New Members - Introduce Yourself

Welcome to Super Best Audio Friends!

This is a forum about audio gear, mostly headphones and personal audio gear. We are interested in realistic assessment and discussion through a combination of objective measurements and discerning subjective impressions. One of our goals is to seek out and destroy all crappy headphones or other gear. We want to hear music, not the inside of some <redacted> engineer's resonating <redacted> <redacted> hole.

If you're a new member, please do the following before posting, lest you're keen on walkin' the plank!!

1. Introduce yourself here
2. IMPORTANT: Take some time to lurk and learn the culture here before posting
3. Read the articles in the soapbox
4. Read the stickies at the top of the headphone measurement forum

This isn't an interrogation, we aren't judging you here. This is a get to know you thread, we are friendly and welcome new members. Just say a bit about yourself like what you do, or why you're interested in being part of a headphone forum, or what you think of the CSD measurements here, or your past experiences with headphones good/bad. Whatever seems relevant or appropriate for you. It's nice to have some background for new members before opinions start emerging out of arses.

 

A Note from LFF about Subjective and Objective Extremism.

The subjective versus objective debate is truly a question of origins. Before you continue reading this, ask yourself: "How did I come here to Super Best Audio Friends?" and then ponder what is your current goal of being here in this hobby.

Many people on various forums often portray the subjective versus objective debate as religion versus science with subjectivity being religious and objectivity being scientific. If you don't agree with these labels, then you too are labeled as being a fanatic in the religious camp.

The fact is that neither model has been established beyond a reasonable doubt. Whether we like it or not, those of us who subscribe to measurements do so by faith. Faith in the measurement equipment, in the operator and in the programs. Those who argue that the design of the ear and the built-in biological differences allow each of us to hear differently and thus invalidate objectivity, are not arguing from subjective beliefs, but rather science that is based upon empirical observation and logic.

So why even squabble about subjectivity versus objectivity? What does it matter at the end of the day? Should it matter what we believe is true? ABSOLUTELY!

Even more important than what we believe to be true is what actually is true. Someone might not believe in gravity, for example. Nevertheless, if that person were to step off the empire state building, that person would fall to the ground below, regardless of what they believed. While it may be true that neither model has been established as pure fact, one model has had more empirical observation and logic applied to it than the other - both biologically, mechanically, theoretically and has had many studies in the areas of biomechanics, physics, biology and engineering. And so, once again, we have the question: Why are you here on SBAF? Are you here to learn with an open mind? Are you here to disprove what you believe is false? If it's the first one, then welcome and enjoy your stay. If it's the second, please visit Head-Fi.com, they are more your kind of people, until they eventually kick you out too.

We are here because we don't rely on hearsay. We invite all people to investigate the evidence for themselves and draw their own conclusions after analyzing both the objective and subjective aspects of the hobby. We do not approach anyone with a "holier than thou" view. We just don't believe in anything holy. Nothing is perfect.

 

Hi I'm new here. Is this where I ask for EQ profiles for my Beats? 

 

Hi! I'm new here but have been into audio for a little while now. I've mainly focused on headphones recently just cause they're easy to cycle through but have settled on investing more into my speaker system. I mostly like to listen to music with vocals and enjoy jazz every now and again. I'm currently waiting for some new gear to get built so have been listening to a very simple Abbas dac.1se + burson funk + SB Acoustics ARA. I mostly listen nearfield with that setup but I also have a NAD M51 + Schiit Aegir + Klipsch Forte IV for the living room. Looking forward to learning more from everyone's experiences.

 

Hi from Sweden!

I'm a 37 year old, music loving audiophile. After having quit facebook, where I used to post in different audio groups, I missed talking and exchanging ideas about my hobby, so I started looking for a new place to do this and after having read some of the threads on this forum before I decied to join.

I'm a vinyl collector but also a big headphone enthusiast. I currently enjoy listening to music on the following gear

Audeze LCD-2C headphones
Gustard X16 DAC
Auralic Aries Mini Streamer, powered by a sBooster linear PSU.
Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2 through which I feed the Gustard X16 an I2S signal.
Feliks Audio Echo Mk2 amp
Garage 1217 Polaris amp

and some other stuff...

Recently, have been listening a lot however, on my Schiit stack
Modi muiltibit and Vali2, with a Haltron E88CC tube which was made by Mullard. Basically a Mullard tube with the Haltron brand and therefore cheaper.

I also love my Grado RS2i headphones and my Beyerdynamic DT880 600ohm.

Sometimes I write about headphones and speakers on a swedish website called prisjakt, which is website that lists prices for all kinds of stuff, something like pricerunner och pricespy.

I'm hoping I will be able to contribute to this forum with some of my knowledge.

