I once traded for a combo amp- and cans- that smelled like this, there was a thin film of nicotine on everything. My solution was an ozone machine, it worked wonders and is useful to remove any and all odors from anywhere in the house or car. Cost me about $100 on amazon. Highly recommended.
Newer generations like you guys are much better about this. In the early head-fi days, over 20 years ago, I bought Grado SR-225 from an older fellow named Lou Tucci. He was quite a character on these forums! And quite a smoker. His SR-225 reeked of cigarettes, and the white driver cloth was stained yellowish-brown. Not a big deal on ~125 bucks headphones, but a lesson learned to watch out for this. I think he passed on some years ago, sadly.
My HE1000 showed up smelling something horrible (more BO than cigarettes) so I feel your pain.
If you went down this route. ideally you would have an established chain first and then pick out high-end ICs that you perceive to have good synergy with that specific chain, so at that point it'd be mostly irrelevant if those cables provide a tangible benefit on lower-end/different equipment.
Same. I've spent a lot of time and money playing with high end interconnects, power cords, isolation devices, power conditioners, etc etc. These days, my attitude leans ever closer to "to hell with them!", though I still have a lot of this stuff. They can seem to have a "large" impact on first blush, but this always seems to dissipate over time - yes, often fringing on "am I really hearing this or is it placebo". Even if a few such items seem to bring sonic benefits in isolation, you might think their effects should be additive (positive) in combination - but this is rarely the case. The cumulative effects are rarely predictable or even positive. Too many times I've upgraded to the next level expensive cable, only to be disappointed and prefer the old one. You can surely convince yourself over time, your system stuffed with high end tweaks sounds "next level", only to remove all that stuff and...it sounds great...maybe even better lol. OR you hear a new system absent of tweaks, and it blows you away because the main component synergy is more correct.Long ago I used to do a lot of upstream tinkering, but quickly came to my own conclusion that in most cases differences in cables (ICs to be specific), input types (on some gear/applications these can be large differences for sure), software applications (when setup properly with the right gear), and others often render very small differences and in others no cases at all. You simply cannot generalize broadly here, acknowledging that fully, as in some cases there are major differences based on the use case and product you're talking about. But I found that you can spend a ton of time evaluating small scale differences, that like you mention, for me became more of a question of placebo vs. not; and/or, is this "difference" even better or do I perceive it to be because it's a change or because I paid for or invested time in it. (edit: tbc here I'm not including power conditioning here, which I do believe can be highly valuable to explore)
For me, the value proposition of spending a lot of time and money to explore the above just pales in comparison to the much greater and easily detectable differences in Headphones > Amps > DACs (generally in this order for me). So I choose to spend my time there. Far less worry about placebo, although bias still is at play to be aware of, and is less stressful to explore for me.
I think ultimately a lot of people just like to tinker lol. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that lol. I am not at all one of those people. Tubes are another area where I set and forget it--research tubes that are well liked, do a small level of A/B'ing and forget about it; as for me across the board mostly tubes have subtle differences (major exceptions here based on amp) and each comes with their own tradeoff. Guess you just have to figure out the philosophy that works for you.
It's "fun" to see and listen to all the variations and combinations of gear, to a point, then it's time to just and listen to the music.
These. All responses warmly appreciated. I posted this question on the Stax thread specifically because estat owners (yes I'm generalising but seems fair) don't seem to put much emphasis on the 'tweaks'. Everyone's responses here fit that pattern. (Plus, the builder estat experts on 'the other site' pretty much unanimously scoff at the kind of 'tweaks' referred to here.)
