From early-mid 90’s I used anything from my dad’s old Koss at the home stereo to some Walkman. As I started to get more and more into PC-gaming by the late 90’s I came to buy your run-of-the-mill Logitechs or some no-name headset with mic. My first real personal hi-fi experience was the Koss UR-40, Koss KSC-75 and then Sennheiser HD212 Pro.
As me and the Counter-Strike clan at the time got sponsorship from Icemat around 2001, we started looking at more serious gear. As I liked Sennheiser a lot, I ended up buying the HD570 and my brother bought a used pair of HD600 (which he still has to this day and I’ve used them for probably half a decade myself). The HD570 / HD600 became the workhorse for the longest time and followed through most of my amplifier and DAC journey too.
At around 2005 when I graduated I got myself a Creative X-Fi Zen Vision:M DAP. At the same time I ended up getting a Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty soundcard for my PC which began my quest into real high end at the time. I modded the soundcard, soldered on new OPAMPS and did some ESD-protection mods on the backplate of the card since it was internal. This did a lot for the quality at the time. Then I Frankenstein rigged this all to output into my first headphone amplifier from Harmony Design. In 2007-2008 I got myself a Harmony Design EAR90, a year later I got the Harmony Design DA9 DAC and upgraded my EAR90 at the same time.
So for the longest time I had the HD600 I borrowed from my brother, as my old HD570 had snapped in half due to wear and tear. Then I got the Denon AH-D2000 around 2008-2010, imported from Japan as no local retailer would sell them at reasonable prices, it was a good 200€ cheaper at the time to import. I kept the D2000 for a couple of years until they broke, at which point I got a pair of Lawton Audio modded Denon AH-D5000, which I still have, but the cable is broken and needs replacement (forever in my backlog of hobby projects). In 2014 I got myself the Sennheiser HD700 which I still own and love, used daily ever since.
Harmony Design EAR90 + DA9 + HD600 / D2000 / D5000 / HD700 was my end-game up until 2018-2019. That’s when I thought to myself that I should look around and check what’s new in the hobby. I found Zeos and then it was down the drain from there. I first got a Topping MX3, which astounded me as it was almost as good as my old 1800€ setup. Interested in what was new on the DAC side, I ended up getting the SMSL Su-8, which outclassed my DA9 in a lot of ways, the most obvious one being ease of use and customization and remote control. So the DA9 went into the stereo setup. From there I bought the Fostex t60rp, which couldn’t really be powered that well from the MX3, which made me land on the SMSL SP-200, as I couldn’t get the THX AAA due to it being sold out or cockblocked behind Drop and their bad handling with shipping to EU.
From 2019-onwards it’s been a wild ride. I’ve gotten the Audeze LCD-2 Closed-Backs which I love (and hate; so heavy, but so comfortable at the same time). I’ve taken the IEM redpill and first got the Tin T2, then Blon BL-03 followed by the Moondrop Starfield and now the Shuoer Tape Pro on its way.
I have had IEM experience before, but that was in the early or mid 2000’s with Shure, something in the 300-series which cost around 200€ but was a plastic fantastic mess that had broken nozzles. Which later on led me to HifiMan RE-0 which I thought was an absolute godlike IEM. I was devastated when they broke and got a pair of Denon IEMs that I can’t remember the name of. They were good, but not as good as the RE-0. So yeah, the nostalgia of the RE-0 made me dip hard into IEMs that I am currently exploring.
In-between and mixed into all of this, I have had a lot of going back and forth with my stereo setup, but that’s another story. I’m quite pleased with that setup and won’t touch it in the near future unless anything breaks. If anyone is interested, I’m currently using Klipsch RF-63 (first version) running via the Primare i32 amplifier, fed by the Harmony Design DA9.
It’s been a long ride and it will be longer still I hope. There’s so much good stuff coming out now, after what felt like a good decade of stagnation from that 2008-onwards point.
= kept
= sold
I was afraid I’d be chasing the unicorn forever but that’s no longer the case. Really I would be very happy with just the HD600 for the rest of my days.
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