That's all for now.

 

Allow me to reintroduce myself.

Started the hobby believing YouTube vloggers, and headfi shills. I now know, not everything is good, let alone great. Many things have gone over my heard when I first started.

Since joining, I've read many of threads and listened to huge amount of music recommendations. Currently my gear is a Yamaha Headphone 3 and a Vali 1 but maybe I am just more cynical now.. I don’t see myself upgrading from this for a very long time, and just diving into the speaker world later on. But I think it is still fun to try new things on loaners.

Most of my time in the hobby now is spent discovering new music and building a cd and vinyl collection. Those I don’t think I will ever cycle through.

 

Hi from New York.

I am a long-time, nearly ancient headphone forum lurker. I’ll date myself by noting I went to the first national head-fi meet in 2006 and saw “legends” like Mikhail Rotenberg of Singlepower, Ray Samuels of RSA, and Dr. Rudi (can’t remember his last name) of Rudistor. I’m proud to say I never posted enough verbal diarrhea about the nuances of rectifier tubes to attain headphoneus supremus status at the silly site.

I bought and sold an embarrassing amount of equipment until 2014, when I stopped, happy with HD800s, an Apex Teton and an EC 4-45.

I’m now primarily interested in figuring out whether my DAC, a PS Audio Perfect Wave, Mk 1 upgraded to Mk2, has been surpassed by new DACs at a lower price point and whether there’s a diamond in the rough among the thousands of iems on the market these days.

 

Hello, I am new here and already grateful for all the threads here. Started my journey searching for better sounding/isolating headphones so I could block out the shitstorm that is my open office. Had noise cancelling headphones but quickly developed a bad vertigo problem. This kind of made me adamant in finding great sounding gear as the previous was such a bad experience for me. Switched away from them to a pair of IEM’s (Starfields). Didn’t care too much for the inside my head sound. Also got a portable chifi DAC for these which made everything much worse- this is where I discovered the treble fuckery which I so much hate now. It also taught me to avoid CHIFI for the most part. I work in supply chain and manufacturing for fitness products and deal with Chinese factories a lot. My experience with most Chinese manufacturers has been spec sheet first and foremost (balanced in relation to maximum cost reduction) and real-world implementation is left to the customer along with proper QA and product life cycle length.

Bought some 560s headphone as per the marketing hype train that these produced. Thought they were okay at first but then the treble fuckery and sibilance of these bothered me for extended listens (8+ hrs a day in office). Found SBAF through trying to find people who also found 560’s troublesome.

After I found yall and reading through a ton of the forum I bought a JOT 2 with the modular ESS DAC and 6xx headphones. AHHHHH Much better. My father is very into 2 channel audio so he has always had good gear in which I could use as a target sound.

I am still looking into getting much more gear (Most of the gear beside the DAC would probably be sub 1k price).

-First order of business is to get good closed headphones under $500 – trying to find ZMF classics currently
- standalone DAC (probably R2R) for 2 channel setup
-Speakers to pair with bedroom projector Setup (possibly active monitors, but worried about their constant amp hiss)
-HT Speakers (possibly going to go DIY Paul Carmody’s MTM but worried about some of the metal tweeters and my treble sensitivities)
-2 channel speakers if want to separate HT from 2channel
- Got an old Carver amp from the era right before it went kind of downhill but looking to upgrade this also to probably Schiit power amps

Anyways I believe my hatred for treble fuckery and sibilance should fit well here. I prefer natural sound over neutral sound and most other sonic characteristics

 

Hi from Hong Kong.

I current have a gear for portable use but i decide to step in CAS. I enjoy my Xelento Remote with my NW-WM1A quite well but I just cant hear it for more than one hour. Recently Im more willing to use my K712 Pro plug with my PC directly since it is more relax. Then I look for a DAC to build my CAS, that why Im here.

By weeks searches on internet, I brought the Soekris 2541 as my first DAC for PC and it should be arrived in next month(I guess). Probably will upgrade my headphone and amp later.

As english is not my native language, please excuse my stupid mistake or misunderstanding.

 

Hi from Thailand.

I'm 37 years old, who just back to audio equipments hobby.

Back in 2012-2017 I started in this hobby with some f'ing Beats headphones and then got lured by head-fi into Chi-fi and stuck in freaking rabbit hole for a while until I found Shure SE846 and soon after go with freaking LS50 and never look back.

2018-2020 was hard years for me so I didn't have time for this hobby. Then because of work condition I looked into some sort of ANC headphones hope it will sound good. Finally got WH1000-XM4 first and it didn't sound good to me so I switched to Apple AirPods Max not long after and still didn't satisfy but anyway still listenable.

