For me personally itās AirPods Max. When it comes to consumer tech (phone and laptop) Iām Apple fan-boy. I knew itās going to be exactly the way I predicted and yeahā¦ Never buy AirPods Max, overpriced headset!
2 Likes
Very few regrets over the years
Dan Clark Ether CX, just a terrible headphone for my use case IMO, Arguably the most comfortable headphone Iāve ever owned, and I really wanted to like the sound of it, but the volume levels required for them to open up made them a none starter to me, without a lot of volume they just sound very compressed.
I canāt really complain, I got them at a very low new price and they get a lot of hype on one site and as a result they were relatively easy to sell at a minimal loss.
ZMF Aeolus, Camphor Burl and one of the prettiest pairs Iāve seen, I picked them up at the same time as a pair of Eikons, and just really could never get over the overly smooth presentation, well loved headphone, but certainly not for me. Again I canāt really complain I didnāt lose a ton on them and they arenāt overtly bad.
4 Likes
I have had a few disappointments over the years, but nothing comes close to the Audio Technica WP-900ās.
The term V-shaped gets thrown around a lot and a little too loosely. However, these headphones are a Perfect example of V-shaped. ALL treble, ALL bass and good luck finding the mids. I took a financial bath on these and I had gotten a great price from Amazon. 
2 Likes
its not a popular opinion but i second that, i cant stand the focal ringing/sheen drives me crazy. Only one I donāt hear it on is the focal utopia 2022
I donāt have any serious regrets fortunately, but I am in the position now where Iāve got more than I can handle, which I think is a fairly common experience. The beginning stages of trying to sell some of these off is going to be quite a challenge.
2 Likes
My biggest regret was selling my MySphere 3.2s. I erroneously thought that they were redundant with my Raal Requisite SR1aās as they were both āearspeakersā. What I neglected to take into account was that the SR1aās required expensive and heavy amplification (also from Raal).
I learned a good lesson in my audiophile quest: that there are a number of use-cases, each of which has specific requirements - and conflating them over a single device attribute is an error. The headphone use cases I have settled on are:
- Critical Listening - Desktop [Nucleus > Bartok > Raal HSA-1b > Raal SR-1a]
- Critical Listening - Office [MacBook > Naim Uniti Atom HE > Focal Utopia OG]
- Critical Listening - Portable [A&K SP3000 > MySphere 3.2}
- Critical Listening - Pocketable [iPhone > L&P W4 > 64 Audio U12T]
- Casual Listening - Walking Around [iPhone > AirPods Pro 2 or Shokz OpenFit]
- Casual Listening - Airplane [iPhone > Focal Bathys]
Recognizing my mistake, and that the MySphere 3.2 is one of the best headphones I have owned, I purchased another pair, and an Astell & Kern SP3000 DAP to drive them.
Figuring out the use cases helps me to better choose the appropriate gear, and not just become enamored with a new piece of kit which doesnāt particularly fit, and may duplicate functionality.
6 Likes