[TwoEars]

This is pretty personal, or at least it can be.
 
The Question Is Simple:
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What made you a Head-Fier?
 
What made you listen to what you listen to? What made you buy what you bought?
 
What was the Game-Changer?
 
It is not a closed topic - go ahead and run with it. Write what comes to mind.
 
For me personally I think my first real venture into Head-Fi was millenia ago when I bought a pair of HD590s almost on a whim. I still have them and at the time they blew me away. Such clarity, such detail and sense of space.
 
I think that was the defining moment and it just escalated from there - HD600s and HD650s followed naturally. As did a number of computer sound-cards and amps.
 
What was your gateway drug?
 
This was mine

 

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,
 
It was the 90's, and I was already dabbling in speakers, but then DVD became available and with it came really nice 5.1 audio, which was really fun with speakers. But when you live with others you quickly find out that not everyone enjoys listening to speakers when you are. So I moved into headphones. I had a few ultra-junk headsets that came with discmans and the like. The typical trash they included (these days replaced with complimentary ear-buds of noise). I remember going online (dial up baby) and looking at neato stuff about PC based home theater and all. Read some stuff about headphones that were good enough for high quality sound from movies and the like, associated with DVD's. And so my first headphone was the Sennheiser HD580. I started big. Well, big at the time for me. Used it for over a decade too. Great headphone to this day. I ended up listening to music more and more, since I noticed how bad napster quality music that I was sampling was through my HD580's. It moved me to buy CD's and play them outright, since digital players didn't exist unless you had a portable battery to lug around with a computer. CD's really sounded different through the HD580's. New details, interesting nuances I didn't notice from entry level speakers that I had employed for movie watching and general audio listening. Anyhow, that's when I became a head-fi type person. It's been a long road of headphones since then. And still going. But I'm still more a speaker person, regardless, as nothing matches the pleasure of speakers. But I still use headphones daily since volumous audio at odd hours doesn't really work well with others. And headphones while walking, or traveling, is just sublime.
 
Then 40+ headphones later, I'm still looking for new ways to enjoy audio. The only place I have left to venture is into `stats... but oh lord the expense.
 
TL;DR: Began in the 90's with a Sennheiser HD580, seen here.
 
 
  
 
Eventually ended up with:
 

 
 
 
Very best,

 

[Marximus]

The Sony MDR-V6s.  They were far too uncomfortable for me, but they led me to more comfortable (and better sounding) headphones.

 

[FullCircle]

A broken nozle on an uncomfortable pair of Shure E3.   As an Audiologist, I figured I could build a better mouse trap, a good while after building many mouse traps, Heir Audio was born.
 

 

[GL1TCH3D]

About 2 years ago I bought the Sony XB500 which was my first time venturing outside of skullcandy.

Loved them for a good 8 months or so but didn't like the graininess in them (you can see the audiophile part budding here).

Decided to look online for higher end headphones, got directed here to head-fi and after reading Jude's review of the B&W P5 I bought them.

Overall wasn't impressed by my initial listening but over the course of a month they really grew on me and ended up keeping them for 8 months.

At this point I had some leftover money and wanted to try something bigger and better so I sold the P5 and XB500 and bought the Beyer T5p. This was back in March 2012.

They didn't wow me like I was expecting from $1000 headphones. An improvement over the P5s for sure but not something that blew me out of the water.
I noticed while using them they sounded weak, probably because I was running them from an iPhone. I decided to get the Fiio e17 to drive them on the go. This helped but still not what I wanted.

Bought the grado sr325i in may 2012 on a whim since I always wanted to own my own pair of grados and was looking for an exciting sound.

Used the T5p for 3 months and a design flaw broke the cable. At the same time I decided to sell my Grado SR325i since the comfort just killed me.

I ended up buying the Shure se425 and AKG Q701 to replace the t5p and sr325i respectively.

Loved them both. The se425 lacked separation and bass so I exchanged them for the 535 which really wowed me (except for the piercing sibilance).
At this point I knew I wouldn't want the T5p anymore since the Q701 was a lot more enjoyable than the T5p (for me) so I started looking for interested buyers for the T5p.

