Sometimes people ask me when did my love for music and audio began. At this point I'd be scratching my head and start recalling. But the thing is, I can't remember. I simply remember figments of it and this is where the long journey ahead starts.
The StartI would like to share my journey into audio. A journey that would possibly last me throughout my entire lifetime as we try to seek out “audio nirvana”. I am fortunate enough that my family is not foreign to good music as my father was someone we can say as an “audiophile” but he never termed himself as one. I grew up listening to his old Marantz-Pioneer-Tannoy while watching Disney’s Lion King as a kid. He used to drive us around while listening to the old classical 98.7 radio station on family adventures. But something was missing… I need something more.
My first foray that developed my love for audio is my 2001 Altec Lansing ATP5 computer speakers. These 4.1 speakers were a huge jump from the typical "full-range" 100-200 peso speakers we know. I still remember playing Yanni’s rendition of “Canon” for hundreds of hours to come while the lights were off.
Web Picture of the Altec ATP5Introduction to IEMsThen I was introduced to the world of IEMs. My first IEMs were typical Pioneer IEMs. Those 1000-2000php ones you can easily buy in Astrovision or Abenson were my first love. Unfortunately for me, I used to destroy IEMs so frequently that one barely lasts me for a year! So I used to buy a lot of them to last me through the year (I remember buying 3 of them way back in Hong Kong with my “allowance”). How often is often? Let’s just say that my 6-month old iPod video saw my top 5 tracks with total play time of more than a thousand. I used to put myself to sleep while listening to something.. a trait that continues on even today (on a limited basis)
My time with the Pioneer was just a short-lived 3 years by which I have tried almost everything in their product line including those active noise-cancelling ones with batteries. I welcomed myself to my first experience of the wallet-busting tendencies of audio - sustained by simply eating noodles and some rice plus
ulam off your high school allowance. But I was never really "restricted" to my budget and soon.. I was looking for something even better.
Shure - Legendary PerformanceThe first opportunity to proper “audiophile” sound was when my kuya (who’s my audiophile
idol) gave me a pair of Shure SC2s IEMs. The immediate upgrade was jaw-dropping.. greater transparency, better low-end controlled impacts, and my favorite part: details that I’ve never heard before. This drastically made me change most of my 128-192kbps
Limewire-sourced 10,000 pirated copies of music to that of 320kbps.
As with everything, my Shure didn’t last long. After 8 months of usage, it showed up signs of wear and tear on its wirings. I used to adjust it endlessly para hindi putol-putol yun music and made it a point that my head remains motionless for minutes to come. I tolerated this for a few more weeks before I was ready to retire it and seek out a replacement.
The IEM Upgrade Itch!At this point, I was also a lurker of Head-fi.org’s forum community. I was introduced to names I’ve never heard of before and even have difficulty in pronouncing *cough* Etylmotics *cough*.
In seeking out a replacement, I have auditioned some of the more well-known ones such as the Shure SE530s and the UE10 .. all of them sounded pretty nice.. all but their price tags which were stratospheric. So I was on the hunt for months until I found my IEM love - HiFiMan's re0. Price tag? $90 including shipping. I quickly purchased one out of faith on the raving reviews and never looked back.. it's first love after the initial break-in period.
If I were to sum its two strengths, it'll be: neutrality and highs. The highs extended indefinitely and was so natural and non-fatiguing that they became my reference even when I ventured into car audio. But wait, what about durability issues? Well, they actually keep their warranty promises. I used to ship mine back to China quarterly for 800 pesos and they keep on giving me a new one. I probably had 5 replacements made before I was completely satisfied with their service that I purchased 2 additional re-0s for my siblings, a limited-to-1000-units edition re-zero for myself, and a Fiio E7 as my headphone amplifier. Why did I have to ship the Fiio? There wasn't an authorized Fiio distributor locally yet. Even when pitting the UE10 versus the re0, I still loved the re0s more... there's just so much to love about them once you accept their character.
Re0/re-zero with the Fiio E7It was also during this time that I began collecting loseless audio formats such as FLACs and WAVs. There were so much detail with the re0s that my minimum standard that time (and until now) is 320kbps. It was also this time that I ventured into headphones by purchasing a Sennheiser (forgot which model) but I later knew it wasn't the one for me. In the end, I only kept the modified-Grado Alessandro MS1 and gave away the others (2 others). Why? Since I waited 2 days from delivery from the US and 4 months additional just because of our <insert expletive> postal system.
It took me literally... months to get these..
