Candy Store for Audio Manias

[creatip123]

Following my post in: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/130066-a-noobs-reviews-of-cheap-headphones-warning-image-heavy/?p=1816292, and remembered the comment in http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/142176-so-i-went-to-a-hifi-store-d/ that if we find a good store with good services, we should support it to keep it breathing. So I thought I'll write a different thread about it. Besides, I'm hoping to give an idea of what kind of (physical) store you should look for if you want to get a new headphone but don't know what to get. I read a lot of thread here about people don't know where to look. 

 

First of all, it's in my country though, in Indonesia (southeast Asia). I know for sure some of you guys are from Indonesia as well, so, yeah....

 

So from the start, I found this audio stores in a mall which carries a lot (and I do mean a lot!!) of IEMs, headphones and peripherals. They don't carry speakers though. This store is actually the store of the renowned review site, headfonia.com, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. The store's website is headfoniastore.com (the store's address is on the website). Believe me, the guys here really know what they're doing. They're not some average electronic store guy who don't understand anything when you ask them more specific questions. These guys really know their stuffs. I learned a lot from them. 

 

Another thing that got me to vouch for them is, the guys here are audio enthusiasts, not audio salesman. Meaning, they love to share their knowledge and just chat around about audio stuffs. While of course, as we know, audio salesman would just concern about his/her sales of the day. You can sit and chat around these guys without getting that infamous 'sour' faces

 

So they got 2 stores (in the same mall). I went to the 2nd store first actually. Here, they carry middle-ends.

 

 

Again, I'd advise those of you who are new to headphones and looking for a pair of new headphone, to look for stores like this. You can see they got various demo units lying there, free for testing. We actually can't be told which one is the most suitable for us. People could only give us generalized options based on our preferences. Gotta try them for yourself to see which one actually suits us best. You can test them with your portable players, smartphones, or use their $2500 portable player, the Astell&Kern AK240 (which sounds superb )

 

I really enjoy just sitting there, chatting around about headphones and audio gossips with them. 

 

I said they got 2 stores, right? So we went to their main store, which they put their high-ends. 

 

 

Tried the HD800 here. From what I read, it's more of an 'analytical' headphone, and not so much a 'fun' headphone. My short experience of testing it says the exact contrary. It is a fun headphone, with crystal clear sounds, bright characteristic, and WIDE soundstage. I've said in other threads that I've never found a headphone that is wider than the AD700 (without x). Better sounds yes, but not wider. Now I've found the one that's actually a LOT wider. It's so wide, that when I want to take it off my head, I was actually gripping air about 5cm from the cups. My brain unconsciously says that's where the cups are, but it's actually just air there

 

 

 

Above is their testing booth I talked about in the other thread. They're the authorized distributor of Audeze in my country, so naturally they sit their Audeze products there. But of course you're welcome to plug any headphones you like to test to their testing booth, to get the most out of the headphone you're testing. The amp is the ALO Studio Six, the DAC is an Audio GD product (don't know the type), and forgot the brand of the media player. It's around $10.000 in that testing booth alone

 

One more advice, if I may, to those of you who are over-fanatic of a particular type of headphone or even headset, before you insist that your headphone or headset is 'the best there is in the whole wide world', test more headphones, higher end ones if possible. It's a real eye (or rather ear) opener. My ears were opened when I tested the LCD2, and the HD800. 

 

From my visits to this store alone, I've proven for myself, some claims that are often debated. For instance, I know for sure that DACs and amps really play significant parts of the end product of the audio. Even good small portable battery driven amps can really improve the audio output. From my last visit today, I found out that different cables and connectors actually alter the sound characteristic of the headphone. Hard to believe, I know, I didn't believe it either. I thought better cables would just give clearer and cleaner sounds, but turned out I was wrong. I tested the HD800 plugged to the ALO Audio International portable amp, with 2 mini to mini cables. 1 with the Fiio oyaide gold plated cable, the other one is also oyaide, but with white connector. I don't know if it's silver or other material. The guy said it's Rhodium (found the cable: http://www.amazon.com/OYAIDE-oyaide-HPC-LL-headphone-amplifier/dp/B002BADQAI). The white connector cable gives a very bright and clear sound to the HD800, while the Fiio gold plated gives a warmer but less high clarity sounds. Remember, the headphone, amp, and the media player, even the song were the same, only the cable changed. 

 

While we were talking about the topic of the difference the cables make, they pulled out 2 examples of the higher end mini to mini cables:

 

 

The cable was Crystal Cable (crystalcable.com). The price of those mini to mini? More than $1000 EACH!! They actually sold 3 of them. Too bad I haven't got the guts to ask them to test these mini to mini cable. 

 

So again, to those of you who are looking for a new pair of headphone, and don't know what to get, this is the kind of store you'd want to go to. Test as many types of headphones as you possibly can, before making your final decision. You can also learn a lot from them. Be aware though, these kind of stores have a lot of 'poisons'.....

