Audio Help me become an audiophile

Oh! Don't worry! There are a few good choices to consider in the $150 range beyond which you need not go unless you have very specific requirements. None of them are perfect, but they all are pretty good. You can consider any of them once you know what you want. Most of them need to be imported, however.

VSonic GR07: Very balanced sound from bottom to top, slightly sibilant.

Hifiman RE-262: For Mid range (think vocals) focused signature, not so great at both ends.

Fischer DBA-02 / Brainwavz B2: Fast, analytical, excellent treble, a little too aggressive, compressed dynamics

Sony EX-600 (From what I've read): Spacious sounding, Excellent bass, somewhat neutral?

JVC HP-FX500 (From what I've read): Spacious, V-shaped, great sub-bass, slightly hot treble?

Atrio M5 with MG7 driver (From what I've read): Great bass, neutral mid range, slightly recessed treble, not so great sound stage
 
Dude ,Sound Quality is a very subjective thing really .
Sound from one headphone that I like ,may not be liked by others .like others have already said earlier ,you should go with your ears .Lot will depend on the source too :) .Good headphones need good source .

Example : Beyerdynamics Dt770 pro :Bassy headphones (infact overpowering )
Senneheiser HD650 :Laid back sound
Senn HD600: Almost neutral .
Stay away from headfi forums after buying a set of headphones for yourself ,otherwise you will never be satisfied with the piece of gear you have got .
 
Stuge said:
Stay away from headfi forums after buying a set of headphones for yourself ,otherwise you will never be satisfied with the piece of gear you have got .
Click to expand...

^ Rightly said. After buying a good pair, dont visit any audio forum.

Else the quest will never get over. :p
 
hawk_128 said:
^ Rightly said. After buying a good pair, dont visit any audio forum.

Else the quest will never get over. :p
Click to expand...

Perfect audio is a journey not a destination :p

.... Which is the reason why I do not have any savings :ashamed:
 
After I bought the IE7(3 expensive iem in 2 months)never visited head fi till today!!Saved a lot of money(blew them all later though!!)
 
Instead, get VSonic GR07 ($179 from a few retailers online). It has a "do nothing wrong" signature that would please most people. It can go head-to-head against most top-tiers and still won't feel inferior. It has a very balanced sound from bottom to top, except for the bumpy lower treble region and the not so great extension on treble. It is very comfortable to wear and unlike Hifiman, supplies all the accessories you need. You can ask a second opinion about GR07 from Brendon / Faheem / Nizarp. For IE7, I think red dragon prefers it over SM3. So, two good choices around a similar price range.
 
+1 for GR07

Both the IE7 and GR07 are good options in that price range. I was actually in a confusion which one to chose from these and I decided on GR07 based on |Jokers|'s review on head-fi. I would strongly suggest you to read his GR07 review in his Multi IEM review thread in which his is comparing them to IE7.
 
The etymotic hf3 has iphone controls and mic. That'll be really useful or is it worth skipping out on that for the sound quality of GR07 ?
 
I have no idea about the Ety HF3. But the Etymotic house sound is built on dry, neutral, analytical sound which has little bass. If that's your cup of tea, go for Ety. GR07 on the other hand is more balanced - good bass quantity with extension, well textured mid range and decent treble - I say decent, not great because even though the treble is good, the lower treble has a bump which is not much to my liking. I think you are better of trying something from dynamic IEMs first before you venture into the accurate, detailed, fast, but a tad dry in general BA sound.
 
My previous laptop went kaput so I bought a new one. Didn't want to spend more than 4k right now so I ended up getting the brainwavz m3.

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First impressions - I really like how clean the sound is. I'm used to muddy bass so it's a huge improvement for me. Can't really find any faults with it.
 
Yeah, I am one satisfied customer with the M3. really love the sound, with each instrument heard clearly. Has a bit better bass than my previous RE-2, but it is still a considerable improvement over RE-2.
 
The build quality is good. Pretty much what I expected.

Anyway, esanthosh, is there a guide for all the technical terms ? :ashamed:
 
Yes! There are a few guides. But, I'd say they are mostly... ummm.... utterly useless :p. The issue with most of them is that they explain technical jargon with technical terms. See here: Describing Sound A Glossary - Head-Fi.org Community.

I don't know if it's just me, but I found it incredibly hard to learn anything from it when I had just one or two IEMs. I read and re-read reviews, but still struggled to explain anything useful. I still remember a time when I first got the Alessandro MS1i and Faheem asked me how smooth are the mids. Problem is I did not know what the hell was "smooth" :ashamed:. Even if I had an idea of 'smooth' from our layman language, I did not know whether 'smooth' is actually 'smooth' in audiophile terms. What those terms require is a benchmark, a reference. For instance, I understood "wide sound stage" after listening to AD700, "sub bass" after listening to Hippo VB.

But, then again, it's like this - audiophiles are like economists. You put a bunch of them into a room, lock 'em up and throw the key away. All they will do is argue, argue and argue. Even some of those terms in the glossary are disputed. I think of sub-bass as something from 0-60Hz, clieOS says it's from 80Hz downwards and we both may be right, because there's no set standard. So, which version of the glossary you want to learn? I would say just listen a lot, learn the basic terms and be done with it. Don't get too far deep into this because, at the end of the day, you will start analyzing signatures than listening to music - which is actually what this hobby is all about.
 
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