in my taste.

for myself: I started with a pair of Sony MDR-EX71 (iem) becuase of daily bus commute around 07. Now Im using a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-CKM50.

otto

 

[jude]

I would guess it was around 1985 when I bought (I think it was from Crutchfield) a Sony MDR-V6. I originally wanted the AKG K-240 (just because I thought it looked amazing, and was at least somewhat familiar with AKG's reputation), but it was maybe $20 or $30 more, which was steep for a kid in those days. I had separately ordered a Sony D-7 portable CD player (that was the model number here in the States; it was different in Japan)--I'm pretty sure the D-7 was the second portable CD player model available in the U.S. (the first being the D-5).

I remember feeling like I was paying a king's ransom for CD's and import CD's, but I couldn't get enough of the sound quality I was hearing. (Keep in mind that I was using only really bad, appliance store turntables and cheap cassette players up to that point.)

As a freshman in college, I got a job at a high-end hi-fi store. Among many other brands and product types, I sold Grado phono cartridges, but not Grado headphones, as I do not believe they yet existed. I did, however, sell Stax headphones at that store. I also discovered what analog properly played sounds like at that store. (In the countless eyes-closed analog-versus-digital comparisons I did there, I can recall digital being selected as superior by a customer only once.)

Anyway, before I go on too long, that's how I got my start. (And, of course, what started never stopped.)