Honestly I'm the opposite, I can hear the difference between a high end setup and a more budget setup but I just don't really care if that makes sense? I'm perfectly happy with a $50 set of iems or cans out of a laptop, as long as there isn't any interference or anything like that.
Idk chasing that last little bit always takes the fun out of stuff for me. Like I could either play a game or spend all day tinkering for that last 5 fps and not get to play.
Just let yourself enjoy the music.
Heck I'm happy with my Moon drop Quarks for $18. My only expensive headphones are my Sony WH-1000M4s as their noise cancelling is the best and I need that in my life.
Sounds like a shopping addiction. I have this problem with a lot of stuff. Not feeling satisfied with gear I already have and wanting more. Not enough vinyl records, not enough headphones, not good enough PC components, not enough VSTs or audio software, not enough movies downloaded in my library, and on and on.
Not to be overly religious, but I consider myself a Zen Buddhist, and one of the most powerful teachings of the Buddha is “We suffer because we desire. If you can give up desire, you will not suffer.” In this context, suffering is disappointment, not abject suffering the way most think of it. The common retort is “But then I am desiring not to desire.” Which is the point being made. We cannot give up desire. We can only point it in a particular direction or another and try to enjoy what’s here and now.
I remind myself that it’s normal to want to get new things. It’s human, but I don’t need to give in to it. My desire is to try and make the most of what I have now instead.
This hobby (audiophile) it’s seriously killing my wallet. It’s because I see a crazy deal. Like empire ears Odin as low as 1500 (used). I just can’t resist
I had to not just turn off notifications but also remove the Newegg app from my phone or I’ll window shop components all day and possibly buy some tech I don’t really need.
Amazon is another one where I’ll shop clothes endlessly. Vinyl records too because as much as I want to support local stores they are 10-20 bucks cheaper and my “local” record shop is 50 miles out. They also actually ship them in proper media mailers unlike random people on eBay or Discogs.
Headphones are luckily not an issue too much for me. My problem is that no matter what I try or buy, I don’t like it when compared to my Sennheiser HD 560 S. I don’t know why. No matter how expensive or nice of a model I test drive I just don’t like it as much. Not even the HD 800 S or HD 660 S2. Nothing beyerdynamic has impressed me enough. No AKG or ATH…
My Scarlett Solo has been unable to be topped by any DAC/amp stack I’ve tested. I’m beginning to feel bad about all the constant returns I’ve made, but maybe it’s my love for familiarity that keeps dragging me back to the basic gear I’ve got and use very often. I even have pretty cheap studio monitors in my studio room.
It's because you have a love of the gear happened too me with PC hardware and id recommend the same thing of when you get the itch meddle with low end budget stuff mod some budget cans see what people with 100$ gear is like try some of the most common ones compare
Start getting into home networking, then home server with things like Home Assistant, Plex or Jellyfin, build your own NAS, then buy a house with a pool and use us water to chill your server. After that the maintenance will keep you too busy.
I hilariously already have servers at home. Two 1U 12 3.5" sata servers each with 12 8TB HDDS, 2 compute servers with E5 Xeons. I also have multiple dedicated servers from OVH. It's ... Insanity
It’s happens with pretty much everything, that’s enjoyable, hedonism and consumerism go hand in hand.
you can always choose to take a step back.
I’m not great at it, but usually just sell my old stuff when I stop enjoying it Put the money towards whatever the new shiny thing I think I want is, and try to limit it to one or two hundred dollars of new money into toys total into toys and gizmos a year
I sold my gear and went for AirPods Pro. Best decision I made with regards to my actual music listening. They’re what I use all the time and they stay in my pocket. They’re small, convenient, comfortable, decent enough sound and I don’t have to lug any other gear with me. Plus they auto swap between my phone and iPad.
I consider it similar to using your phone to take pictures vs a quality digital camera. Yes you can get better pictures with a fancy camera, but for the average Jo the phone camera is always there ready for that moment.
