[lan]

It's all purely functional for me.

HF1 - my main portable unless I need smalled form factor or unless weather permits
K4 - my alternative portables that are smaller and way more comfortable
KSC35 - if I'm going lighter with no amps and it's bad weather outside or I'm sweating like hell
ER6i - on the airplane or other long length high noise situations

K1000 - if it's summer and I don't want to sweat or there's no noise around.
HE60 - I use this playing video games or movies. The cord is long

SA5000 - If I need a little sonic isolation

 

[kwitel]

For me, I make sense of the multiple cans game as follows:
Unlike a speaker/stereo setup, headphones are obviously extremely close to your ear drums and provide their own listening "environment". This little space is subject to and /or sensitive to a variety of different variables such as, ear-pad types, headphone materials and distances between driver and ear canal. As a result, a wooden driver housing may produce a very different sound than say a metal one, while a foamy, porous ear-pad material will allow for a more "airy" sound while a less-porous material like leather or velour would increase the bass response (all IMO).
Now, does this effect differ much from the different materials that make up speaker cabinets? No, but I dont believe them to have as a profound an effect on the sound being that in general, the room youre in will nullify these small sonic nuances due to spaciality factors. (I hope that made sense

)
I think that the different "flavors" provided by these headphones could be equated to (and reproduced) by stereo systems placed in different (and very specific) environments. For example, I would think that a certain Kenwood car stereo placed in an SUV would ultimately produce a different sound signature than if that same stereo were placed in a Porsche. Furthermore, a Nakamichi home stereo will sound very different in a carpeted 500 sf studio, than in a 3000 sf apartment with wooden floors and high ceilings. Comparatively speaking, a soft-velour padded, metal/plastic housed Beyerdynamic dt880 carries a very different signature than a spongey padded, Mahogany wooden housed Grado RS-1.
To conclude, I believe that a headphones signature is EXTREMELY sensitive to the variety of materials that a manufacturer may or may not use and whether or not these materials allow for sound to escape or whether it is isolated (open/closed). Compound that with the fact that this miny speaker is immediately next to your ear and you have the potential to create countless types of signatures of sound.

 

[MdRex]

ERmmm... collectitus?

I don't really need my other phones besides my SR325i at the moment, but it is always good to know that I have other phones in my collection.

 

[Bill Ward]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirosia Members w/ many phones do it to annoy those of us who can only budget one high-end phone.

[He's onto us.

]

It occurs to me that I tend to regard my various headphones as prisms through which I can view my recorded music. Each of them has a perspective I can appreciate; no one of them presents me with the "truth." I doubt that any audio reproduction system is really uncolored or genuinely neutral. Instead, they offer various shadings, and I select the one that best pleases me at the moment. Factor in differences in mood, music, related equipment and even listening volume, and everything changes. That's why I regard the headphone wars as an exercise in futility. "Please yourself say I and they/Need only look the other way."

BW

 

[fewtch]

I suspect the reasons for owning multiple phones are different for everyone. I currently use my DT880 for 'critical' listening, and AKG K501 (which I'm borrowing but probably going to buy) for casual listening. For example, I wouldn't want to listen to the DT880 in bed, fall asleep and accidentally damage them, but the K501 is cheaper and I wouldn't care as much. The HD580s are sort of superfluous, but at the moment I'm keeping them around because they were the cans that I fell in love with and introduced me to high end sound.

Bottom line, it's cool to have the different sonic signatures at different times, and it doesn't cost all that much to own multiple good quality phones. As far as the CDP reference -- I'm into vintage PCDPs myself and do have several, and indeed I do switch between them for different sonic signatures.

 

[milkpowder]

My answer is simple.

Headphones aren't as versatile as speakers.

 

[kramer5150]

I guess for me its a hobby... Like collecting coins or baseball cards.

Garrett

 

[acidboy84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer5150 I guess for me its a hobby...

An expensive one that is.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by acidboy84 An expensive one that is.

Welcome to head-fi. You can get by with spending less and still come out with pretty good sound quality, of course. Just skip the "overkill" aspects of the hobby (but you'd need to determine where that is for you, which isn't always easy). Clarify your sonic goals, and you'll end up spending less in the long run.

 

[Yikes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cotdt It's a lifestyle... and unlike hi-fi speaker models which vary only somewhat in sound, headphones tend to vary a great deal between different models. so people want all the different sound signatures.

