Like most sensible people I started falling in love with music as a child. My first portable audio device was a Sony Walkman (the cassette kind) that I got when I was 10 years old (25 years ago). I toted that lovely brick around with the cheap included headphones for several years in cold Fairbanks, Alaska. Like a Hieronymous Bosch mural, my tastes can be weird and wonderful: from dreamy Japanese garble pop to banks of strings and percussion in the Mariinsky Orchestra. I listen mostly to rock.
I tend to like neutral bright headphones and I'm a sucker for soundstage. I don't do EQ. I believe that cables can make a difference but do not unconditionally make a difference, same thing goes for balanced outputs.
Some axioms:
Frequency response isn't everything, but it is important.
If you didn't volume match, how can you be sure you heard a difference?
Ears are beautiful things, but we hear with our brains and brains can be pretty darn stupid.
I'm a fairly recent convert to audiophilia but a long time music fan, also aspiring to be a reasonably inept drummer in my spare time. I listen to at least 2 hours of music a day – generally prefer IEMs for out and about, and a large pair of headphones when I have the house to myself and a glass in my hand. I have a most of my library to FLAC and 320kbps MP3, and do my other listening other listening through Tidal HiFi. I am a fan of rock, acoustic (apart from folk) and sarcasm. Oh yeah, and a small amount of electronica. Not a basshead, but I do love a sound with some body to it. My ideal tuning for most IEMs and headphones tends towards a musical and slightly dark presentation, although I am not treble sensitive in general. Please take all views expressed in my posts with a pinch of salt – all my reviews are a work in progress based on my own perceptions and personal preferences, and your own ears may tell you a different story.
glassmonkey
jackpot77
TheOneInYellow
trekasaurus
Timothy Cose
Audio Primate 