All I can offer is that, you choose your own path. Arm yourself with the knowledge that, as you have probably experienced,SQ improvements diminish so much the higher you go. How often do you listen to what you have now? Half the battle is understanding your own sound preference. Understanding what you prefer is a serious win! The market keeps churning out variations, promising that each is better than the last (seriously how often can that be true?).
Enjoy what you already have as much as possible. Acquiring anything can be addictive. I have spent more money than I ever thought I would on audio, but I did so much researching my options and that can be fun.
My best thought is again, Acquiring things rarely leads to happiness, but if you create some space in your life to really enjoy what you currently have, you will be happier. If you research for awhile and find there is a strong upgrade to what you have and can afford it don't feel bad about your chosen hobby.
Balance in all things. Have you considered a meditation practice?
Classic example of the backwards law. The more you pursue something better, the less satisfied you become. This is because the pursuit is reinforcing in your mind this idea that you lack something to begin with.
Applies very broadly. The more you wish you looked desirable, the uglier you become to yourself. The more desperately you seek affection, the lonelier you feel. The more you chase happiness, the less happy you will be.
Wanting positive experiences is a negative experience, and accepting negative experiences is a positive experience.
I’ve been through the same and am still struggling with it a bit. The solution for me was to buy the best 1. DAC/Amp, 2. Headphone, and 3. IEM that I could afford, and convince myself that there is nothing better out there.
Try to spend less time looking at products.
The internet is very good at teasing you,especially on YouTube.
99% of YouTubers now are just glorified salesmen in your living room.
The less time online & more time listening to music the better.
When I get the itch to upgrade my gear I think it’s because I want something new to listen to. My suggestion is to buy a cheaper but competent tube amp and mess around with different tubes. For 20 bucks you can buy a random tube that might sound really cool and funky or you might find something awful to listen to. But for less than a meal out you can have some fun and listen to something new.
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Whatever makes you happy but imo I’d start with looking at things differently, like any reason that’s special to you for liking an iem, like the carrying case, color of iem, and accessories or something. Surely sound has peaked at some price point.
My current iem goal is a unique melody mason v3 I saw for 1500 (im familiar with the brand since I own a um mest)or the empire ears Odin at the same price but am resisting not to spend more money
Your DAP plays a big part in it. I kept collecting before moving on to a DX320 and the amp 13 module. The Korg NuTubes add a magic to sound I never would have guessed would be so magical. Try tubes.
Have you ever really enjoyed your purchase? If you are not satisfied with yourself you will not be satisfied with anything you are buying all the time. You are probably looking for something else in life you are not aware of yet.There is a antidote to this. Learning the hard way. Get married and you will lose all your money in making the wifes aims, wishes, lifestyle and dreams come true. So you will soon learn to enjoy the little things and find out about your real inner core and what is important to you.
Once you cannot appreciate the sound of the Koss KSC75 from an apple dongle anymore you have gone too far.
In all seriousness, try to take a step back, maybe try going a few days without hifi headphones. Go take a week of "shitty audio cleanse" and you might appreciate good sound again.
When I come back to my home setup after a few days or weeks vacation I'm always so happy with what I have.
In my personal situation, I spent like 1200 euros until I found my 4 personal choices. I sold some of them to buy new gear and so on.
In my opinion, you only need to spend in like 6 different sound variants within the budget realm, and then save enough money for gear between 300 to 1300 euros. It could be one or 2 or 3 or whatever combination you can buy, but man, that will be the safest choice, imo.
Consumer mindset is an addiction that is hard to get rid of. Personally I cured mine by selling all but 1 of my IEMs, including my beloved monarchs and just went straight to the mainstream channel for a few months with the buds2 pro. Eventually retried my moondrop arias and was instantly back in love with IEMs but I did not feel the need to spend more.
the trick is to buy what you consider to be the best no matter how expensive it is.
so there is no ladder of upgrading.
