[elrod-tom]

I was surfing the net today at work, and I came accross the name of an old friend and coworker of mine. I mention it for two reasons:

First, he is the one who introduced me to what can only be called the first audiophile-grade headphones that I'd ever heard - the AKG K240 - over 20 years ago. He had an old Onkyo receiver (one of those classic Marantz-looking things), which seemed like it was pretty well powered, along with a sweet AR turntable with a really nice cartridge. They sounded better than what I'd heard to date - the Koss Pro 4AA - by a longshot. I was hooked, and I bought my own pair the first time I saw them in a stereo store.

Yes, we now know that they were doubtlessly underpowered by whatever amp I was using at the time. Still, they sounded damn good.

This guy did me another favor: he also introduced me to Van Halen!! He's a good guy, the kind of guy that demonstrated good judgment in stereo equipment...and other matters too. So good that (you guessed it?) he's in fact now a District Court Judge in Colorado!! He's come a long way since we worked together at a golf course in northern Michigan. In the unlikely event that he's reading this, congratulations!!

Any other interesting stories about how you got started down this road to madness??

 

[tortie]

I was looking for headphones to use for my PC and happened to find headroom's site.

 

[psxguy85]

I was on the ipodlounge.com forums and then someone over there posted his setup, which consisted of a Meta42, HD600's and an ipod. He posted a link over to this site for people, including me who asked what the "big clunky box" was and finally I am here, with a MUCH MUCH thinner wallet.

If not for this website, I would not have been introduced to headfi, although I did get Shure E2's based on what people said on the ipodlounge.com forums.

 

[Zanth]

I was in undergrad and sharing an apartment with a physiotherapy student. We were both under heavy course loads, but I needed to listen to music while I studied. So to compromise I started researching headphones that would sound good from a portable but that would also be great out of a mini system. I found Good Cans and the original Headroom sites. After both regarded the Grado SR60's as THE headphones to get, I jumped aboard and never looked back. I pined after the RS-1's and was reading Headwize non-stop until I had them. This was just around the time Head-fi came into existance.

 

[fewtch]

I've really been interested in it for a long time. One of the first (somewhat) hi-fi cans I got that I can recall was a ~$75 Sony something-or-other in the mid to late 80's ($75 seemed like a huge amount to spend on headphones at the time). I don't remember the model but it sounded something like the V6. I also bought some Denons in the early to mid 90's that also had that V6-ish sound balance, and some Koss-made Radio Shack cans (those ones that cost $40 but were always going on sale for $20). However, I never got away from that smiley-curve balance until the Senn HD580s last year... that too was my own decision (after hearing them at a meet).

I discovered head-fi from HydrogenAudio. Had some questions about why my new Senn HD280s sounded like crap

(I ended up returning them).

 

[Welly Wu]

I got into this mess by finding out about HeadRoom somehow. Then, it lead to HeadWize. Then, I found out Head-Fi. Funny thing was that I thought I'd never understand the PHP board system and I stayed away from Head-Fi for a long time. I worked hard, saved carefully, and made my fateful decision to jump in to this sickening hobby / addiction. I'm never going to quit...I'm too addicted.

 

[mtkversion]

www.google.com

 

[Oddball]

Either I saw something on an iPod website or I saw the article on headphones in Newsweek/Times (I get the two mixed up all the time) which had a link to headroom which linked to here. I actually lurked around headwize a bit first until I realized how inactive it was compared to here.

 

[KR...]

no one, I came from Headwize

Remember Headwize it's all sad and lonely over there now

 

[warubozu]

I got into headphone hifi when I purchased my first serious pair of cans which was the Sony MDR-CD1000. I was truly blown away at that time by how good they sounded. Didn't realize they could even sound better if they were plugged into an amp, I soon found that out when I discovered Head-fi. Upon finding Head-fi I realized that there were even better sounding cans than my CD1Ks and a lot of amps to match with different cans to bring the best out of them. Also learned alot about the many different sources I could upgrade in bringing me nearer to musical bliss. Oh yes the wallet is definitely thinner since visiting here and it serves no purpose but to take up space in my pocket.
I discovered Head-fi by doing a google search on the D-E905 and a link to this place came up in the results. Clink on the link leading here to find out what I can learn about the D-E905 (or possibly purchase one at that time) and the rest as they say is history.

 

[darthm00by]

i remember seeing one of the guys i know at a lan party using some sennheiser hd 580's for gaming. after inquiring about the headphones, he let me listen to them, and wow, i was amazed at the difference in sound quality vs. my sony md-150ish crap headphones that i paid an amazing $20 for. i googled sennheiser minus all of the junk that you usually get with the internet when you search for goods, and came across this place. even though my wallet is lighter because of head-fi, the joys of headphone bliss are worth every bit of it.

 

[gort]

My first introduction to quality headphones was from some gaming website. It basically listed the advantages FPS gamer will have using headphones and recommended Senn HD490. FPS days are long behind me (Civ, Sims, and Myst types of games now) but that revelation I had with 490 and how good it sounded started my headphone love earlier this year. My 490 broke about a year ago (

) and it took me that long to buy SR60 after trying out various cheapie replacements.

Now I have HD600, my CDs sounds better than it ever had.

 

[jude]

I think the year was 1985, and I had just purchased Sony's second U.S. model portable CD player (the D7). Needing headphones to go with it, I believe it was a Crutchfield catalog I opened up, and there they had the AKG K240 family of headphones and new Sony "Digital" headphones (a family that I think included the MDR-V2, -V4, and -V6, if I remember the model numbers correctly). I really wanted the K240DF (I'm pretty sure that was one of two K240 models they offered in the catalog), thinking it was the grooviest looking set of headphones I'd ever seen -- and they were German! But, alas, for a 15-year-old kid who'd just spent all his extra dough on the D7, I had to settle on the MDR-V6, which was maybe $20 to $50 less expensive. That little rig kept me happy for years.

Anyway, that was a long time ago, so I may be off on some of the details, but that was my start.

EDIT: Oh, so to answer the question, my Uncle Buddy (who managed an independent electronics store and who sold me the D7 below cost) and Crutchfield got me started in headphone hi-fi.

 

[KR...]

I didn't know we were going to go way back when, LOL. My 1st pair of hi-fi headphones were the Grado SR60. This was before I started posting even at Headwize!

 

[mikeliao]

I can only blame myself. Well, maybe Headroom too and their promises of "sweet," "perfect," "world-class," "best," "amazing," and very non-pushy but very effective marketing.