Found a local guy looking to try something new and was putting his HD800 up for grabs. We talk and agreed on the trade of the T5p + $500 for the HD800 + Cardas cable.
When I finally get them back (took over a month) I met up with him and got the HD800.

Of course at this point the Q701 doesn't stand a chance against the HD800 (since the HD800 is more of a bigger brother to the Q701). I decide I want a pair complementary to my HD800. From what I've read and auditioned, the LCD2 were a natural choice. I found a guy here on HF willing to trade his LCD2 for my AKGs + cash.

Ended up with the LCD2.

Needed something to run them both in the mean time so bought the O2+ODAC combo here on HF.

That's where I stand now pretty much...

Looking to get the L3000 and HE6 along with a Beta22 in the future...

 

[Tangster]

For me it started about 5 years ago when I got my first portable player, a Creative Zen X-fi. It quickly became apparent that the stock earbuds(EP-830s) and sound on the Zen was superior to my (at the time) computer.
 
The stock buds broke, as they tend to do. I upgraded to a pair of Denon AH-C551s. It only got more expensive from there...

 

[KingofWisdom]

Roughly a year and a half ago, I was tired of Skullcandy earbuds breaking on me (went through multiple pairs), so I bought the Yamaha RH5MA due to the largely positive Amazon reviews, which was a very good starting pair. They've fared pretty well up until now, but recently I've been dissatisfied with their lack of audio clarity at certain parts of movies. I actually joined the site to post in the headphone recommendation thread, and after doing some more research, I bid and won a pair of AKG K550 headphones a couple days ago. Before I even joined the site, I was using Google to find threads and reviews from here to help me research headphones. Helped a lot. This is pretty much the beginning of my Head-Fi journey.

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,
 
And on another note, my trek in headphones isn't just about going up. I have high-ends, yet just this week, I ordered and received a Skullcandy Hesh 2.0. I test/sample even the scourge of headphones. Why? Because you just never truly know until you listen to something yourself. I find way too many people recommend stuff and talk about stuff they've never touched or listened to, like they know it intimately. Hence my 40+ headphone trek. But then again I love talking shop when it comes to audio...
 
Moral of my story: don't hate on something until you've put it on your head.
 
Very best,

 

[Redrider469]

It was a little over 2 years ago that I won a $50 bestbuy gift card and I was like, "What am I gonna get? I already have a 8Gb flashdrive."

 
So I decided to get a nice pair of over ear headphones. I run soundboards for school and church so I knew that Sennheiser makes quality products so I ended up getting a pair of Senn. HD428's. Up until this point I had been using some Koss inears for everything from music to gaming. The biggest thing I noticed was the improved sound stage which was absolutely great for gaming.
 
I'm also a pretty big researcher so I did more research on headphones and stumbled upon Head-Fi here. Kept reading and reading and learning and learning.
I started to rip music in lossless and it wasn't soon until I wanted another pair headphones. Ended up getting a pair of Ultrasone HFI-780 and immediately loved them! I guess my ears aren't as sensitive to high treble as some others...
 
After that purchase I became a member here and have continued to improve my setup  and audition some other HP's. My only problem is funding! Too bad there aren't any black friday deals on headphones...unless I just haven't found them yet.
 
During this time as well I had the Creative Inspire T6100 speaker setup and while it was ok, it started to fall behind on quality when it came to my headphones.
Well, I ending up putting together a pretty nice 2.1 setup for a little over $500 and it is absolutely amazing! My biggest limitation is the acoustics of my room (which suck) but everything is pretty balanced out now with no major standing waves.
 
I've loved music from the beginning too so I guess that if it wasn't for that and how much time I spend listening to it, I wouldn't have had much motivation to setup up from my Koss inears. I suppose winning the $50 gift card though is what really got the ball rolling.

 

[HideousPride]

More than half a decade ago when I was in high school, I went back to China to vacation and visit some family for the summer.
 