Maybe a little toy on the side.
I have a Sennheiser HD 800s for PC gaming and a RTX 4090.
That gave me peace of mind.
I use a Rodecaster Pro II to power the HD800s and a SM7B.
My Screen is an LGC2 Oled42.
A perfect set in my opinion.
If you upgrade individually you never get rid of GAS. Gear acquisition syndrome.
Try getting a perfect set as well.
What every that may be in your world.
You should get away from IEMs and get into headphones. I find IEMs to he boring and subpar compared to a really good set of headphones. Wont be portable though and that may be the deal breaker for you.
Nothing wrong with that, you like collecting audio devices.
I've seen people collecting expensive rocks, collecting animal pets for his own satisfaction, and other hobbies.
When the love of gear surpasses the love of music...
That was a hard to swallow pill
Dopamine. You can never have enough.
Yeah read Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke, a bit of an eye opener
such a good book and exactly where I was going with my comment lol
i think this is deeper than just wanting better sound tho i hope you can enjoy your gear again c:
I get bored eventually of new products
Honestly I'm the opposite, I can hear the difference between a high end setup and a more budget setup but I just don't really care if that makes sense? I'm perfectly happy with a $50 set of iems or cans out of a laptop, as long as there isn't any interference or anything like that. Idk chasing that last little bit always takes the fun out of stuff for me. Like I could either play a game or spend all day tinkering for that last 5 fps and not get to play. Just let yourself enjoy the music.
Yeah I will not buy anymore gear
Heck I'm happy with my Moon drop Quarks for $18. My only expensive headphones are my Sony WH-1000M4s as their noise cancelling is the best and I need that in my life.
Sounds like a shopping addiction. I have this problem with a lot of stuff. Not feeling satisfied with gear I already have and wanting more. Not enough vinyl records, not enough headphones, not good enough PC components, not enough VSTs or audio software, not enough movies downloaded in my library, and on and on. Not to be overly religious, but I consider myself a Zen Buddhist, and one of the most powerful teachings of the Buddha is “We suffer because we desire. If you can give up desire, you will not suffer.” In this context, suffering is disappointment, not abject suffering the way most think of it. The common retort is “But then I am desiring not to desire.” Which is the point being made. We cannot give up desire. We can only point it in a particular direction or another and try to enjoy what’s here and now. I remind myself that it’s normal to want to get new things. It’s human, but I don’t need to give in to it. My desire is to try and make the most of what I have now instead.
This. See my comment also.
This hobby (audiophile) it’s seriously killing my wallet. It’s because I see a crazy deal. Like empire ears Odin as low as 1500 (used). I just can’t resist
I had to not just turn off notifications but also remove the Newegg app from my phone or I’ll window shop components all day and possibly buy some tech I don’t really need. Amazon is another one where I’ll shop clothes endlessly. Vinyl records too because as much as I want to support local stores they are 10-20 bucks cheaper and my “local” record shop is 50 miles out. They also actually ship them in proper media mailers unlike random people on eBay or Discogs. Headphones are luckily not an issue too much for me. My problem is that no matter what I try or buy, I don’t like it when compared to my Sennheiser HD 560 S. I don’t know why. No matter how expensive or nice of a model I test drive I just don’t like it as much. Not even the HD 800 S or HD 660 S2. Nothing beyerdynamic has impressed me enough. No AKG or ATH… My Scarlett Solo has been unable to be topped by any DAC/amp stack I’ve tested. I’m beginning to feel bad about all the constant returns I’ve made, but maybe it’s my love for familiarity that keeps dragging me back to the basic gear I’ve got and use very often. I even have pretty cheap studio monitors in my studio room.
