[Sonido]

Someone told me at work they liked the sound of their Apple Earpods better than my HD800 the day it came in (I shipped to work so I can get an early listen

). Granted I only had my Audioengine D3 USB DAC/amp with me. I think it's more about untrained ears. Also there's bias, either conscious or not. That guy at work is a big Apple fanboy, so I'm not surprised the Earpods sound better. Even for me though, at this point I find it hard to really hear the amazingness all the time even from my HD800. But the moment I listen to cheaper headphones that I used to find decent like HD598, they sound like crap now. This stuff is like a drug. When you hear better sound, you get excited and endorphins are released, but you build up a tolerance cuz our bodies just can't let have fun all the time, so we're forced to get something even better to get that excitement again. It's definitely easier to hear the difference going backwards in quality.

 

[GoldfishX]

  Someone told me at work they liked the sound of their Apple Earpods better than my HD800 the day it came in (I shipped to work so I can get an early listen

). Granted I only had my Audioengine D3 USB DAC/amp with me. I think it's more about untrained ears. Also there's bias, either conscious or not. That guy at work is a big Apple fanboy, so I'm not surprised the Earpods sound better. Even for me though, at this point I find it hard to really hear the amazingness all the time even from my HD800. But the moment I listen to cheaper headphones that I used to find decent like HD598, they sound like crap now. This stuff is like a drug. When you hear better sound, you get excited and endorphins are released, but you build up a tolerance cuz our bodies just can't let have fun all the time, so we're forced to get something even better to get that excitement again. It's definitely easier to hear the difference going backwards in quality.

 
This is all well-put. I experienced that the other day going from the openness of the HD800 back to my Mad Dogs and thinking how veiled they sounded. Ditto for going back to my IEM setup, which I loved for several years (and I still think of the B2 as an HD800 in IEM form) But I think there's also a point of exhaustion...Where you just want the search to be over...at least temporarily. No more DAC's, no more amps, no more tubes to roll, just headphones on the head and music playing out of them. I think paying money to experience too many pairings with crap synergy is behind this.