[fante7]

Which headphone was the one that started it all for you? I was 17 years old and looking for a way to spend an amazon.com gift certificate and realized I needed new headphones because my crappy pair from Best Buy developed a rattle in the left earpiece (some over-the-ear Jensens, I believe), so I just did a search for "headphones" and Sennheiser HD497s came up first. I googled for them and read some good things and decided to buy them, even though I thought their ~$50 price tag was ridiculously expensive for "just a set of headphones". I had no idea that headphones could actually sound even as good as a cheap set of speakers, so I had no preparation for the experience I was about to have. I pulled the headphones out of the box and just plugged them in directly to my laptop, and the sound quality blew me away. My wallet cried knowing what laid ahead, but my ears were rejoicing. A few months later I listened to a friend's SR60s and liked them too, but I didn't really even care much about upgrading again until I went into a small local audio store a few years later and tried out some HD580s, HD595s, and HD600s with the store's jazz listening CD. They all sounded way better than any of the speakers I had heard, and I came down with a case of upgradeitis in addition to my poor-college-student-itis. That was really what got me. Now I still have a very modest collection relative to the average head-fier, but I just listened to my HD497s again and I was very quick to pick out flaws in the sound, listening to my personal list of audio test tracks. What a different experience from the first time I heard them. So, now I ask, what's your story?

 

[kramer5150]

1981... I was 10. I used to listen to my uncles charlie parker and Nat King Cole collection on his HD414 (or was it an HD424). These white plastic things with foam doughnuts. Powered by a (now vintage) marantz receiver.

1987... I was 16. Grandfather bought me my first cans... Koss Pro4x Plus. I still have em, but the earpads are dried and the left signal is dead. Going to put the Koss lifetime warranty to the test and send em in for a refurb.

Garrett

 

[Fishy]

I was 22, and looking for over the ear headphones that wouldn't hurt my ears--recent additional piercings made it necessary to get 'around the ear' phones...but not too big that they pressed on the jaw (I tried the HD 280 and the cup is big enough on my head it presses on my face and hurts). I don't know; suddenly I was really picky about the fit. HD 555 did it for me. And then i realized just how much better the sound was, and then I couldn't use my earbuds after that, i had to have IEM's or better portable phones, and it kind of snowballed...

 

[grandenigma1]

a pair of Shure E1's

 

[crazyboarder]

sr60 and i still have them

 

[gratefulshrink]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fante7 Which headphone was the one that started it all for you? I was 17 years old and looking for a way to spend an amazon.com gift certificate and realized I needed new headphones because my crappy pair from Best Buy developed a rattle in the left earpiece (some over-the-ear Jensens, I believe), so I just did a search for "headphones" and Sennheiser HD497s came up first. I googled for them and read some good things and decided to buy them, even though I thought their ~$50 price tag was ridiculously expensive for "just a set of headphones". I had no idea that headphones could actually sound even as good as a cheap set of speakers, so I had no preparation for the experience I was about to have. I pulled the headphones out of the box and just plugged them in directly to my laptop, and the sound quality blew me away. My wallet cried knowing what laid ahead, but my ears were rejoicing. A few months later I listened to a friend's SR60s and liked them too, but I didn't really even care much about upgrading again until I went into a small local audio store a few years later and tried out some HD580s, HD595s, and HD600s with the store's jazz listening CD. They all sounded way better than any of the speakers I had heard, and I came down with a case of upgradeitis in addition to my poor-college-student-itis. That was really what got me. Now I still have a very modest collection relative to the average head-fier, but I just listened to my HD497s again and I was very quick to pick out flaws in the sound, listening to my personal list of audio test tracks. What a different experience from the first time I heard them. So, now I ask, what's your story?

Nice story, BTW.

Mine is similar to yours, except I'm probably more than twice your age.

I never dealt with headphones much in my teens or twenties. I had the stock crappy panasonic that came with a portable cassette player, and then the yellow sony sports cheapie things that come with the sports CD discman. I got my ipod in 2003, and quickly learned that the earbuds were not for me (hurt my ears, annoying to put in and take out, etc.). So, I used my existing $5 phones......until, one day, when I was in Radioshack, and I picked up $20 store-brand cans. I immediately realized that these were a huge improvement over whatever else I had. I guess I was bitten by the bug around then, because soon I started doing some conventional on-line price comparison research, and ordered some Senn HD 457 for around $35 or $40. It's funny, but that felt like a big expense for headphones, at the time. Within a few months I picked up the SR-60's. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[raisin]

First time-KossPro 4-aa? (30yrs ago), more recently shure e-2's.

 

[saturnine]

Sennheiser HD570 2 years ago. I bought em because they were discounted to almost half retail, and I had heard a lot good about the HD580. Guess I wasnt doing enough research. Hell, at least I didnt get the Triports..

 

[fante7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saturnine Sennheiser HD570 2 years ago. I bought em because they were discounted to almost half retail, and I had heard a lot good about the HD580. Guess I wasnt doing enough research. Hell, at least I didnt get the Triports..

Speaking of Triports, I heard a pair of those in Best Buy the other day just for kicks, and they were even worse than I had imagined.

Nice responses so far, people!

 

[Teerawit]

HD600. Granted I don't have a dedicated amp for it (

) it still sounds good out of home receivers. In the meanwhile I've been buying headphones that sound great unamped. Ha! Soon I'm going to get an amp for sure, soon enough!

 

[James63]

Cough Triports Cough....... about a month later I moved on to a pair of 650s and never looked back.

 

[meesha]

I never really cared much..I always used what came with the player or whatever was on the rack.

Suprisingly enough my "fetish" started with the need to block out city sound in the city, so I read up a little and bought a Koss plug.

After those died remarkably fast, I kind of was ho hum until I bought an ipod and wanted sound blocking phones again...one google search later and I am now forever cursed...

 

[fr4c]

HD580's I believe.

 

[magnum]

I was 19 I made the move from car-audio to highend home audio which made me see how much the listening room can change the sound, so I bought a pair of STAX Lamda Pros and this was really the pair that got me going in headphones.

 

[Gurck]

'Bout a year back, I had some money laying around and figured I'd read up a bit & get a pair of headphones. A family with an unbelievable amount of kids (I never counted, but I'd guess 5-6, at least) moved in behind me and seemed to reward the kids based on how much noise they made, because it just never ended, or even went down in volume enough to be halfway tolerable. Luckily they're gone now, but I've fallen in love with the 280s I ended up getting. I recently picked up a pair of e2cs for travelling, working out & doing yardwork, and am planning on an amp soon... and just maybe those 580s I've been eyeballing