Dear Head-Fi community,
For my first post, I want to express my most sincerest gratitude!
You have opened my eyes as to what audio should sound like. I began my audio journey this time last year (I had some really crappy Skullcandy DJ's paired with onboard audio). A friend of mine recommended to me that I invest in better headphones, since I was going through the "oh snap, the right side of my headphone died in less than 8 months, damn! Why does this always happen?" He lent me his Audio Technica ATH-M40fs, and I was immediately blown away at the sound difference. From there I read more about headphones, and concluded that an open ear headphone would render a better quality to my ears. From there, I bought my first pair of legitimate headphones, the Sennheiser HD 555's. The very day I got them, I performed not only the foam mod, but also the soundstage mod (thanks to the tutorial found on this very site
).
I used those for over six months, and then I found some Sennheiser HD 580's on ebay for $90. I bought a Fiio E9 to drive them, performed the usual mods (650 cable, 600 grills), and I must say they MELT my ears haha. Surprisingly, I am amazed at how close the modded HD 555's sound (there is a definite difference however) to the HD 580's.
My current audio chain consists of the following:
FLAC > foobar2000 > ASUS Xonar DX ASIO (using Xonar Uni Low DPC latency drivers) > Fiio E9 > Sennheiser HD 650 cable > Sennheiser HD 580 (w/foam mod, to remove veil)
Not to mention that when I play 5.1 movies, enabling Dolby Headphones is a MIND = Blown experience.
I want to say that music got me through undergraduate studies, but accurate sounding music will get me through medical school when i pursue it in a year or two. So again, from a newbie standing on the shoulder of giants (the glorious members of this beautiful community) I give my most sincerest gratitude to Head-Fi for opening my eyes and saving me from craptacular audio. It's a whole new world