[JasonZ10]

Were you once audio ignorant? Did you buy headphones such as Skullcandys or Beats? Would you settle for ibuds? Are you now into good quality brands discussed on this very website? If you answered yes to some of these questions then this is the topic for you!

What did you have before you became conscious with your audio equipment choices? What do you have now?


Me:

I once had Skullcandy FMJ's, I tried out the Skullcandy Aviators (When they were still $80. Lol profit margins) for a day and hated em' because of their "lack of bass" (my old excuse), and I even had Beats Solo HD's for a little while. I also settled for iBuds all the time.
Now my setup consists of Sennheiser HD598's (My gateway to audiophilism), HD 25-1 ii's, FiiO E9 and E7, yet I still want more. Being an Audiophile is addicting. I always want more headphones for different things. Right now I used my HD598's for Gaming, listening to speaking (podcasts, youtube videos), and rock music. I use the HD 25's for all of my techno and rap music and for portability/traveling.



Now it's your turn.

 

[wind016]

I used to own Skullcandy Skullkrushers because the vibrators were interesting. I do miss having vibrators on my Stax and Audio Technicas.

 

[olor1n]

Should've made this thread after you upgraded from the FiiO gear.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Relax FiiO fan boys, it's a joke.

 

[JasonZ10]

Quote:

Should've made this thread after you upgraded from the FiiO gear.

Relax FiiO fan boys, it's a joke.

Hey, I'm poor and young

 

[PleasantNoise]

I have a different take on this I guess, I was always aware, well I'd been told about how there were things such as studio monitors used for mixing on because of flat response (or close to it) and hifi etc. When I first started actively listening to music at about 12, I didn't really know what SQ was, nor of all the dynamics, nuances etc in music, despite having a mother who plays and listens to alot of classical music, I just never paid attention much (inactive listening)
anyway, listening to music has been a sort of journey, in multiple directions, I was given an Ipod for my 13th birthday, and got rid of the ibuds after 2 days, couldn't stand how loud they had to be, to hear what sounded like nothing to me (probably to do with the 128kps mp3s I was using too, out of ignorance, and not knowing, but I could immediately tell that the music on my ipod lacked something to my mothers classical music on a proper stereo. So I bought Ultimate ears Metro Fi150's as I could afford them, and saw a good review of them somewhere, made a big difference. and didn't think about them for about 3 years.
at 15, I picked up guitar, and from learning to play, theory etc, My music taste changed dramatically, from indie, alt rock, to metal, then to more progressive metal, after 2 years, I was listening to progressive metal, some of which has alot of jazz elements complex chords, chromatic runs, polyrhythms, compound time signatures etc. and then one day, I turned up to my guitar lesson, and my teacher had his jazz drummer and bassist round, they were rehearsing for a gig, so he showed me how the chord progressions in the grade 5 book I've been learning can easily be turned into a song.
drummer played a beat, jazz played the chord progression as arpeggios and my guitar teacher played a really simple, well played jazz solo over. afterwards, I spent days searching up jazz musicians and bands, this also coincided with my brother going out and buying a nice set of stereo speakers, And they really wowed me. I was missing so much by using computer speakers, crappy headphones etc.
So I started googling, led to head-fi, been learning, waiting till I find a rig I'm happy with sinking some money into, I've been listening to all the nice headphones I can lay my hands on here, not many, I borrowed some AKG's off my guitar teacher, which were really nice, and limited budget resulted in me getting Samson Sr850s, which are nice, but I can hear how much there is to improve.
I really prefer headphones over speakers, because most of my listening happens late at night, after 11pm. so Headphones seem the only sensible route to go down.
Can't wait to hear some really proper hi-fi.
The journey is only beginning, I see a long, expensive, and wonderful road ahead of me.
 

 

[tdockweiler]

I've learned a heck of a lot over the years.
One thing I sure wish I had done earlier when I started out is to get a desktop amp sooner. When I was new it felt about as fun as buying a new computer power supply.
I now know more about synergy and totally believe in this. There is no point in getting an amp if it doesn't play well with the headphone you plan on using it for. Based on my experience you can often have a headphone amp that sounds great with the HD-650, but total garbage with the K702!
 
Right now I totally don't believe that the more you spend on a headphone, the better sound you get. Sure you do, but it's all diminishing returns past $200. People also seem to think that the more expensive the headphone is, the more detail you get. I NEVER found this to be true.
 
I think high quality portable amps are severely under-appreciated here and everyone seem to think you need a $300 desktop amp just to drive an HD-600. IMO this is non-sense! I think some of our headphones are not as hard to drive as people make them out to be. I think synergy also is important. I felt the Total Airhead drove the HD-650 just fine..so sue me. I DID upgrade my desktop amp to make it sound better though.
 
