[bookaboo]

As the title says my headphone journey has just come full circle - just goes to show too much reading and obsessing over what sound would suit me best has taken preference over THE MUSIC and in the end thats what it is all about losing yourself in the music.
 
I got into this journey after my kids were born and i found i couldn't crank up my hifi and chill out with my fave tunes as they were all asleep and considering the effort that it takes to get the rascals off to sleep the last thing i would want is for them to be awoken by my ecletic listening habits.
 
so i went straight to the top and sold off my marantz hifi gear and klipsch speakers and bought a benchmark dac 1 usb to run off my computer. i did some research and found that recommended headphones for the benchmark were the hd650s so i bought a pair of those as well. then my reading informed me that i needed to get an upgrade cable to remove the veil. until i read this i was unaware that there was a veil but all of a sudden i needed it to be lifted with the desparation of a man posessed. i just couldn't have a veil could i, so i tried the headphile blacksilver but it made the headphones too neutral and less warm, then i tried the moon audio blue dragon but that one made the sound too focused so i went back to the stock cable and was enjoying myself again until i started reading about grado - i had to have a grado! i tried the sr60 (too harsh) sr80 (even harsher) and the a rs2 with flats which i loved but i found my ears ringing for 2 days after using them for 2 hrs one night so i thought my ears are too precious and sold them off as well vowing to never listen to a grado again - they obviously werent good for me in a fatal attraction kind of way.
 
all this time i also wanted a closed option to listed to while my wife slept so i went for the hd25 (too gradoish) dt770 pro (stabbing icicles), srh840 (almost perfect) but then i heard the dt250/80 and fell in love (i still have them now and they will never be sold!) i loved them so much that my reading told me that the 250 ohm is even better so i got a pair of those as well to a/b. i liked both for quite awhile but then came to the conclusion that i liked the 80ohm just that little bit more and it was the one i fell in love with in the first place so i went back to my first love and sold off the 250 ohm. i think if the situation was reversed  still would've ended up with the 80ohm as i just like its vocal sound a bit more.
 
so then i thought i must get the sennheiser sound back so i bought a hd600 as all my reading was telling me that they were superior to the hd650 with less "veil" and must be better and more exciting and all that stuff. but you know what - i found them a bit bland and thin and yes there was no veil but there was also no balls compared to my memory of my long gone hd650s. so guess what - i ordered a new pair of hd650s today and can't wait to hear them again - dont it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till its gone....
 
so the moral of the story is if you are satified with your sound and are enjoying the MUSIC - stop just STOP and listen to the music and dont read and obsess about new gear etc. altough the journey is almost as fun as getting there.
 
i would like to state that these opinions are just my humble observations and we all have our own ears - i have very treble sensitive ears and that clouds my judgement somewhat.
 
one last word SYNERGY. Benchmark DAC 1 and HD650 were made for each other and the DT250/80 shines with the DAC 1 as well must be the rolled off highs of both phones taming the brightness of the dac but SYNERGY is SYNERGY none the less.
 
Sorry for the long post.
 
Bookaboo - The Hobbit of Head Fi

 

[kingpage]

I think there's a name for such a condition - head-fi-titis; it is the terminal case of upgraditis.

 

[Gwarmi]

 
 
The most terminal sufferers I know actually don't have much
gear so they don't even listen to much music, their affliction
means they're in a constant cycle of buying, tiring of it quickly,
selling and repeating the cycle again and again.
 
I'm talking about guys who go through 5 or more
head amps and maybe 3 DAC's a year - not
the cheaper end of town either 

 

[NinjaSquirt]

Haha. IMO, alot of cycling can be eliminated through research. Know what you like, get what you like, like it. Unlike you just really enjoy the process of waiting for things to be shipped or that "new car" smell. Research. Research. Research.

 

[bookaboo]

must......resist...........hifiman he 400...............

 

[Coq de Combat]

Quote:

must......resist...........hifiman he 400...............

Have you looked at the HE-500? That way, maybe, you might actually resist the HE-400...

 

[chicolom]

Quote:

Haha. IMO, alot of cycling can be eliminated through Research. Know what you like, get what you like, like it. Unlike you just really enjoy the process of waiting for things to be shipped or that "new car" smell. Research. Research. Research.

 
Well said ^
 
This was the strategy I used. 
After trying multiple pairs (in my sig) I figured out what I liked about each one and didn't like (and wrote it down!)
 
Then I did tons of research keeping in mind which headphones matched the traits that I liked, and avoided the traits I disliked.  Tons of searching using terms of "Headphone A vs Headphone B; Amp C vs Amp D" etc.  I narrowed down the field eliminating everything that didn't fit what I knew I liked.  Ended up with 2-3 contenders, then narrowed it down further.
 
And I did the same for my DAC and Amp.  Researched the crap out of them and anything similar to them.
 
And it worked, I narrowed down a setup about a year ago, then picked up the pieces one-by-one.  I have no intention of exchanging/cycling/trading any of my gear now.  I just listen to it.  I think any headphone in a similar price bracket would be either a sidegrade or downgrade (downgrade for ME, as in it would move away from my preferences at an individual basis - not necessarily a worse headphone).  I would probably have to jump up to the next tier of headphones (flagships like HD800, T1) to get a true upgrade.