 

 

*I'm not personally related to this store. I'm just vouching for them, because they deserve it.

[schwat]

 

The cable was Crystal Cable (crystalcable.com). The price of those mini to mini? More than $1000 EACH!! They actually sold 3 of them. Too bad I haven't got the guts to ask them to test these mini to mini cable. 

 

 

BRB, starting a cable business.

 

 

But seriously, thats a neat store. Wish we had something like that around here where I could demo cans. Guitar center has a few but nothing like that. 

[needmorewood]

i.... i want a store like that. i wanna try nice things too

[BoredErica]

Dear mother of god. I live in the "Silicon Valley" where we should be all tech nerds but I don't know any store like that.

 

I think the HD800s have the best soundstage of every headphone that exists... Of course for gaming it's overkill but still nice to have if you get them for music listening. The criticisms to the HD800 is the bass. The bass is good quality but most people want more of it. Some people feel the highs are a bit exaggerated. From looking at different FR graphs I noticed that the newer models tend to exhibit less of a peak in the high frequencies (the 6k spike).

 

Yeah, GuitarCenter has got nothing on your store over there. The one nearby my house doesn't even have HD650s to test out, let alone HD800s. I had to drive to another city to test HD800s and the store there specializes in speakers, not headphones.

[SSL]

Cables? Really?

[Verne]

Once you move into cables, you've gone too far beyond to be saved.

[creatip123]

Once you move into cables, you've gone too far beyond to be saved.

 

Yeah, when we talked about the crystal cable, I joked, if I have one of those, and I ask someone to trade with his LCD 2 (the cheapest variant, the $800+ one), would he trade? Most likely he'd call me crazy, not knowingly he missed out on a deal....

[Valhallatier]

*drools*...
HOLEE SHEET... i should go there someday!   i live in jakarta too say, what headphones did you like the most in terms of sound quality among the Headphones you tested?
also what do you mean by poison in the end of your post?
btw good job making this thread!

[creatip123]

*drools*...

HOLEE SHEET... i should go there someday!   i live in jakarta too say, what headphones did you like the most in terms of sound quality among the Headphones you tested?

also what do you mean by poison in the end of your post?

btw good job making this thread!

 

Best headphone? Just finished writing a review on that: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/147451-my-personal-review-of-hifiman-he-400-image-heavy/

 

Poison meaning: they're gonna show you things that make you drools, you don't buy it because you don't really need it, you go home and think and think and think about it before you fall asleep, and you come back the next day spending your food money on that thing....

 

This really happened while I was there, a guy (another customer) came in to get a decent IEM. He ended up getting the Phrodi + comply tips I reviewed in my other thread. Then we all chat around, and they showed him the portable external DAC, the AK10. He tried it with his iphone, sounds great, but he said kinda out of his budget (around $250). So he walked away with the phrodi IEM, smoked a cigarette outside, ended up coming back inside to get the AK10. That's the poison I was talking about....

[Lyons]

OP, it's against the CoC to advertise unless you are paying the owners of the forum for it. At the very least admit to being a shill before slamming down a wall of text like that.

[h264]

I'll just leave this here...

 

 

[creatip123]

OP, it's against the CoC to advertise unless you are paying the owners of the forum for it. At the very least admit to being a shill before slamming down a wall of text like that.

 

I was not advertising, as I don't get a dime for my post. What is the thin border line of advertising anyway?

 

A: Hey guys, tried the new Hifiman HE-6, they are absolutely amazing, loving it to the max => this is advertising

 

You bonehead, that's not advertising. He just got good experience with it, and want to share his experience to the other. Yep, that's what I did....

 

Nevertheless, if my post is offensive, I'd gladly delete it, as I got nothing to lose anyway (well, maybe few minutes of my time writing the post the first time )....

[Valhallatier]

OP, it's against the CoC to advertise unless you are paying the owners of the forum for it. At the very least admit to being a shill before slamming down a wall of text like that.

its not advertising, its reviewing.... a store

 

Best headphone? Just finished writing a review on that: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/147451-my-personal-review-of-hifiman-he-400-image-heavy/

 

Poison meaning: they're gonna show you things that make you drools, you don't buy it because you don't really need it, you go home and think and think and think about it before you fall asleep, and you come back the next day spending your food money on that thing....

 

This really happened while I was there, a guy (another customer) came in to get a decent IEM. He ended up getting the Phrodi + comply tips I reviewed in my other thread. Then we all chat around, and they showed him the portable external DAC, the AK10. He tried it with his iphone, sounds great, but he said kinda out of his budget (around $250). So he walked away with the phrodi IEM, smoked a cigarette outside, ended up coming back inside to get the AK10. That's the poison I was talking about....

isn't it called drugs, not poison? although its the same.... whatever. lol