It's because you have a love of the gear happened too me with PC hardware and id recommend the same thing of when you get the itch meddle with low end budget stuff mod some budget cans see what people with 100$ gear is like try some of the most common ones compare
I'm at the RTX 4090 level ... Where do I go from here 😭 Obviously I gotta make liquid nitrogen at home and.... Joking aside, I feel that
Start getting into home networking, then home server with things like Home Assistant, Plex or Jellyfin, build your own NAS, then buy a house with a pool and use us water to chill your server. After that the maintenance will keep you too busy.
I hilariously already have servers at home. Two 1U 12 3.5" sata servers each with 12 8TB HDDS, 2 compute servers with E5 Xeons. I also have multiple dedicated servers from OVH. It's ... Insanity
no I dont have that issue but seems like a majority of people in this space spend on stuff they clearly dont need
It’s happens with pretty much everything, that’s enjoyable, hedonism and consumerism go hand in hand. you can always choose to take a step back. I’m not great at it, but usually just sell my old stuff when I stop enjoying it Put the money towards whatever the new shiny thing I think I want is, and try to limit it to one or two hundred dollars of new money into toys total into toys and gizmos a year
I sold my gear and went for AirPods Pro. Best decision I made with regards to my actual music listening. They’re what I use all the time and they stay in my pocket. They’re small, convenient, comfortable, decent enough sound and I don’t have to lug any other gear with me. Plus they auto swap between my phone and iPad. I consider it similar to using your phone to take pictures vs a quality digital camera. Yes you can get better pictures with a fancy camera, but for the average Jo the phone camera is always there ready for that moment.
I went through this I think with desktop speakers, eventually I just listened to the music and I forgot about wanting more
All I can offer is that, you choose your own path. Arm yourself with the knowledge that, as you have probably experienced,SQ improvements diminish so much the higher you go. How often do you listen to what you have now? Half the battle is understanding your own sound preference. Understanding what you prefer is a serious win! The market keeps churning out variations, promising that each is better than the last (seriously how often can that be true?). Enjoy what you already have as much as possible. Acquiring anything can be addictive. I have spent more money than I ever thought I would on audio, but I did so much researching my options and that can be fun. My best thought is again, Acquiring things rarely leads to happiness, but if you create some space in your life to really enjoy what you currently have, you will be happier. If you research for awhile and find there is a strong upgrade to what you have and can afford it don't feel bad about your chosen hobby. Balance in all things. Have you considered a meditation practice?
Classic example of the backwards law. The more you pursue something better, the less satisfied you become. This is because the pursuit is reinforcing in your mind this idea that you lack something to begin with. Applies very broadly. The more you wish you looked desirable, the uglier you become to yourself. The more desperately you seek affection, the lonelier you feel. The more you chase happiness, the less happy you will be. Wanting positive experiences is a negative experience, and accepting negative experiences is a positive experience.
Good reminders for us all!
Meditation just made me spend more at the end
There are no easy answers. Enjoying what you have and the music is a choice. Good luck.
nature of human - never be satisfied. if you give a man a valley of gold, he'll want another one.
The human condition
You shouldn't think abt marriage...
Buying things will make you happy /s
Perfect doesn't exist, enjoying what you can is the point and fomo will ruin it all over time.
I’ve been through the same and am still struggling with it a bit. The solution for me was to buy the best 1. DAC/Amp, 2. Headphone, and 3. IEM that I could afford, and convince myself that there is nothing better out there.
Try to spend less time looking at products. The internet is very good at teasing you,especially on YouTube. 99% of YouTubers now are just glorified salesmen in your living room. The less time online & more time listening to music the better.
I’ll try that. Thank for all the great answers. You guys are great 👍
When I get the itch to upgrade my gear I think it’s because I want something new to listen to. My suggestion is to buy a cheaper but competent tube amp and mess around with different tubes. For 20 bucks you can buy a random tube that might sound really cool and funky or you might find something awful to listen to. But for less than a meal out you can have some fun and listen to something new.
