[ServinginEcuador]

It was necessity due to several deployments in the Navy. Having good sound was something I always liked, and when you're extremely limited on space headphones make perfect sense while underway.

Growing up my dad had a major influence on my hi-fi desires as he was always reading about the expensive gear and we talked about "one day I'll buy..." type stuff about gear we'd never be able to afford. Now the table's turned around and I've gotten him into head-fi stuff, and he's buying a dedicated amp and cans to run off of his APL Hi-Fi modded Pioneer 563.

 

[KYTGuy]

1975, just back from my first stint as an assistant engineer on a ship, I paid off with a little over $10,000 cash, for 42 days at sea.

I went into a stereo store, and bought a Tandberg 9000x, a pair of Koss pro 4AA's, a set of Koss esp 9B electrostatics, a pair of JBL L110's, a McIntosh preamp, and a bunch of other stuff...

Enjoyed the few months ashore, then went back to sea, taking the pro 4AA's and one of the first "Boomboxes" a Sony, with a cassete deck built in it.

 

[Langrath]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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??

My age introduced me to hi-fi. In 1960 and twenty years ahead all younger people lived for hi-fi. It was new and excitement. We built loudspeakers. We talked and compared. The problem I have found today is that we were victims of bad recordings. The equipment was often good, but the source was awful. Then you had always loudness on to mask the bad recordings. But we had fun with bad conditions.
Hi-fi is for me a lifelong passion.

Georg Langrath

 

[JMedeiros]

It was 1978 or 79 and I was working in a NYC restaurant.
A regular came in with the very first Sony Walkman and said to me..."you gotta hear these!"


It was all over that day I'm afraid.

 

[SteeleBlayde]

I've always admired a good stereo rig but I've been a headphone guy for a long time simply for the convenience. Never really got into the Hi-Head-Fi part of it though until I bought a Plantronics head-set for gaming and started wondering why my feet stopped tapping to the music thereafter. Was looking for a new computer too at the time, so I went to slobber at Alienware.com. They had some Sennheiser HD600's for sale and I remember freaking out about how headphones could cost over $100!!

Jumped onto newegg.com to find out about these HD600's and read a review about how someone claimed that HD600+Creative Audigy was the best sound possible. Then someone disagreed, mentioning something about headphone amps and leaving a link to Head-fi.org

 

[Sovkiller]

HEADWIZE

 

[tiberian]

i was trying to find a decent pair of headphones for my nomad zen nx and eventually found head-fi and headroom.

 

[terrymx]

i bought myself a px200, then i stumple upon head-fi.org. and that was it. pretty much went on a spending rampage after that, i'm trying to settle down.

 

[SunByrne]

I've really been more of a speaker and HT guy until discovering this site, and how I did was not dissimilar from psxguy85. I started on ipodlounge.com after getting my iPod last summer as a Fathers' day gift. I immediately didn't like the Apple buds because they didn't fit my ears well, and someone suggested E888s and someone else suggested MX500s and then someone else linked to a thread here discussing them. I started reading other theads here and now I'm hooked. I really will stop once I have my HD595s, really. No, seriously. Hey! Why doesn't anybody believe me...

 

[Gabriel Possenti]

Bought one of the first Archos Studio 20s. Was surfing at http://www.funmp3players.com trying to find the best headphones and someone mentioned Ety ER-4Ps and listed a review from this site. The rest is history...

 

[pic9809]

found it through google while doing research on shure e3 vs ety 4p

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Initially borrowed my mother's headphones as a kid -- my dad got them for her for two-fold reasons: one, because she loved music, two, to isolate. These things are huge, they make the CD3000's look downright tasteful. One of these days, I'll remember to take them to Hirsch's for pictures, perhaps this weekend.

Then there's the question of who bought me my first pair of headphones -- I'm not sure, I think it was my parents again. Sennheiser HD414's or something like that, Grado-like comfort, but I enjoyed them. Fast-forward a decade or two, my wife bought me a pair of Sony MDR-V6's, my first really good pair of headphones (they're still one of my favourites). I remember listening to The Orb's UFOrb (the two-disk one with "Blue Room") and hearing things I've never heard before on my Pioneer Project 100A speakers.

Fast-forward some more to something around 2000 -- at work, I was listening to music on headphones (because I have such odd taste in music, and I hate listening to boomboxes), and a server was moved into my office with me. So, to rephrase, my two reasons were: one, because I loved music, and two, to isolate (interesting how the circle closes, innit?).

So I posted my current listening gear, habits, etc., and requirements (isolation, full-frequency) on another board (I forget whether it was AA or AudioReview.com), but anyway, someone answered (Beyer DT-770), but said, "you're going to need an amp for those" and "you should check out Headwize (Head-Fi wasn't born yet). Anyway, I looked for it, it wasn't there, boo-hoo.

Anyway, went ahead and got them anyway, did a little bit of research for an amp, got a Creek OBH-11 and was happy. A couple months later, someone posted something about an interim solution for the lack of Headwisdom -- Head-fi.org. So that's the answer to the second question -- I don't remember. So if anyone (one of the older guys, presumably, like one of the Ricks, or one of the Erics, or Duncan or someone) remembers answering my question and directing me here, please show yourself, so that I may properly thank you.

[size=xx-small]Although my wallet has other intentions, it's too malnuitritioned to be able to carry them through.[/size]

 

[TheMuffinMan_01]

solzhen or w/e his name is, told me to come here from the ign boards, and thats when i got into high end cans.

 

[rajan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sovkiller HEADWIZE

Same here!

 

[HD-5000]

A long time ago, I went to the house of one of my parent's friends. I got bored, so the man turned on the movie Armageddon for me, played on Bose 301 speakers. The experience for me at the time was incredible, and from that point on it all spiraled into this mess of a human being I am today.