Upgraditis

I used to spend a ton of time on a variety of guitar forums, the jazz guitar forum, tdpri.com, and of course the gear page. There was a term, GAS, short for gear acquisition syndrome that came up pretty often. On head-fi.org, however, the term I see used a lot is upgraditis. I have a case of upgraditis right now for sure!

The headphone I chose to get myself going on this audio journey was the AKG k601. It is well reviewed as being a solid all rounder, particularly good at classical/jazz/acoustic types of music, is comfortable. It isn't great with rock although I wouldn't say it is bad at this. It just doesn't thump so the music is missing something. Naturally, in the last few weeks AKG have come out with a new flagship, the 65th Aniversary Edition K702. The thing looks stellar!

They are getting really solid reviews on head-fi and it seems like they would solve my bass problem but also preserve much of what I love about the k601 (mainly soundstage and imaging). Of course they are $500!! And while they probably sound better than the k601 that I have, the probably don't sound that much better... But, I will probably end up with them eventually! That is the nature of this audiophile hobby. Lots of stuff that you don't really need that you somehow figure out how to justify. Pretty fun!

Sharing the experience

Today was thanksgiving (2012) and my brother-in-law came over with his wife for dinner. Now, he's a pretty techy sort of guy and is into music, audio, speakers, etc. He's not obsessive or anything but he cares about how things sound - he's a movie producer and editor, so he has professional interest as well. I invited him to have a listen to my gear as it stands right now - nothing amazing, but certainly solid and better than any headphone jack. Now he was impressed, but not blown away and that is when I realized... you need to be a particular type of ocd to appreciate things like slight differences in sound-stage and imaging. I am a pretty detailed oriented person, but I guess I might have to find a new adjective to describe my interest in music listening. Oh well - at least there's head-fi!

We all start somewhere...

When I graduated from college, a family friend gave me a pretty good size gift certificate to amazon.com and I blew on the bose triports. This was the first substantial investment I had made in a pair of headphones and I thought they were amazing. I wore them for years and years until the leatherette on the earpads began to flake off giving me the dreaded "black dandruff." Eventually, I ended up with the px100 as my replacement, as they sounded great and were pretty cheap. I used them for a long time, then one day, I tried them against the triports. I couldn't believe how bad the triports sounded in comparison - there was no compeitition. That's when I realized that all the bose bashing on the audiophile forums was authentic. I will give comfort to the triports though, talk about a minimalistic, lightweight, and comfortable design!

Welcome to Becoming Audiophile

For a long time now, I've been into music and the gear that you use to both make and listen to music. Headphones, speakers, cables, amplifiers, stereos, subwoofers, computers, cd players, tape players, mini-disc players, DAPs, the list of audio gear goes on and on and on. And some of this stuff is expensive! Like seriously expensive - more expensive than a car, and in rare situations, even more expensive than some homes. But beginner audiophiles don't need to spend a lot, particularly if you are willing to buy used. This blog is going to focus on my own experiences researching audio gear, developing my listening setup, and my general thoughts on all things audiophilia. We are going to keep things cheap. If you are looking for reviews of $25000 cd transports, this is not the place to look. But if you are interested in a great DAC for less than $1000 or less the $500 or even less than $100 this blog should be an interesting read!