What It Really Means To Be Real, i.e. What Gear Do We Actually Use

Mine's a trio of source components purchased all around the same time in relatively short succession: Music Hall CD25, Music Hall MMF-2.1LE, and Rega P3. I spent a bunch of time modding the CD25 (diodes, op amps, case and transport damping, yada yada) and it was still bright, etched, and the most fatiguing digital sound I've ever heard in my system. Then spent multiple trips to a local shop (and $$) to get 3 different cartridges aligned on the MMF2.1 thinking decent vinyl was the cure to my digititus. No matter what alignment protocol I or the shop tried, the IGD was just horrid. I even threw a cartridge worth more than the table at it (sumiko blue point), at the suggestion of my local shop... Sold it all on a'gon for $400 and took a haircut to try a well esteemed Rega deck. The P3 was bought used, but I still spent so much time trying to get that piece of garbage to not sound like a lifeless tin-can that I sold it for $350 just to get rid of the headache.

Edit: I should add one of the funniest experiences I had on A'gon was when I sold the P3 for so cheap, I had some dude hit me with negative feedback because he thought I sold the TT broken. He didn't even try to buy it! Sorry, man, it just sounded like shit to me. The guy wouldn't drop it and got me kicked off a'gon since "there's no way a properly functioning P3 should be sold for so cheap, because it besmirches the brand". I'm not kidding... f**k that joint.

 

Worst, expensive acquisition, Auralic Vega DAC. Impeccable measurements according to Stereophile. I have kept it and it is on the EC ZDSE along with Schiit Yggdrasil A2. Easy A/B between meh and stellar sounding conversion.

 

I think ZMF Aeolus for me, which is strange because they are very good. I was at Canjam and made a snap judgment based on a single listen after they made me see daffodils and virgins on some random vendor's chain. Once I bought a pair I ended up favoring HD650's on my home setup. They sat for months before they became WTS:. Not a ZMF failing, just poor judgment on my part.

 

Several cheap ChiFi IEMs (cheap = < 150€) plus cables to use them on the 2.5mm balanced output of the dongle I had then. Didn’t have much money to spend, wanted to try new stuff, believed stories about how unbelievably great those were. Didn’t really lose much money, but it was around 250 € all in all that I could have spent on stuff that actually sounds good.

At least I learned that I can’t stand IEMs in my ears for longer than an hour or so.

 

Oh we certainly wouldn't want any of that going on around here either

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I think I've been fortunate enough to not really have any massive regrets in audio so far (fountain pens, on the other hand...). If anything, the main thing that I'm regretting is selling off the Bifrost MB I got off Elnrik for a Friend price locally (I didn't need the money quite so badly) and eventually moving to a Modi 3+ after spending some time back on the Micro iDSD serving desktop DAC duty-- I'd actually sold the iFi, but they'd lent it back to me for a bit.

Don't get me wrong, the Modi outresolves the Bifrost in stellar fashion and likely has a far more "pleasing to many" FR, but while I could just well be talking out of the wrong end I do miss how the Bifrost did staging. I'm more or less set on getting a Bifrost 2 or 2/64 one of these days as finances allow, but for the moment the desktop rig I'm currently running is enough for me to be able to sit back and get all emotional listening to music, which is the whole friggin point!

(Oh, I do love the original golden banana Campfire Audio Solaris to bits-- it's very close to perfect for me and I'm very contented with it just out of an Apple dongle [though of course my greedy self is looking at nicer LDAC receivers, sigh], but my luck with them is somehow well in the negatives. They're off for repairs a second time in a year; I sent them off via local distributor back in Feb and Portland still hasn't confirmed receipt, aaaaagh)

 

Noted. Is there something that you can recommend?

I don't need to cope with rock-concert levels, only too-loud-for-me. I'd like something easier than stuffing cotton-wool in my ears.

Strange sales technique! Did they use actual virgins and daffs, or did they force you to look at pictures?

besmirchment is our motto

 

My regrets are:

#1) Wasting so much time "researching" on forums rather than just going out and listening to stuff.

#2) Wasting so much time on hi-fi generally. Listening sessions are not wasted time however.

#3) Trying and buying so much cheap to mid stuff when I should've just bit the bullet and gone big earlier (and probably saved money).

#4) Buying things for very particular uses that I never ended up needing anyway. "Walking around HPs." "Gym HPs when I don't want to use IEMs." "HPs for when I stay at my friend's place." "Low-profile IEMs for when laying down."

Etc, etc, etc. All just rationalizing retail therapy. Which is why I have accumulated the following I never to rarely, rarely ever use: HD25, Amperior, Noble Drop X, Onkyo something or other, Nu-Force something or other. Beats something or other. The list stretches on.

#5) Related: Buying just b/c it was cheap or "a deal."

#6) FOTMing without listening first. Never got on with the Jotunheim 1, for example, and had to buy to find that out.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Protection-C...&qid=1686746879&sprefix=hearos,aps,107&sr=8-3

 

All of my open backs. The vast majority of the time I need isolation, so they just sit in the closet.

 

This is what I use for sleeping when someone is hammer-drilling the wall! Pretty effective at blocking almost any noise. If I used them at a concert I wouldn't hear anything.