If you believe this then you obviously haven’t listened to many speakers. Speakers vary in character as much, if not more so than headphones. Not only in tonal character but also in imaging type and quality. Because the speaker room interaction is so massive a speaker’s radiation pattern has a large effect on the sound. A dome tweeter has very wide dispersion leading to greater room reflections resulting in a certain type of sound-staging. A ribbon tweeter has a more restricted dispersion pattern, very wide in the horizontal axis and almost nothing in the vertical that results in another sound-staging character.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Hirsch In a speaker rig, you have one preamp, one amp, and one set of speakers. You tune the speakers to the room they're in...and that's it. You choose components carefully for the one particular purpose, simply because switching out speakers is a serious pain in the butt. Headphones aren't all that room sensitive They also occupy a relatively small area compared to a set of good speakers. So, trying something different becomes fairly trivial (from a logistical, if not an economic standpoint). I do have setups in just about every room in my place. Each has its own amps and headphones (not to mention my work rig). Besides, it's really fun to annoy Kirosia with my profile

Hirsch is correct. I’ve actually tried keeping two different sets of high end speakers (Quad ESL63 and Dunlavy SC-IV) at the same time for swapping out for different types of music and as my mood determined. Swapping was entirely too arduous a task to do more than once or twice a year. So the difficulty of changing speakers is the primary reason that it’s not even considered. Then there is the cost. My current stable of four headphones combined retails for less than ½ of one of the pairs of speakers that I owned when I was swapping. Then there is the space consideration. Who has the room?

So why do we keep multiple sets of Headphones?

Because:
It’s easy to switch headphones.
It affordable (Relatively).

And the number one reason: Because We Can.

 

[Mastergill]

<Ok, flame suit tightly adjusted here it goes>

That's because most of the dudes around are neurotics gear-head. For most the music is secondary, it's the toys that count...right?...right?

It's funny because before i discovered this board i knew the father of one good friend was collecting headphones and for me being a speaker dude it has always seemed strange - why so many headphones?- when i discovered this board i got it!
Everybody here was doing the same. 'Collectitis' seems to be a trademark of headphone lovers. I can understand, headphones are relatively cheap compared to speakers and they take much less space.

Now what makes me slap my forehead is those guys with 5 or 7 differents mid-level headphone amps or 3 different sources, etc...When you can have ONE trully high-end set-up for the price of the whole stuff. Don't tell me they're in for The Music.

Also the idea that you need one phone for every music genre is complete BS. Do your homework, you're on the road to audio hell.

 

[NotJeffBuckley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mastergill Also the idea that you need one phone for every music genre is complete BS. Do your homework, you're on the road to audio hell.

If you think the HD650 handles rock as well as the Grado RS-1, or that they can both be driven adequately by an amp designed specifically for 300ohm impedance headphones, I'd say you're the one who needs to do your homework.

 

[Electro Point]

IMO there are a lot of reasons for owning so many headphones.
Different sound signatures, looks of the headphone, different comfortable level of each headphone, different purposes of use, etc...
This has become more of a serious hobby for some of us.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mastergill Also the idea that you need one phone for every music genre is complete BS.

Agreed, except that music very heavy on electric guitars (heavy metal et al.) has quite different sonic requirements to convey the emotion than e.g. classical, IMO. For most people, I think two pair of headphones will cover everything well.

Quote:

Now what makes me slap my forehead is those guys with 5 or 7 differents mid-level headphone amps or 3 different sources, etc...When you can have ONE trully high-end set-up for the price of the whole stuff. Don't tell me they're in for The Music.

If the expenditure is the same (and enjoyment the same) as owning one "truly high end" rig, then what's the difference? Some people like a variety of sonic flavors, what's wrong with that? If it makes listening to music more enjoyable, then they are in it for the music.

 

[Inter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch Agreed, except that music very heavy on electric guitars (heavy metal et al.) has quite different sonic requirements to convey the emotion than e.g. classical, IMO. For most people, I think two pair of headphones will cover everything well.

This is how I see it as well. I use the Sennheisers mostly for the prog rock, while I use the Grado for the prog metal. It's all about sonic tastes and I find those two combos work best for me. Then again, I DO use the beyer 990 for movie soundtracks and other records that needs that boomy bass.