[4N6]

KEF 103/3's.

I was a teenager and went into our hometown stereo store "The Stereo Shop." In the basement they had all their nice equiment; however, no prices were listed on any piece. I listened to about 10 pairs of speakers, and finally came away with the small KEF's being my favorite. What had I done, of course? Without knowing it, I chose the most expensive set of speakers on the floor. Since then I knew that "the good stuff" was more musically engaging and, for me, something important and worth the money.

 

[GuyDebord]

The Reference 3A Royal Master Monitors, before that I was ok with british mid-fi: a rega p3/103r an arcam cd player and a creek integrated playing a pair of Vandersteen 2ce's.

The 3A's forced me to change the Vandersteen's and the monitors were so revealing that I had to slowly change everything... and then it all begun....

 

[aamefford]

An iPod followed by a simple pair of Grado SR125's.

 

[kentamcolin]

Sennheiser HD595's. Then I heard some Grado 225's. Then RS-2, RS-1, then heard a tube amped Senn HD-600. Then the 650's came out. Then I saw Moth's website, then I wondered how vinyl would sound on headphones, then Grado introduced their GS-1000, then it was $500 tubes for the amp, a new Dynavector XX-2...

Then I learned about the 12 steps!

 

[cAsE sEnSiTiVe]

The first time I heard Vandersteen 2's....YEARS ago. I bought them. Then came Thiel, Sound Labs, Magneplanars, Martin Logans....Wadia and VPI front ends, etc..etc, ad nauseam. Not to mention the kilo-buck stuff to drive them.

The headphone hobby is a comparable bargain.

 

[woodcans]

SP MPX3, all downhill from there. But my ears are very happy now!

 

[Aura]

Once I discovered desktop amplifiers I was done for. Similar to woodcans above, the MPX3 was my first larger purchase for a headphone rig.

 

[Absorbine_Sr]

Eddie Current seduced me to the dark side.

 

[mikeymad]

I have had several slips in my life...

As a lad I was pretty good a getting the most out of budget equipment. With my Realistic Linear turntable - BSR satellite/sub system pushed with some carver equipment:

But when I really got a little money... I started to visit a local shop (who is closing down this month).... and made my first step in to the slippery land on higher end....

The Linn LP12.....

This led to amps, speakers, cable, etc....

The second and bigger slip was the Headphone path of death... !!!

This started when I could not really setup and listen to my speaker setup in my new place... So I turned to headphones... The Start of the slop was the HD-650's.....which sounded good... but...

(No that is not me.....)

that lead to amps, cables, headphones, amps, headphones, cables, amps, headphones... and source equipment.... Leading to.....

THIS...!!?!??!!

Oh well..... newbies! you have been warned....

Cheers,

 

[vcoheda]

^^

 

[charliex]

First was the Sennheiser HD 580's with 600 grills/650 cable...
...then along came Grado SR-60's culminationg in the HF-2's
...and now I've slipped again and have fallen hard for Stax,
starting with normal bias SR-5's and SR-X MK 3's - anxiously
awaiting the SR-Lambda's .... will it ever end?

 

[Brighten]

Denon c751, I bought them and later stopped listening to them in favor of some Audioengine A5 speakers. I pulled them out of a drawer one day and tried them out again. The tone and detail was wonderful. Ended up ordering an RS-1 the next day.

 

[Pincher]

NAD 701 back in 1992 has lead to a ModWright SWP 9.0 SE in 2009.

 

[Rdr. Seraphim]

Some of us may show our age here, but what the hay!

It started for me with a kit built Dynaco PAT-4 (killed my HK Citation 12 Pre), kit built HK Citation 12 amp, and the Koss ESP9's. The ESP-9's even came with their own L/R FR curves! Source was the venerable Thorens TD-125MkII fitted with the Shure V15MkII. Pure bliss at the time!

 

[Hopstretch]

Obsession progression as follows.

Senn 650s -> dynamic headphone amps -> digital sources -> dynamic loudspeakers -> analog sources (current and possibly most virulent manifestation to date).

Bubbling under: Stat headphone amps, dynamic speaker amps.