Here is another random thought: why upgrade if your gear already sounds awesome?
Case in point: the person who bought SF SFD-2 in 1993 could have just sat on that dac for 30 years and would still have one of the most musical dacs out there. Why upgrade?
The desire to obtain and to chase the next best thing is part of our human biology.
Desire is a Yin Yang of evil. It brings joy and pain. Joy temporary, and pain in loss.
Repeat and rinse. It will never stop. You can train yourself to let go and end the suffering which is call "desire" but it's next to impossible in this age and time. We can only lie to ourselves that we can end it.
I don't find myself utilizing him that much for making purchasing decisions, especially when we got shows and you can get a sense of how much you like headphone's HR yourself.
I find it quite important for long time listening. Low dynamic range albums are way more tiring and "unnatural" comparing to most of the things we hear day-to-day as the energy level is way too dense (unless you sit in the middle of a rock band all day long). Listening to albums with poor dynamic range, I often find myself needing to take a break halfway but I won't say the same thing for The Wall or Rumors.
HE-1 is more expensive than all my gears combined at the moment, so that's really not a choice for me. But from my personal ~2 hours listening experience on HE-1, it single handedly beats or rivals with all music I listen to on any headphone I own, which includes big ones like Susvara, Utopia, 009 and X9000(this one not quite for every genre, but I'd still give HE-1 a very decent edge in general). I don't own a pair of Abyss but I also am not a fan, so I do think HE-1 beats the TC on every single genre including bass heavy ones. That said, switching things around does make your brain adjust so there's value to that.
1) There is no correlation between headphone price and listening enjoyment. When the novelty of the price tag wears off, and when the wonder of having the headphone you've always dreamed of having becomes reality, all you're left is with the headphone itself. And it's not always as great as you think it is.
2) The most expensive headphone a manufacturer makes isn't always the best. Some headphones are expensive just to be expensive, because marketing said so.
3) Just because something is old doesn't make it stop being good. Listen to a SR-Lambda from 1979 and you'll see how little progress there really has been in state of the art sound quality. There has been huge progress in convenience, and there has been some progress in sound quality, but it's been very incremental.
4) Nearly every new expensive flagship will end up being discounted and forgotten about 3-4 years later. So if you want to own flagships, just wait a little bit. All the rich old farts will have gotten theirs, and then they'll start selling them off when the next shiny thing comes along. So now you can get them for far less. Needless to say, this is a lesson I have usually ignored and will continue to do so, most likely.
5) Don't be afraid to ask for discounts on high-value items. Believe it or not, $4k headphones don't exactly fly off the shelves. Buying flagships at list price is for chumps. As an example, I've heard of a chump that often pays list price and never listens to advice, his name was... wait a minute... cat... something?
6) You can't take a headphone you hate and turn it into something you like. I mean, you can maybe 5% of the time, but it's very unlikely. EQ fixes some things, but ultimately, you're much better off taking a headphone you like already and maxing it out. If you have a headphone you don't like but everybody on the forums tells you "well have you heard them with amp X..." tell them to shove it. Not literally of course, but why waste time on headphones you don't like, searching for that magic synergy - which happens maybe 1% of the time - rather than focusing on what you do like instead. Which is often not as expensive/high-end as you think it is. See rule #1.
7) Most professional reviews are completely worthless. Here's how you spot one: "I listened to song X, and here's what I heard." Any review in this format is designed to tell you absolutely nothing about the headphones under review. The reason is that recordings vary in quality so much, that unless you've heard song X and know it really well, any listening impressions based on it are going to mean nothing, and will tell you how song X sounds instead of how a headphone sounds. Instead, go for reviews that say "well the treble was a bit bright, the bass was a bit boomy, but the mids are nice even though they're recessed" and the like. Reviews that talk about the sound directly.
8) At the same time, even reviews that talk about the sound directly are often worthless, because people do hear differently. Now, this is usually overblown - some people are complete subjectivists and use the whole "we all hear differently" schtick to basically mean that everything is good, and if anybody disagrees, it's like, your opinion, man, but the reality is that people generally hear similar things up to about 2khz, then between 2-4khz impressions start to diverge, and above 4khz it's pretty much a crapshoot, and we all hear the treble differently. Now, below 2k, our preferences still vary, so that even though we hear similar things, we may not prefer similar things.
9) So what does that mean for reviews? Are they all worthless? Well, sort of. It's why I don't bother writing them anymore. And I produced my fair share of crap back in the day believe me. But if you find someone who a) speaks the lingo that you understand b) has similar preferences to you and c) produces consistent impressions you can relate to, then follow that person. I have a few people who are go-tos for listening impressions, and I pay attention to what they're saying. Everyone else, not so much.
10) If you want to produce consistent impressions, live with something for a while. Avoid talking about it as soon as you get it. Your listening impressions really will change from day to day, based on mood, physical state, fit, inebriation, basically anything and everything. And often subtle problems are only noticeable in the long term. Of course, this is also a lesson I completely ignore at any and all times and will ignore in the future. But, as the old saying goes, do as Mullah says, not as Mullah does.
11) Even though reviews are largely worthless from most people, user experiences are not. Those you want to pay attention to quite closely. But also remember that users self-select when reporting them, meaning that a user that experiences a problem with product X is far more likely to come here and whine about it than a user who happily uses product X without any issues cropping up. So user experiences are an important sounding board for potential issues, but not a valid data point as to their frequency.