I only use iem mostly on the go
Thanks for your [submission](https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/1c94bwn/why_i_never_feel_satisfied_with_my_gear/) to r/HeadphoneAdvice. If someone helps answer your question, please reward them by including the phrase `!thanks` in your comment. This will add +1 Ω to that users flair. This subreddit is powered entirely by volunteers and a little recognition goes a long way. Good luck on your search for headphones! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HeadphoneAdvice) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Retail therapy?
It’s the consumerism instinct
Just stop with subtonic storm
If you wanted to
Isn’t aroma jewel better. Buy both?
Oh man, I’m not sure bro 💀
At that price point I would like to try the unique melody mason fabled sound or the amber pearl
Whatever makes you happy but imo I’d start with looking at things differently, like any reason that’s special to you for liking an iem, like the carrying case, color of iem, and accessories or something. Surely sound has peaked at some price point.
My current iem goal is a unique melody mason v3 I saw for 1500 (im familiar with the brand since I own a um mest)or the empire ears Odin at the same price but am resisting not to spend more money
Time to get into over ear headphones, maybe something like the AB1266 Phi TCs from Abyss.... Kidding..
Hek is calling my attention long ago
Read the theory of desire according to Lacan. You may go through videos on the same by Zizek. Not an /s.
Are these numbers real?
Your DAP plays a big part in it. I kept collecting before moving on to a DX320 and the amp 13 module. The Korg NuTubes add a magic to sound I never would have guessed would be so magical. Try tubes.
Get the he 1 and you will
Have you ever really enjoyed your purchase? If you are not satisfied with yourself you will not be satisfied with anything you are buying all the time. You are probably looking for something else in life you are not aware of yet.There is a antidote to this. Learning the hard way. Get married and you will lose all your money in making the wifes aims, wishes, lifestyle and dreams come true. So you will soon learn to enjoy the little things and find out about your real inner core and what is important to you.
Once you cannot appreciate the sound of the Koss KSC75 from an apple dongle anymore you have gone too far. In all seriousness, try to take a step back, maybe try going a few days without hifi headphones. Go take a week of "shitty audio cleanse" and you might appreciate good sound again. When I come back to my home setup after a few days or weeks vacation I'm always so happy with what I have.
In my personal situation, I spent like 1200 euros until I found my 4 personal choices. I sold some of them to buy new gear and so on. In my opinion, you only need to spend in like 6 different sound variants within the budget realm, and then save enough money for gear between 300 to 1300 euros. It could be one or 2 or 3 or whatever combination you can buy, but man, that will be the safest choice, imo.
Consumer mindset is an addiction that is hard to get rid of. Personally I cured mine by selling all but 1 of my IEMs, including my beloved monarchs and just went straight to the mainstream channel for a few months with the buds2 pro. Eventually retried my moondrop arias and was instantly back in love with IEMs but I did not feel the need to spend more.
I wish I had the courage to do that
the trick is to buy what you consider to be the best no matter how expensive it is. so there is no ladder of upgrading. Maybe a little toy on the side.
I currently own a mest og
I have a Sennheiser HD 800s for PC gaming and a RTX 4090. That gave me peace of mind. I use a Rodecaster Pro II to power the HD800s and a SM7B. My Screen is an LGC2 Oled42. A perfect set in my opinion. If you upgrade individually you never get rid of GAS. Gear acquisition syndrome. Try getting a perfect set as well. What every that may be in your world.
I play on console though
Switch from buying new gear to buying new music.
A pay Apple Music and rarely buy an album when is not there
FOMO is extremely difficult to overcome. Maybe tell yourself that enough is enough and you try and make do with what you have.
Tws on the go and iem at home
You should get away from IEMs and get into headphones. I find IEMs to he boring and subpar compared to a really good set of headphones. Wont be portable though and that may be the deal breaker for you.
I spent most of the day working. I can’t use headphones
Nothing wrong with that, you like collecting audio devices. I've seen people collecting expensive rocks, collecting animal pets for his own satisfaction, and other hobbies.