The first time is the best time...

[gsferrari]

Anyone remember when they popped their audiophile cherry? For me it was the HD-580 and Grado SR-60 that did it...aah I remember those days vividly

I had purchased a Senn HD-212 Pro (cash strtapped at that time) and a friend offered to bump me up to a HD-580 as a birthday gift. So i returned the HD-212 Pro and waited patiently for the HD-580.

When it showed up I was amazed by the size...I was not a HeadFi member then (joined later) and the 580s amazed me (straight out of the laptop with all the pops, clicks and wheezes). I was shocked by the sound quality...

And then HeadFi happened and Wayne (wmcmanus) sent me two amplifiers to play with. I will remember that day for the rest of my life. I was shell shocked by the sound that the HD-580 + MG Head offered...A few weeks later I would get to hear the SR-60 courtesy Raul (rsaavedra) and the different presentation blew me away again!

Since then the "WOW!" factor has been replaced with understanding, appreciation and muted exultations...on the rare occasion I would go berserk (Rudistor RP5 for example) but those "events" were getting fewer and farther in between...

Fast forward to the current date...yes it has been an awesome experience. But despite all that went on in between I think the lasting impressions are the first virginal impressions that the HD-580 and SR-60 afforded me. I loved my first time and I wish I could erase memory. go back and start all over again.

Thanks for staying with me through this wish-wash

gs

 

[jjcha]

The key moment for me was when I got my SR-71. I actually had owned the HD600 and Shure E5c beforehand, but I remember the cab ride home, hooking-up the iPod > Pocketdock > Earcandy mini-mini > SR-71 > Shure E5c. Dumb grin, all the way home.

BTW, GS - be prepared to pop another cherry. I got your Stax SR-404 in today...

Best,

-Jason

 

[kramer5150]

Yeah....a LOOONG time ago.

I was about 11 or 12. My uncle had some white plastic senns with big sponge earpads. I forget the model number but they're pretty high end I believe. Through his marantz receiver I was like this

I would listen to his charlie parker, Miles davis and nat king cole vinyl collection... hearing things for the first time. It probably didnt even sound THAT good, but it was all brand new to me.

From that point on I HAD to get my own sennheisers....

when I was about 14 I bought my first pair. I forget what the model number was. They were portables, thin silver metal headband, silver-dollar sized earcups, thin yellow foam pads. The bodies of the earcups were metallic silver. Listened to them on my sony walkman

 

[Edwood]

1999.

With the HD600's and the Headroom Little.

This was 4 years before I joined Head-fi..........

-Ed

 

[Glod]

With a HD565 Ovation. Sadly it withered away piece by piece eventually.

 

[Ticky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari Anyone remember when they popped their audiophile cherry?

My first taste for audiophilia was when my cousin bought a pair of Celestion 3 bookshelf speakers to use with his mid-line Sony system. That was... boy, back in '91?

Still have a soft spot whenever I see pictures of an old Celestion 3 on-sale on ebay. Sniff.

Since then... there's no turning back.

First headphone audiophilia came in 1996, when I decided to go portable because I'm moving from high school to college. Having seen Tyll's early ads in Audio magazine, I gave in to curiosity and got myself a pair of 580s and the Supreme amp.

Well... almost 10 years later, I'm still at it.

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari I loved my first time and I wish I could erase memory. go back and start all over again.

Just wait 60 years or so.When Alzheimer's syndrom has seriously kicked in you'll have your first time every day, and your music collection will sound like you never heard it before.

 

[seeberg]

My audio cherry got popped in May of 2003, a bit less than a year after I joined- I got my SR125's by accident, liked them, although I didn't get into their bright sound at the the time(should've been using HD414 VWAP pads...). So then I plunked down an extra $69 on the headphones I was supposed to get originally, the SR60's. They arrived, I put the extra content DVD that came with Songs For The Deaf (QOTSA) and played the intro scene with the countdown. As soon as 'zero' hit, I was slammed. It was freaking incredible.

,
Abe

 

[adhoc]

for me, the day i got interested in better sound was when i got a pair of sony 'groove' earphones (with soft plastic 'venting') way back in 1998.

i thought to myself 'wow! these are really incredible!!'.

i guess i've moved on to better things since, huh?

 

[Dimitris]

I guess that will the time when i first heard my HD590 straight out of the Ipod. It sounded sweet!

 

[Naga]

got the 0404 working

 

[gsferrari]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjcha BTW, GS - be prepared to pop another cherry. I got your Stax SR-404 in today...

omg!! the electrostatic cherry is about to be popped

LOL

 

[amol]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari I loved my first time and I wish I could erase memory. go back and start all over again.

Maybe you can hire those guys from " eternal sunshine of a spotless mind " to erase your memory and start afresh.

 

[The Actual]

I bought my MDR7506 this past autumn, and ran them through the headphone jack of my magnavox stereo. It was incredible. One of the first things I listened to was Rage Against the Machines self-titled album, and I was hearing all kinds of stuff that I didn't even know was in the recording.

Late winter 05 I got the ER4, and unfortunately those will probably be the last headphones to blow me away.

 

[fr4c]

exploded my virgin audiophilia ears with HD580 and pimeta.

those were the days...