 

Not really expensive, but my biggest regret is still the 600 Ohm DT990s I bought shortly after building my Crack. I thought I’d get another high impedance headphone in addition to my HD650s to use with the amp. Big mistake, they sounded terrible. Lifeless, piercing, and insipid. I’ve tried them with every amp I’ve owned and demoed and always the same story. I held out hope Folkvangr could do something with them. No luck. And they’re still sitting there on the shelf reminding me that they exist and are still awful.

 

Best purchases:

• Shanling M6 Ultra gets the most play time of all my gear. Mainly at work with the Euclid, but I find myself using it at home with the LCD-X over my Gungnir Multibit and liquid platinum.
• Etymotic ER20 lets me enjoy concerts without worrying about my hearing. Especially useful when I'm right up in front of a metal show.

Worst purchases:

• Monoprice stuff. I've got a pair of Monoprice subwoofers, the liquid platinum, and I had an M1060. All their stuff is very functional, pragmatic, and alright. It does what it says it'll do. When I buy this stuff, at first I felt like I got a killer deal... but then given some time, all of it feels like it's missing a bit of a sparkle, some kind of wow factor. When I moved on to REL subs or to the LCD-2, now those guys had a bit of dazzle to them.
• Moondrop Starfield. I've got this and a Nekocake with me in India, the $35 airpod clone sounds better.

 

The various Beyerdynamic DT48 headphones I had.

After finding out that those things could sound good, then looking for information (dorks being dorky) and finding out that Beyerdynamic no longer cares about these things and the cult attached to the DT48.

I thought the Ultrasone fanclub was bad. I enjoyed the DT48 for a while but not enough to keep. Imagine being stuck with a few of them and not knowing whether you can sell them or trade them.

When something in a hobby has a cult following that is seriously fanatical, count me out. Just no.

 

I recently got the Etymotic ER20XS, slightly better than the ER20 (at least lower profile sticking out the ear so less chance to bump them on something), but still roll off too much treble so you feel like your head is in a bucket.

The best tonal balance I can get with volume reduction is to fold/roll up pieces of tissues into earplug shapes, but not as fat. Moisten them with spit to hold them together. Stick them in your ears so you get a small gap that allows some direct sound into your ears (this lets in some highs). Play around with the depth and gap size until it sounds right. I know, a PITA, but this is the only thing I've found that lets me watch TOO LOUD movies in theatres and still lets me hear what's going on. Convenience is that even if you forget to bring your own tissues, you can go to the restroom and get some TP. I think Tyll swore by tissues, I just added the gap to help even out the tonal response.

 

At @yotacowboy's request, I mentioned a friend who went down the Summit-Fi rabbit hole and forms the basis of a cautionary tale.

This friend, call them Holden, was always disinterested in small risks, but at the same time, had a strange tolerance for big ones. This paid off handsomely one day when they became a bitcoin millionaire. Pockets full and triggered by Covid, he moved his family from a blue state to a red and in Holden's words, began a search to "fill emptiness with audio."

Their long loved Emotiva and LCD-2 + Senn setup no longer cut it with unlimited funds, and they jumped headlong into Summit-Fi and slowly began to spend a fortune. The first major jump came when they bought Susvara and Hugo TT2, which they were happy with but Summit-Fi swore you needed more power, so then came a pair of monoblock Benchmark AHB2's. TT2 was not the best DAC Chord made, so then came DAVE. After blowing out a driver on Sus and getting it repaired (nice support by HFM), they had a moment of realization when they saw they'd spent over $25k on audio equipment and decided they were "end game."

But then six months after came Envy, and of course only with Elrog and unobtanium tubes. And then the idea of an HD800, which previously they weren't a fan of, came back around. And a Sabre-X, because why not. And exotic cables and power supplies. They do certainly have a most grand setup, definitely the top, but I am still not convinced they are happier than when they had their Emotiva and Senn, and I suspect neither are they. Honestly, I too probably was just as happy with Vali 2 + Modi as with whatever I have now.

 

I can't actually say what their system synergy is because they have so many systems and so many headphones. They also have had at various times or currently have Atrium, I think D8000's, probably Abyss 1266 at some point, I lose track. Again, 100% shopping spree. The fascinating thing is how freely they admit that their interest is not healthy. I'm probably an enabler also because they ask me for tasting notes on different things all the time and I'll make thoughtless remarks like "Yeah that Blue Hawaii Special Edition with Stax was quite unusual at Canjam." I then get kicked under the table by our other friend, "Why would you say that shit to him? What is wrong with you?" But he doesn't need my help. He's always entertaining I think 5 or 6 options, the Summit-fi maniacs are enough. But one interesting omission from any purchase he has made: anything Schiit.

 

The more I read stuff like this the more I realize the real winners are those who make it out of the other side of the tunnel with minimal "extra" time and money spent / wasted on this or really, any hobby.

I have no problem with someone spending 6 figures on a wild speaker system if it's actually good and it brings 6 figures worth of "happy" into their lives. I have no problem with people getting 2nd or 3rd systems where they are warranted. I do get slightly annoyed when people spend $1000 on this hobby aimlessly though or just to say they bought X piece of gear. Same thing with time spent, but I feel like that's much more of a slippery slope in this hobby and it's also going to depend heavily on your educational + professional background.

 

To paraphrase John Fowles, we might prefer to be good at golf but hate the game, so you're covered on the course or off.

Holden, in the case of my story, is someone who was not good at golf but loved the game, and would have been satisfied only playing on weekends had they only avoided making enough money to buy the best golf clubs and pro trainers, in which case they never meet their own expectations.

 

Interesting, please elaborate.