Hi Fi, Mid Fi , Low-Fi - Head-Fi

Its pretty funny how as the older one gets, the more expensive your hobbies become. First it was model collecting, then its photography and 2 years back it was then high(er) end headphones. Now I've gone through 4 (or 5) expensive headphones (Ultimate Ears, Westone, Audio-Technica that sort...) by now. Seems like a natural progression for guys to go from photography into audio as well it seems. Well everyone needs a drug, and for me its probably some music as well as taking photos I guess. Why so expensive you may ask, afterall the mighty iPod and iBud is sufficient. Surely the blessed Steve Jobs can do no better (or so Mac-olytes say) .

Or so I thought. I've always been into decent earphones, you know the $30 ish ones instead of the given one with your audio player. So I always knew that the given ones sucked. But I didn't know how much it really sucked until I saw a review in a magazine and thought why not? So so begun the downward spiral.... So whats the value of these expensive toys then? The ability for me to really listen to music and appreciate (rather than the music inevitably fading into the background as I do other stuff) the work of artists (its because of this that my CD collection actually grew in a world of iPod....). In periods of stress (like exams), music from these kept me somewhat sane.

Of course, if you want to you can put a price to anything (even human life, just ask insurance firms.....). But price is irrelevant to the experience of being and feeling alive