Picture Sunday – The Audiophile Path

From Linus – continues

A year ago Lieven kept asking me if I wanted to join the HFN squad, and after resisting for months he convinced me. So here we are, and I‘m happy to be part of it. I want to give a shout-out to the man and site which has played a big role in my audiophile diary. Since more than two years I consider Lieven a good friend of mine, though we only meet twice a year. I want to raise my imaginary glass to him.

Here‘s to Lieven, a man who spreads the audio disease like no second one. A true friend and companion all around. A person to steal horses with, a smooth and humorous fella! A friend without whom my life would very likely be different, at least audio-wise. A man that keeps his values up high and doesn‘t bow down to sponsors.

Happy birthday mate! You know you‘re hyperior.

From Nathan

My special day is October the 4th. My story began in Southern Sweden in a special place called Eksjö. That story is currently bookmarked in central Japan, which is totally mete. I mean, Japan is like the world’s audio garden. The world’s biggest personal and home audio shows go on here four to a year. And the insanest customers from all over Asia – and the world – make it all happen. No matter how insane, most of these – mainly – blokes started their audio story like I did: at home.

My first pair of decent headphones was a Koss Porta Pro rip off from Radio Shack. This part of my special story took place in the USA. At the time, my parents had a decent vinyl collection which they played on the sort of HiFi system everyone had in the 1980s. But not a disk of it was my music. My music was Ace of Base and Metallica, The Eagle’s Hell Freezes Over, and a bunch of creepy Christian Rock music. Spare the rod, folks, I was just a kid. I took Metallica and Hell Freezes over with me to Canada in 1996. Not long after I attended a Weird Al concert. There I discovered a passion: concert taping.

I didn’t tape that concert, but when I got back home I put together a good stealth system consisting of ear-mounted microphones and a battery box that looked like a flask. After cleanly recording a few shows I wanted a pair of really good headphones to play it all back on. Enter the DT880 and ER4s and later Westone WM2. A few years later, I discovered Head-Fi. The same year I got into reviewing audio gear at TouchMyApps I discovered Headfonia. It became enemy number one. It kept up an impossible pace. Still, I did my best. TMA grew to +10K views a day, the bulk of which was for my headphone reviews. But TMA is no more.

I’ve shed my tears.

It is to Headfonia that I owe my present job. Whilst impossibly trying to better Headfonia at everything, I hooked up with audio makers looking for good photos. As a result TMA suffered. I couldn’t keep up the pace, or the quality of reviews. In short order, I broke my writing arm. And I’m glad. I had burnt out. Headfonia won.

Gracious in victory, HFN picked me up. They gave me a writing chance. It’s great. Lieven is great.

And I hear that today is Lieven’s 56th birthday. Or something. Congrats guy. You’re a chum. A good one, too. One to whom I look up as a child to his father, or really old uncle. It’s not just your age, it’s not just the grey hair and double braces and driving hat, Sherlock pipe, and loafers. It’s the wisdom that comes with all of that (especially the age). And Lieven, you embody Headfonia.

There’s no mistake: both of you are a real OGs. Happy 56th, or something.

4.6/5 - (11 votes)
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A keen audiophile and hobby photographer, Berkhan is after absolute perfection. Whether it is a full-frame camera or a custom in-ear, his standpoint persists. He tries to keep his photography enthusiasm at the same level as audio. Sometimes photography wins, sometimes his love for music takes over and he puts that camera aside. Simplistic expressions of sound in his reviews are the way to go for him. He enjoys a fine single malt along with his favourite Jazz recordings.

7 Comments

  • Reply October 29, 2017

    Amit Raj

    Hello Berkhan,

    Your article’s an interesting read. Uncannily, your audiophile journey and mine more or less mirrors one another. My journey too started on a Sony Walkman that my father gifted me when I was around 10 years (circa ’91/ ’92). Till then, I was listening to music on the Kenwood stereo home audio system that had these psychedelic reverb meter (something like this https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aYuBU-QCd4k/maxresdefault.jpg but dated back to 1986!!). Luckily, I had access to some CDs (which by the way sounded much better then than today!) and the music upgrade from tapes to CDs was massive. Until I got my walkman, nothing really beat the Kenwoods. Now, the walkman was an entirely different ball game…the music was much more intimate and magical as it seemed to come from the centre of my head! ???? The walkman lasted at least 8 years when I got introduced to the world of digital music i.e. MP3 and the MP3 player. This was when I purchased a 4gb (which was massive then) Creative Zen MP3 in 2000 (iPods were still in the design phase). It was then I started experimenting with CD rippers and tried to discern the differences between 128/ 160/ 192/ 320 kbps CBR and VBR MP3, and equivalent standards in .aac, .ogg.

    It was in late 2000 that I met a friend (a thoroughbred audiophile) at university. It was he who introduced me to the world of audiophile headphones, amps, power amps, DACs etc. He looked at my MP3 (albeit with a condescending face) and said my experience could get a booster by changing the headphones. He then suggested the Koss Porta Pro and boy these were a steal at those prices. He then told me showed me his prized possession Grado SR325 and after listening to my music on the Grados I’d realised how much I missed. After this initial push, I was on my own researching a lot into IEMs, headphones, DACs etc. I purchased my first IEMs: Shure e2c (in 2002) and these gave my Creative (followed by ‘2006 16gb iPod) a whole new dimension. I could listen to a lot more detail that I never knew was there in my music earlier. The shures lasted until 2006 when I moved on Westone UM2 that again lasted until 2015. Oh yes, I did change my player to a Cowon J3 in 2011 that partnered well with the Westones. In 2015, I upgraded to Westone UM30Pro which again added more refinement and changed my player to Shanling M2S. I had change the player since Cowon was not handling high bitrate .flac (btw, I moved on from the simple MP3 to .flac and DSD) and the Shanlings are decent for the price I paid. And boy!, DSDs are a different league and really how music should be enjoyed.

    I must have spent at least $2000 during this journey and I’m still itching to shell out more to discover more. This is a very addictive and expensive hobby that’s not affordable especially if you’re married and have a family! I’d love to spend hours at stretch listening to smooth jazz over the UM30Pro and am all the more curious to know how my Bill Evans DSDs would sound on 6 and even 8 balanced armature drivers…but I guess those would only remain a dream…

    From a fellow audiophile,

    Amit Raj

    P.S.: By the way, in case you were wondering, I replaced the Kenwoods with a complete surround set of JBL (a pair of Ti10k, a pair of Ti6K, Ti centre, Ti subwoofer) powered by Yamaha amp and power amps…

    • Reply October 29, 2017

      Lieven

      Thanks for sharing!!

    • Reply October 29, 2017

      Berkhan

      Amit, very thanks for sharing your journey.

      Yours is indeed pretty much parallel to my path. It’s interesting to hear better stuff every 1-2 years, the market is still evolving and getting better. I could never imagine to try out those expensive toys in the past, but I did.

      M2S is great for the price, but I recommend you to change your Westone Um30. You can find better IEMs around that price range.

      Again much thanks to your sincere and enjoyable comment.

      • Reply November 3, 2017

        Amit Raj

        Hi Berkhan,

        Thanks for the comments. Do you have any suggestions for a replacement to my UM30pros? These IEMs are really blissful and I’d amazed to find something better than this for the same price. Do let me know.

        • Reply November 8, 2017

          Berkhan

          Take a look at our Buyer’s Guides

  • Reply October 31, 2017

    andyDiamond

    hey Lieven! Happy birthday to you! Gratz from cold Russia!

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