But if you find someone who a) speaks the lingo that you understand b) has similar preferences to you and c) produces consistent impressions you can relate to, then follow that person. I have a few people who are go-tos for listening impressions, and I pay attention to what they're saying. Everyone else, not so much.
There is no endgame only the endgame between your ears. After a certain point all is questionable, yet we somehow start to get answers.
1) Back in 2012 it was basically questionable if money spent above $500 on an IEM brought you an increase in sound-quality.
So back in 2012 and before......”Summit-Fi” almost didn’t exist for IEMs. I mean it did exist but few paid any real attention to it in 2008.
I remember simply ignoring the IEM table at my first Head-Fi meet. I may have even made a slight smirk, as I placed the newly released HD800 on my head. The IEM table was 5 feet away from the HD800 rig. And while the HD800 wasn’t really the sound for me, you couldn’t help realize that this was maybe the best it was ever going to sound. Not that $ is relevant, but it kinda is, especially if the cash is combined with synergy.
I was listening to a limited pressing of The Dark Side of the Moon, along with the HD800 from a Uber vinyl rig. It was priced at about $80,000. I mean it was there that I was able to ascertain the imaging and speed that it was capable of. It was warm yet detailed and focused. Part of my issue was stepping aside too, as maybe there is a reverse placebo taking effect when you absolutely know you would never buy such a system.
What is objective thought anyways? It’s a combination of the experience. Which in-turn will still have subjective pulls. Later I came to realize that my views on the listen were still accurate and seemed to follow future ideas, so I was right about the HD800. At least for myself anyway.
What happened to me?
I mean I was a full-size, full-fledged, full-power, full-soundstage, full-tone and..........card carrying member of the full-size headphone club.
Now I’m not.
I partake of a smaller world. A world where everything is smaller, yet you also become smaller while listening. And price does have something to do with it.........and at times it doesn’t.
Truly it still is always the interpretation of music. The technicalities are pace, timbre, tone, frequency response, decay, tonal balance, texture, imaging and attack transients.
Still you may ask how Frequency Response can be in technicalities when in truth there are two delineated realms? FR and technicality?
Because a section of Frequency Response if it’s even, correct and complete makes the technicalities even better. Still I’m amazed at how FR makes up 80% of happiness for many, regardless of IEM or full-size listening. Still also I’m amazed how one simple aspect of technicality can be off and it ruins the whole show.
Obviously this is what creates separation between the summit-fi crowd and the underlings of this hobby. Basically how real can you find the playback to be? Can this reality of playback be found with IEMs? Or is it an exclusive sound only to be found with a full-size listening experience?
Still something as simple as one, basically two intertwined attributes of a technicality can bring the whole shebang down to it’s knees. Not just the whole tone spectrum but instrument tone/timbre. Now obviously there is more to the equation of reality in playback, but this one is maybe one of the most noticeable? Obviously delay (room decay) makes another attribute! And of course there are all kinds of technicalities, some even don’t have a name yet!
The small vibration of a string, or sound of a hit on a drum. It’s a character we grew up with. Only if you never heard the correct way (like many of us haven’t) then you have no clue as to how correct is supposed to sound. It is this single factor which causes many a hobbyist to become ruined after one single Head-Fi meet. As once you hear how it’s supposed to be all those oceans of $50 IEMs will never sound the same.
So what happened to me in reference to full-size “Summit-Fi”? I left it kinda? I mean I still get the technicalities and FR with IEMs, yet there is something slightly missing. Though I know that it’s gone. I can’t name what it is, but it’s not there with IEMs. It may be simply resolution?
It's hard to be happy 100% of the time over a period of time (say 6 months+), no matter how much money you throw at this hobby. I am not aware of any audiophile who is happy 100% of the time with their gear. You are doing pretty well if you are 80-90% happy (this is a cue that you should stop chasing whatever you are chasing)
It's hard to be happy 100% of the time, no matter how much money you throw at this hobby. I am not aware of any audiophile who is happy 100% of the time with their gear. You are doing pretty well if you are 80-90% happy (this is a cue that you should stop chasing whatever you are chasing)
Well, I’m I am actually 100% happy? The question is actually WHY? Meaning full-size may or IEM may not give any advantage. What I have come down to realizing is this (Schiit) is almost 100% mental. Meaning it’s attitude and perspective. I have a common playback system which I truly never question......as it creates audio-bliss all the time? Probably not Summit-Fi, though this has been stable and going on since around 2018? Multitudes of 1000s of hours.
This is an older picture, I’m using a slightly different (new model) rendition of the same cable.
have mostly been reaching for the Solitaire P, as I'm getting more enjoyment out of listening sessions with it. Songs that sound good with the Susvara seem to sound even better with the SolP.
actually, you're right. even the TC might go. maybe divert the attention from Susvara and TC to a Stax X9000..
have mostly been reaching for the Solitaire P, as I'm getting more enjoyment out of listening sessions with it. Songs that sound good with the Susvara seem to sound even better with the SolP.
actually, you're right. even the TC might go. maybe divert the attention from Susvara and TC to a Stax X9000..
have mostly been reaching for the Solitaire P, as I'm getting more enjoyment out of listening sessions with it. Songs that sound good with the Susvara seem to sound even better with the SolP.
actually, you're right. even the TC might go. maybe divert the attention from Susvara and TC to a Stax X9000..
I can think of far worse complementary headphone pairings than Soli P and Stax X9000. Just too many ergonomic issues with the Soli P for me, or I'd almost certainly buy one!
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