I have been a bit obsessed with Hi Fi Audio for over 50 years. Starting with a Garrad TT, KLH Cambridge integrated amp, a/d/s Loudspeakers. My first headphones were Koss Pro4AA which was one of the inventors of the category, and boy did Houses of the Holy sound great on them. I purchased them for $ 33.00 from Crazy Eddies. I have upgraded dozens of times, over the years to my current flagship system. ARC Reference 5SE, CD9, Lumin U1 streamer with Sbooster, Linn LP12, VTL MB 450 and Aerial model 9’s. Shunyata accessories. And the headphone system mentioned. I have bought and sold many pieces of audio to support my habit, and even designed and installed systems for people who named me “STEREOMAN”, and I own the stereoman.com URL.
I listen to well produced and recorded classic rock. I am currently learning and listening to Jazz and Blues artists on Tidal via Roon in addition to exploring lots of new directions in classic Rock. Roon has an amazing database on all the people playing on albums, their influences and much more. It’s an endless “rabbit hole” to explore.
My criteria for purchasing equipment is 1- Natural sound quality, 2- Value, 3- Reliability, 4- Repairability, 5- Resale Value.
I tend to purchase products from companies that are leaders in that category. My experience with ARC, McIntosh Labs, CJ is that their products are very well made, and these companies repair products promptly at reasonable prices. This in my opinion is a key factor for resale value, and hassle-free ownership.
I have owned Sennheiser products for a few decades and have always found them to be great products for the money. I really like the sound of the HD 800S headphones, especially driven with tubes as they seem to take away any high frequency unpleasantness. The 800’s sound natural, rich and wonderful.
I have my eye on Focal Utopia and Stella, but no funds right now to play.
I know those well, a bit heavy and with the clamping force of Uncle Fester’s headache remedy. Koss was never a fan of comfy earpads. A friend at the time had the first iteration of ESP-6s. Crazy Eddie. His prices are absolutely INSANE!!!.
Yeah, you’ll fit in here. There are folks here who think resale is the cat’s meow. I just never part with things until the break. Still have my Audio Technica ATH-2 in brown and burnt orange.
New to this community…Aloha. I live on Oahu and have been a music lover and audiophile for over 50 years. I have resided in the “mid-tier” category of audio my entire life, pretty much by choice. From 45’s and record players in my early teens, to vinyl, reel to reel, cassettes (and 8 tracks) to CD’s, SACD’s and now pretty much all digital audio.
Most of my music systems are all loudspeaker based, but headphones have always been a part of it.
I came here to learn and enjoy.
BTW…my first headphones were the Sennheiser HD 414”s (yellow pads) in the late 60’s.
Dang, this is starting to sound like a 12 step program.
WELCOME, all you poor newcomers who have been hooked on audio for 10, 20, even 50 years. We, your brothers and sisters have been there too. At times there is backsliding, yes, but we will try to help you find the STRENGTH and FORTITUDE to say NO (to Beats, and consumer low and mid-fi) to say NO (to cheap plastic when you can have exotic hardwoods) and NO to wooden benches (so you can take unboxing photos on ugly fabric chairs)!
Hello and welcome @28Monkey, @Stereoman and @jamieskella. It’s always great when we get new members who can share their views and impart knowledge amongst us.
Good to be here. I’ve been following @Resolve for more than a year and have appreciated his approach to audio review and felt that the things we value in audio reproduction are similar.
I pulled the trigger on an Audeze LCD-XC based on his analysis. After 12 hours of listening on my Burson Soloist 3X, I have to say that they might just be, to my taste, my GOAT headphone purchase. Cans currently or previously owned include, but aren’t limited to, the Hifiman HE6se V1, Fostex TH-900, Hifiman Arya, Beyer DT 1990 Pro, Acoustic Research AR-H1, Fostex TH-X00 Ebony, Sennheiser HD 800 S, and Hifiman Ananda. I didn’t expect the XC to top my list, especially considering they’re closed, but here we are…
Hello and welcome @landwalker000, @Orange5o, @malibukid and @Hecubis.
Hello and welcome @hmscott.
Hello and welcome @FrenchTouch and @death_loader.
Hi Paul and thx for the welcome ! Where are you based in the UK?
Small intro: Originally from France, I’ve been living in London ( UK) for the last 6 years with my wife and son (who was born here).
My main system is composed of a Linn Akurate DS streaming music to a Luxman amplifier L550A and Atohm Sirocco 3. The music is stored in a NAS or directly streamed from my iMac/iPhone/iPad using Airplay.
I only started recently to look for an audiophile headphone for my birthday gift (already behind us) but now also maybe for Christmas given the amount of cash I intend to spend is progressively going up 
.
Completely new to the headphone world, I tried the Apple Airpod Max (sorry but being part of the Apple ecosystem I had to try those but found them uncumfortable and even painful for my large ears - which I discovered seem larger than average 🥲), Hifiman Sundara and Focal Elegia which all went back to Amazon…. From those 3, the Sundara were my preferred ones but less so for my wife (sound leak). So a big no no. And also my ears appeared to be too large for this one as well. So definitely larger ears than average 
. That was the first learning of this experience and quite painful TBH.
I am now looking into the Celestee and the LCD-XC 2021 revision. I was also interested by the Eikon or Itacus but ZMF is hard to listen to in Europe (and to buy as well).
Ideally I would like the headphone to be powered by my iPhone or iPad at least in the first stage (with or without an external amp/Dac) so something relatively easy to drive and also ideally without having to EQ as the iPhone does not allow for system-wide 3rd party EQ app.
I think after that I’ll look into a DAP which Incould use as an external DAC for my iMac.
As usual, the intro turned out to be longer than anticipated ahah.
Happy to be part of this community which I discovered thanks to @Resolve and his Youtube channel.
to this weeks new members
Hello and welcome @FrenchTouch. I am based just outside Halifax in a place called Ripponden. I’ve lived here all my life. Great to have you join the forum. Were a friendly bunch and try to learn from one another.
I’ve been watching ‘Last Tango In Halifax’ and in the latest season, the 2 “senior” characters bought a house overlooking Ripponden. The scenery looks spectacular.
Oh it is very beautiful round here. The Calderdale area as a whole is a beautiful place. At least in my eyes. Lol. There seems to be a plethora of films and TV series filmed in and around Halifax.
Hello and welcome @FrenchTouch and @DeLuCo.
This song was about YOU, sir:
"On the Leeds side-streets that you slip down
Provincial towns you jog 'round"
Ripponden looks as beautiful as a postcard. You are lucky.
Welcome to all new members. Enjoy.
Well… i’m not that new, have a month in the purchase ask topic and just found this one… but it’s never too late.
My name is Eugenio and i’m from Panamá, glad to be here and start my journey in this music world.
Your post reminded me - since I grew up half-an hour from the seaside in England - of this classic song with the LOL lyrics:
"This is the coastal town
That they forgot to close down
Armageddon, come Armageddon!
Come, Armageddon! Come!"
Check out the Walkman and the fabulous headphones/earbud hybrid thingies in the video! Those were the days.
@prfallon69 - Ripponden really is in a beautiful part of the world. I’ve not been in your neck of the woods in many years, sadly.