A few months ago when I sold my Razer HP1/AC1 combo, I had some money to spend on a decent headphone. After browsing through the Head-Fi forums I decided to buy the AKG K601.

It’s a very comfortable dynamic open headphone and has an amazing soundstage. With lots of detail and a pleasant bass response it’s a joy to listen to.

This made me realize that my portable setup had some problems. I was using the Sony EX71′s since 2003 and was really pleased with them. Nice isolation and very comfortable for a in ear headphone. My main issues with it were it’s muddy bass and lack of detail.

So looking for an upgrade I ended up browsing through the Head-Fi forums again and decided on getting the Shure E4C.

These little phones have tons of detail, great build quality and looks, but I found them lacking in bass. According to frequency response graphs it has a nearly neutral bass response, but this a bit too sterile to my taste and decided to sell them.

The headphone I upgraded to is the Shure E500

It has all the detail of the Shure E4C, but adds a considerable kick to the low end, so it’s just perfect for me.

The downside of these In Ear Monitors is the way they completely cut you off from the rest of the world. You can barely hear anything going on around you.

So I was also going to need a headphone for office use. I got my girlfriend a AKG K81 and was amazed at how fun and detailed they sounded considering their relatively low price. So I got the black version of the K81, the K518, for myself.

Now wherever I go, I have great headphone gear with me. I blame all of this mostly on Head-Fi. It’s a great community of headphone fanatics and all newcomers are welcomed with the phrase:

“Hello and welcome to Head-Fi, sorry about your wallet!”