Oh, Gawd. We can’t always listen to Diana Krall/London Philharmonic/Hotel California/Daft Punk at 24/192. Enjoy the beats!!
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I’ve tried the whole hotel California/daft punk as an “audiophile standard”, can’t do it. Not an EDM fan but some of it is mesmerizing and would make better standards.
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Should create a documentary about enlightened audiophiles entitled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music.”
Oh dear, now that’s a topic in and of itself.
Awesome pictures BTW.
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Ive recently purchased some planar headphones after reading this review.
Must say it is an expensive hobby though
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It can be, but not as expensive as a full 2 channel system for the home vs a headphone system, but one can put together a good sounding system to fit any wallet. It all depends on how far down the rabbit hole one wants to go.
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A pair of Focal Elex/HD6xx and a Modi/magni or Atom stack is an amazing amount of fidelity for the cash.
Heck, a Elegia, Atom combo costs even less, is ah-maze-ing for the price, and can go mobile!!
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Love this thread!
For me it’s music =)
More specifically, emotion out of music. The more emotion a headphone/speaker setup can transfer, the better. I quite literally chase the eargasmic feeling from audio equipment - if a headphone can trigger this feeling, then it’s doing its job for me.
While I do find the hi-end gear very interesting technically-wise, I am not a gear geek, I see gear more as a tool for enjoying music. I must say, I am more of a listener.
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Yes, emotional eargasms are what it’s about! I’m with you on chasing that which evokes emotion.
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Plain simple: the music 
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I just read your post and had a deja vu.
In addition to the tape recorder, my father gave me a tape from Elvis.
And from my uncle I got a turntable and a Bay City Rollers record.
That’s how it all started.
Yes, for me this hobby is primarily about music, BUT, over the years, it became more and more a search for perfection for its reproduction.
Depending on your level of knowledge, experience and income, it will probably continue to increase in the future.
Like almost every hobby in which we invest a lot of time, this is also characterized by constant progress and forums like this one can quickly become a “fire accelerator” 
.
I took a bit of time and read a lot here 
, and found that some of you here have allowed yourself an incredible increase in audio equipment both in quantity and quality in very short time intervals, RESPECT 
.
Here in Germany I am very lucky that we have a relatively large number of dealers with very high quality HiFi products.
With these, it is almost everywhere possible to listen to the products of my choice in special rooms for an extensive test after prior notification.
That makes it easy for me to invest my money in such a targeted manner.
If I had to rely exclusively on YouTube for this matter, or reviews in HiFi magazines, I would have some headphones in my portfolio that I don’t find so “sparkling” due to my own experience, such as a Hifiman Aria:
Highly praised by everyone, for me just “acoustic annoyance” after 20-30 minutes, this “hollographic sound wall” that comes towards my ears is fascinating, but not permanently bearable.
On the other hand, I certainly wouldn’t have a GRADO GS3000e.
Because GRADO’s are “devil stuff” in the eyes of most YouTube professionals.
- for elderly people with hard hearing.
Through my practical experience, I can say that there are very few headphones that offer such airiness, space and a defined stage as these headphones, plus these velvety highs and the reverberation of the sound, hmmmmm totally my thing.
They also look very “antique”, so it suits an old cracker like me.
Well, music, the passion for it and the penchant for perfection is what defines this hobby for me.
And sometimes simple is just good enough 
:
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Those Grados are gorgeous. I wish I could hear them. But not, I think sourced with the tape player.
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I just found a new reason to love this hobby a month ago.
Here I was, looking at what headphones to buy, and then @TomislavL comes out of left field with designs for two (working on a third) complete headphones that can be 3d printed. Granted, it took a bit to figure out how to make them play nice with FDM printers, and I still need to get a pair of drivers that actually work well with them, but the V1 is a solid design, even after the jank I had subjected it to.
He has a thread here: Freely accessible modular headphone platform introduction
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