Then 2021 according to my work condition have to go around the country in many offices and hotels so I start to looking to something that may sound better. So I started off with Hifiman Deva and when compare to AirPods Max or XM4 the Hifiman sound like heaven.

Then saw a lot of people said that those wireless headphones are not even comparable to something wired that cost about 50% less. So I go for Sundara then Ananda then Arya and then think Planar is the best. Then saw freaking YouTuber list Focal Clear which have dynamic driver in S tier, basically I just want to prove them wrong that no freaking Dynamic driver can sound that good no way. After few day with the Clear I liked it too much that I ended up with f'ing Utopia god damn it.

I started off in DAC/AMP route with Freaking Topping a lot of Topping because read too much ASR review and fully believe that all good solid state dac/amp should sound the same. Until I want to prove someone else wrong again bought f'ing Mojo think it will sound same or worst than my beloved Toppings. Then f'ing realized that I'm so f'ing stupid even this little thing sound much better than f'ing Toppings I had. I make my kilobuck can sounded like one. And then went with Hugo 2 not much impress and people in head fi keep saying f'ing iFi Micro iDSD BL is comparable to Hugo 2 I'm so upset no way not way these f'ing DAC/AMP with outdated dac chip from snake oil company can complete with the compute power of my beloved Chord. Then I bought Micro BL and man tbh they sounded good.

That my story.

 

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum.

My name is citylion. I got into this hobby a few years back. I now have the LCD-X, STAX L300Limited, and my latest purchase was a used set of HD8XX.

Each one of them have their benefits and detriments. I'm still going back and forth with them all, but I will say that I like the HD8XX a lot more than I anticipated.
HD 8XX wins on soundstaging, top end detail is nice - but not perfect - and bass is present - but a bit underwhelming. Vocals sound quite large, and are more forward than I expected.

LCD-X's benefit is that it has very good quality bass, paired with a nice amount of quantity. Top end is pretty detailed as well. Soundstage and imaging are a bit lacking, and the headphone is not very forgiving to poorly mixed tracks - (I suppose it is marketing as a mastering headphone after all..)

The STAX I got my hands on (second hand - but good condition) have very good imaging and detail retrieval. Sub-bass is anemic and I could not fix it with EQ without making the rest of the FR sound different. Which is to say, I could not resolve this problem. STAX midrange and top end is very enjoyable. Imaging and transients are the best I've ever heard.

I live in Chicago, and look forward to canjam here next year.

 

Hello folks,

I'm from Atlantic Canada, and I've been lurking for a long time. For the last year I've been using a Focal Clear that I really enjoy. I just got ahold of an HD6XX and it sounded incredible out of my EC Black Window 2 and I wanted to try it out on my other amps. I made the mistake of plugging it into a Lyr 3 that is faulty. Well, it blew the bass frequencies out and I'm super disappointed. I want to ask if anyone had a similar experience and if they were able to remedy it somehow, but first I have to post here.

Anyway I hope to contribute my experiences to SBAF in the future.

 

Hi. I came here because my friend was active here. I don't fully believe frequnecy response(diffent coupler makes different FR, and target is just target), and I know that not everyone else's opinion can be my opinion. In the end, listening experience is the most important before comment.

Also evaluation has to admit that each individual is different.

 

Hi, I came here to find, purchase, maybe even trade and discuss audio gear. I am also searching for the best equipment, within a reasonable budget, to experience my favorite music. Right now, I enjoy orchestral Ace Attorney tracks, sometimes the synth-heavy ones too, pretty much anything from Monster Hunter, Lamb of God's Duke, and 1986 Omega Tribe's Older Girl. It can get eclectic.

 

So, how do you become a "Friend" vs "Rando" ? Honestly, I've seen several posts that contain degrading comments regarding users who bear "Rando" status. Its not a very welcoming feeling and it makes me feel ashamed to have that label applied.

 

Hi, from Malaysia here.

I'm 38 years old, have been into hifi since 17 years old. I'm in here for more reviews of new/old stuff to broaden my knowledge of the vast hifi world, as not all of us could try almost all equipments out there.

Listening using stereo system mainly, with genre covering classical, jazz, vocal, bossa nova, I am using both hi-res/TIDAL/vinyl as my source for all these audio pieces.

Cheers!

 

Finally got around to joining. Some of you may know me from Head-Fi. I still have a STAX SR-009 rig and a Realiser A16, but now I'm mostly back into 2-channel listening. These days I'm keeping things simple with Roon ROCK on a Intel NUC and a pair of Dutch & Dutch 8c's as my mains. With my current systems, I'm spending less time worrying about upgrading and more time listening to music. Who knows, maybe I'm finally a "recovering" audiophile. Message me if you want to chat.