I'm Sailing Away

Selling audio gear, I find a pain, but in the last few years, I got to a point of getting in touch with local audio club members and putting the item for sale to the group. If it sold good , if not I just traded it at a local store.

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Ironically, Iā€™ve had no issues, beyond the usual pre-sale tire-kickers, endless-question-askers, chronic low-ballers and people that want to trade half a dozen random cheap half-broken/incomplete items for one big, like-new, piece, with any of the ā€œnormalā€ stuff Iā€™ve sold.

Itā€™s only been the hard-to-get/unique/special stuff that has ever caused post-sale issues.

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Two schools of thought:

  • I donā€™t give a shit how it sounds, as long as it measures well.

  • I donā€™t give a shit how it measures, as long as I like how it sounds.

I am firmly in the camp of the latter.

I donā€™t care if it is ā€œhow the artist intendedā€* if I donā€™t enjoy it.

*Youā€™re fooling yourself anyway; YOUR chain is NOT what the artist heard.

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One of the best bass players I ever met, played one of the best sets I ever heard him play, and pissed himself in the middle of it.

Iā€™m not all that interested in his intent.

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I might be a bit curious as to his intentā€¦ but Iā€™m just curious by nature.

Amen :pray:.

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Every time someone comes in and starts this conversation up all over again, I groan and think of the long blonde hair dude from this scene. I donā€™t know why. I just do.

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Third school of thought: I donā€™t care how it sounds or measures, but want it to look good. B&O, Beats, Apple, McIntosh, and a zillion niche brandsā€¦

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This is one of the worst part of many headphone forums. I tend to think of it as:

  1. People who who think they can know what something sounds like without or before listening to it.

  2. People who learn from listening.

I prefer to be in the latter group.

However, I can admit to the appeal of the former, especially, when Iā€™ve been hampered in my choices by lack of funds and am impatient by nature. Iā€™d love to be able to know what is gonna sound best and have a definitive winner that is verifiably the best.

As Iā€™ve gotten older (get off my lawn) and have more disposable income and more patience, I realized that the journey is actually more fun and there is no final destination.

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Indeed. How are the Crack and Eikon working out? I believe thatā€™s what you landed on.

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Really loving them! This is my first tube amp adventure and Iā€™m enjoying myself. I have definitely noticed that there are some changes in FR, but I havenā€™t had the motivation to listen analytically. Itā€™s just a really fun pairing for classic rock, pop, hip-hop, and jazz.

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Two schools of thought:

  1. Worry about measurements, Eat a salad tonight and be healthy. Live a long life.

  2. Donā€™t care about measurements, Eat some spam and live for tonight!

Iā€™m firmly in the camp of the latter!

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I do agree with that statement. :notes:

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youā€™re saying it ainā€™t the meat itā€™s the motion, right?

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Great to hear. I used to own the Eikon and they do especially well with those genres. Enjoy!

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Sitting here, staring at the pile of boxes into which all of this audio gear has to be packed really reinforces my desire for a single DAC, amplifier and headphone combination.

In fact, in a moment of wine-soaked reverie ā€¦ I seriously contemplated just selling my main rig and headphone collection, buying a Sennheiser HE1 and calling it good.

This, I thought, was an excellent plan. No choices beyond the music, I thought. Just fire up Roon or grab a record ā€¦ and listen, I thought. Only one package to move, I thought. And it would cost less than what Iā€™d be selling, I thought. This, I thought, was a plan with no issues.

But, as the wine began to wear off I realized it does have issues ā€¦

The first issue is that, Iā€™ve heard the HE1.

And the second issue is that, Iā€™ve heard the HE1.

I appreciate that, technically, this is really just one issue. But its such a big one, I felt it worth mentioning twice.


In fairness, I have heard the HE1, and the comments above probably make you think I think less of it than I do. While the DAC leaves a lot to be desired (for me), it is otherwise an impressive system. Not perfect, even sonically, but impressive. Itā€™s massively overpriced for what it offers. I go hot and cold on the aesthetics. And thereā€™s mechanical stuff involved that is just an invitation to failure.

I just canā€™t convince myself that the net sonic compromises vs. having a stable of different, high-end/TOTL, cans wouldnā€™t just result in me slowly adding back more cans and defeating the entire point. Which would functionally render it as just ā€œanother electrostatic option*ā€.


*I have one. I barely got to use it before I had to crate it back up ahead of an expected earlier departure and havenā€™t unboxed it since, since it is relative unobtanium.

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Perhaps its just your nature to have a stable of audio gear. Thereā€™s a limit to how much one person can fight themselves. Ive resisted the call to downsize with various things over time and often Im happy that I kept what I had.

But, moving/packing really really sucks. I told my wife during the last move that we either are staying put forever or having someone else do all of it. It was an awful experience.

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Perhaps, though it isnā€™t something I find necessary with speakers. Of course, if I could use those all the time, I wouldnā€™t have headphones.

I expect my desire to consolidate will result in a staged approach. Which I thought Iā€™d have done by now, but life had its way with that plan!

And that consolidation will likely come down to having just one flagship open-back headphone in each driver-technology category (e.g. one dynamic, one planar, one ribbon etc.). With one extra for ā€œflavorā€, and then one conventional closed-back (the rest being IEM and wireless/ANC).

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Duplication does offer a safety-net in case of component failure. I have duplicates of everything except for my power amp. If fact, my power amp is in the shop for a check up, so speaker listening is currently off the grid.

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Wait, does this mean there is very little hope for: McIntosh MHA200 Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier

I demoed the MHA150 and wasnā€™t impressed (actually, I thought it might be broken).

When evaluating McIntosh products I do the following:

  1. Touch the knobs
  2. Look at the price tag
  3. Double check the knobs to see if they are actually broken
  4. Ask if this is a real McIntosh or knock-off made from junkyard scraps
  5. Ask if this is a functional amp or just a showroom mock-up of an amp
  6. Double check the price tag
  7. Shrug and move on
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