My favorite cousin was really into a Korean male group called DBSK at the time, and her favorite member had a photoshoot with white Audio-Technica SJ-series headphones around his neck. I mentioned offhandedly that they looked really nice, and she ended up purchasing a pair of SJ3s for me. Ironically, I suppose I have a Korean boy band to thank for the hobby. Thanks Yunho!
 
Design was great and the sound quality was a significant step up from the stock IPod buds I was using at the time. I've always been passionate about music as a singer, and I play several instruments and have done video recordings. I loved how portable and lightweight they were and how I could hear details in my recordings and my music that I could not before. The cable snapped half a year later, and I ended up buying a pair of Black SJ5s. Was satisfied with my purchase but unfortunately ended up breaking the cable again.
 
Grew frustrated at how flimsy lower end cables were and stumbled upon Head-Fi for the first time doing my research on potential headphones to get. I limited my search to Audio-Technica stuff since besides the cables snapping, I was very pleased with my purchases.
 
Got a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-FC700s and they were wonderful. Got a pair of ATH-M50s over a summer after an internship when the 50s craze swept through Head-Fi. They were decent, but the pleather was uncomfortable and nowhere near as portable as the FC700 was.
 
Bought Audio-Technica CK7 IEMs when I had an abundance of Amazon credit due to selling back school books. Pulled the trigger on Sennheiser HD 598s and fell in love with them. Purchased a few more low/mid tier headphones with different sound qualities to round out my understanding of my own sound preferences.
 
Ended up meeting another headphone enthusiast with some really nice equipment. Listened to LCD2s/Senn 800s and lusted after them, but did not think it was "worth" the money at the time with my college financial situation.
 
Present day. Have listened to a broader range of headphones now but have not found anything <$500 that I felt was signficantly more enjoyable to me than the 598s. Working now and have disposable income to play around with. Was planning on getting a flagship after doing my research but was unexpectedly sidetracked by the Orthos thread. Was intrigued and gave stock T50RPs a listen. The "different" feeling I had gnawed at me, and I wanted to hear something more. Stumbled upon LFF's Paradox thread, and impulse bought. Added to the wait time by making it a premium purchase, and am eagerly awaiting it today. I'm actually hoping it satiates my thirst for "better" headphones and allows me to go back to spending money on music and concerts as opposed to gear.

 

[PFULMTL]

i've been using nothing but garbage and gaming headsets up until over a year ago. I preferred a headset because I always stayed up late. At my current job I can listen to music all the time. I was using a gaming headset for music because I didn't have anything else. That quickly broke apart and I decided to pick up some temporary Sennheiser 201S in case I break these. Well they didn't break and so I decided to get something more durable, one sided cable, and with more bass. DJ style headphone fit that criteria.
Long story short, I picked up the PRO700MK2 and Shure SRH440 a few months later later. I love them both equall
y. I'm now on a mission to find a headphone that sounds like a mixture of the two and I have my first amp (FiioE7) coming in the mail.
I guess once I find that right headphone, I might calm down on researching so much and buy gear less often. I used to be a PC gamer, but I haven't bought a game in over two years. I think it was good time to spend my time with something more enjoyable = MUSIC!

 

[machoboy]

Simple; I'm a night owl who likes to record and listen to music while people are sleeping and in the process of looking for basic monitor headphones I became curious about others.

 

[livewire]

Two years ago I bought a pair of cheap HD-201s for my kid because she hated the earbuds on her iPod.
Then I figured I would take a step up to the HD-448 because I heard that it is optimized to the iPod's output.
Neither impressed me, but the kids loved them, so that was all good.
 
While researching the Senns on HF, I came across a thread for the Millet Starving Student Hybrid DIY amp.
I've always loved DIY projects but have never built an amplifier, much less a dedicated amp for headphones.
So I put one together and bought some AKG-702s. Wow! This actually sounded good.
I was hooked. Then came and went other dynamic amps, DACs and cans - searching for my "mid-fi miracle setup".
 
About a year later while climbing the slippery slope that layed waste to my wallet, I finally found my "headphone nirvana".
One word: STAX. IMO nothing else even comes close.
I still keep some dynamics around for a change of pace as well as to remind me just how good the STAX are - at least for me.