Well, I just officially joined Head-Fi early this morning as the sun is rising after spending all night (again), reading through the forums, clicking on links that took me to all sorts of interesting and esoteric sites, and doing umpteen Google spin-off searches to find out what people were referring to. I can't remember how I first stumbled on this site (Eric Schmidt, Larry and Sergei had something to do with it, I'm sure), but based on some preliminary reading here, I ordered my Audio Technica AT-50Ms and a Nuforce uDac-2 HP on October 30th, and I've been hopelessly hooked ever since they arrived. When I was young (I draw Social "Security" now and am on Medicare), I sold hi-end audio in a really big city that will go nameless. Mark Levinson, Linn, Quad, Magnepan, Bryston, Martin-Logan, Krell, Threshold and other stuff I can't even remember. I rebuilt Dahlquist DQ-10s from scratch, and was generally immersed in audio electronics and music all the time. Then I had to ""downsize" my life, and all my audio equipment had to go away because I live in a cheap little apartment with scary neighbors who bang on walls, floors, and worst of all, my door, if I play anything over any kind of speaker at over 55 db SPL. So I just gave up on my old love of high-fidelity music. I had a pair of Stax SR-6 electrostatic headphones back in the 70s, but didn't know anything about modern phones and digital music formats.
Then down this rabbit hole I fell. I can read and research all night because I can listen to gorgeous music in the kind of fidelity (actually better) that I had to forego decades ago. But the "sorry about your wallet" thing is really true when you're on a modest fixed income. A couple of days ago, I decided I enjoyed this so much, that I ordered a pair of Sennheiser 650s and a Maverick D1 Tube Magic DAC/preamp, like the AT-50s and Nuforce uDAC-2 suddenly weren't good enough for me. And I already "Rockboxed" a Sansa Clip+ (never heard of either one until a week ago reading LFF's blog), and my modest introduction to IEMs to mate with the Clip+ - a pair of Etyomic MC-5s - should be in todays mail from Amazonl. I Gotta Stop! Last night I'm up until 4 A.M. looking at prices for vintage Western Electric 396 tubes on eBay, until I read Spanky's post that the Maverick D1's tube isn't used by the DAC or built-in headphone amp, and you can remove it to save power and heat unless you have the D1 connected to a separate amp. I'm wanting to spend even more major money on things that I don't even understand that well! But it seems like a friendly place, I can't get in too much trouble given that I can't spend any more money for quite awhile (no, you can't shop for exotic HD-650 replacement cables!), but I thought I'd make at least one post, given how much time I'd spent (there's that dreaded word again) reading all of the posts that I have. Well, the sun is up and I just finished another gorgeous Chick Corea album, so think I'll call it quits. Did I answer your original question?