The main rule I use now is to take everyone's opinion on here with a grain of salt. Half the time you don't know if they really heard the headphone or not. Then their entire source/DAC/amp can totally effect how it sounds. You have some poor synergy, then of course the headphone is going to sound bad for them. Then I think there are more variations between pairs of headphones than we want to think. Then there is this idea of burn-in. I'm a believe that some headphones sound bad out of the box. It's rare though.
 
I also have found that cables make a heck of a lot of improvements. I stopped believing people and tried lots of different wire with my own ears. All of them sounded different. How? I don't know. I wish all wire for recables sounded the same. It'd make my life easier.
 
I now wish I had used ONLY a PC DAC sooner. I've owned one for years, but never liked to use one. Now I can't go without one. A good DAC/source is one of the biggest improvements you can make other than getting a new headphone! Now it feels as if I'm missing out on a lot when I don't use one. I plan on upgrading to a better one soon. I've always been a fan of using CDs.
 
I also now learn (and believe) that an amp CAN actually alter a headphones signature very very slightly. Barely, but I noticed this with a lot of different amps. Not enough to completely transform them or make a big difference in graphs though. Of course I always felt a soundstage can increase in size with a good amp too. Never experienced that with the HD-650 though!
 
Then I recently discovered that it's possible for a source to give specific headphones bloated bass. I was shocked when I discovered this! Who would have thought the Ipod Touch 2G was so bassy? Sometimes I wonder how many people have non-neutral gear and then complain that a headphone is too harsh or has too much bass. Happened to me!
 
Then what makes things annoying is that there have been a ton of headphones out there that are supposedly sooo easy to drive yet sound bad from portable devices and really need desktop amps to shine. I discovered this with the D2000, ATH-AD2000 and now the DJ100. Heck even the M50 had a lot of benefit from my desktop amp!
 
Most important thing I've found, is that the best headphones are the ones that are the least well known and are severely under-appreciated. Stuff like the Maxell DHP-II, Beyerdynamic DT-235, K501, DJ100 and K240 Studio come to mind.
 
Oh yeah..it's always a good idea to TRY and ignore those who think you can't have good audio on a budget. Just remember, with every amp I purchased, there will always be someone to come and make it look bad. Got it with the Asgard and now the Micro Amp. Now it's the Fiio stuff.

 

[jupitreas]

I'd like to think I'm still very much an ignoramus compared to what I'll know in just a few years time...
Before I became aware of what brands make a good sounding headphone, I generally used low-price earbuds like the ones that came with my music players at the time (ie. audio cassette players, it was a while ago). They would break quite often so I'd replace them often and probably went through about 20 of them during my youth. The brands included Panasonic, Philips and Sony, I'm sure of that, but I don't remember the rest. Eventually, I bought a Sennheiser earbud when on a trip to Germany. I was amazed how much better it sounded than all the other earbuds I've tried in the past and this is what started my journey into audiophilia. I guess this is a somewhat modest story, but its mine.

 

[LFF]

Hey....we all need to start somewhere.
 
Before I joined here I was happy playing 96k MP3's on my 256MB RCA Lyra player and I listened to this glorious set-up with $2 Coby earbuds.
 
Now, I have finally settled on some endgame orthos and my portable rig consists of HifiMan HM-601/Sansa Clip+, Mystify amp and DBA-02's/Jerry Harvey UE-10's and everything I play on there is FLAC lossless.

 

[Parall3l]

Me before head fi : The beats look so good ! It must sound good, I mean, its made by Dr Dre.
 
Future me : *kick past me between the legs  Jecklin Float is much more sexy, idiot.

 

[Croozer]

Should've made this thread after you upgraded from the FiiO gear.

LOL, you still mad because you spent more money for the same sound?

 

[nikp]

 IEM brands I know of:
 
Before: Sennheiser, Monster, Ultimate Ears, Apple, Sony. (Because retail stores usually sell them)
 
After: In addition to ^ , Westone, Unique Melody, JH Audio, 1964 Ears, Audio Technica, Shure, etc.

 

[Gwarmi]

Blew up 4 different pairs of ibuds before starting my search.
 
Always had fond memories of an uncle's Focal speaker / Bang Olufsen vintage CD player setup back in France
so that may have triggered something in the back of my mind.
 
Various Sony and Sennheiser iem's in the $70-$80AUD range, better but nothing special.
 
Sennheiser HD 515, Wireless RF, and HD 201 - sold the first, returned the wireless and threw
the HD 201 in the garbage.
 
Bought an SR80i and the rest is history..

 

[olor1n]

Quote:

Quote:

Should've made this thread after you upgraded from the FiiO gear.

LOL, you still mad because you spent more money for the same sound?

 
Is that you Andy?
 
 

 

[Croozer]

 
Is that you Andy?

LOL,You still mad?

 

[NiTramZ]

2 years ago i thought the apple earphones sounded great.... fast forward 2 years im enjoying the hd 598's with fiio e7/e9 amp. The hd5xx series seem to be where alot of people start their audiophile journey.
 
Slighty off topic but i have this growing gut feeling that my wallet will hurt alot over the next 2 years >.0 hehe