Cruelhand Luke
Headphoneus Supremus
"Welcome to Headfi, sorry for your wallet."
That's a common greeting around here,I suppose it's clever and not totally inaccurate...but it doesn't have to be that way.
I have gotten a lot of great advice from headfi, I've been pointed in the right direction more often than not. Somehow I have managed to get a bunch of headphones I really like and never spent over $100 on a single purchase. I want to share a few of my choices and how I got there in an effort to give hope to others that you can get good stuff and not break the bank doing it.
First up, Sony MDR7506...a well respected, if not necessarily well loved headphone around here.. $80 and a few careful mods later and I have a great sounding,nearly indestructible portable/over ear headphone:
Next is the Phillips SHP9500s.A poor mans Sennheiser HD600? The worlds most comfortable Grado? You decide. $70 purchase price, $20 for pads and $5 for a headband. $95 total:
But...what about that Bass? Enter the Modhouse Argon. I bought a used/vintage set of Fostex T20RP..the old school ones with the round drivers, for $40. I sent them off to Modhouse for the treatment, $60. I made a comfort strap myself for $0.15 and jacked a set of pads from some Fostex TR90s. Total cost around $100:
But...you've gotta have a Grado, right?
So I bought an SR80e used from the headfi classifieds for $50, I had a custom leather headband made at a local shop for $20, I upgraded the cups to aluminum SR325e cups for $40 and bought some L cush pads for $7. $117 total...a little over the $100 mark for $300 Grados!? Ok, I'm 'over budget' by the price of a pizza, so sue me:
Finally, my most recent purchase. Monoprice lost it's mind for a few hours and dropped the price of the Monolith M565 down from $200 to $80, I slapped some HM5 hybrids I had lying around on it..I think I spent $25? Total cost,around $105:
That's my story....I have other headphones, that I spent even less on, but these are my 'stars'
I would love to see other people share their "$100 headphones" and hear the story of how they got there.
That's a common greeting around here,I suppose it's clever and not totally inaccurate...but it doesn't have to be that way.
I have gotten a lot of great advice from headfi, I've been pointed in the right direction more often than not. Somehow I have managed to get a bunch of headphones I really like and never spent over $100 on a single purchase. I want to share a few of my choices and how I got there in an effort to give hope to others that you can get good stuff and not break the bank doing it.
First up, Sony MDR7506...a well respected, if not necessarily well loved headphone around here.. $80 and a few careful mods later and I have a great sounding,nearly indestructible portable/over ear headphone:
Next is the Phillips SHP9500s.A poor mans Sennheiser HD600? The worlds most comfortable Grado? You decide. $70 purchase price, $20 for pads and $5 for a headband. $95 total:
But...what about that Bass? Enter the Modhouse Argon. I bought a used/vintage set of Fostex T20RP..the old school ones with the round drivers, for $40. I sent them off to Modhouse for the treatment, $60. I made a comfort strap myself for $0.15 and jacked a set of pads from some Fostex TR90s. Total cost around $100:
But...you've gotta have a Grado, right?
So I bought an SR80e used from the headfi classifieds for $50, I had a custom leather headband made at a local shop for $20, I upgraded the cups to aluminum SR325e cups for $40 and bought some L cush pads for $7. $117 total...a little over the $100 mark for $300 Grados!? Ok, I'm 'over budget' by the price of a pizza, so sue me:
Finally, my most recent purchase. Monoprice lost it's mind for a few hours and dropped the price of the Monolith M565 down from $200 to $80, I slapped some HM5 hybrids I had lying around on it..I think I spent $25? Total cost,around $105:
That's my story....I have other headphones, that I spent even less on, but these are my 'stars'
I would love to see other people share their "$100 headphones" and hear the story of how they got there.
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