Thoughts on my wild journey as a headphone reviewer.
When the legendary speaker designer, Andrew Jones suggested I join the then San Francisco Audiophile Foundation, he said I would find a fabulous group of folks (and oh, so much more…).
Backing up just a bit to explain how I was even talking with Andrew, I get very philosophical when I think about how chains of events can lead to unexpected opportunities.
A number of years ago, I wanted to upgrade my Cambridge SoundWorks bookshelf speakers to something more impactful, so I turned to Craigslist, here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I came across a guy who had a passion for accumulating audio gear. He had decided it was time (I think his wife had some “encouraging” words about that) to sell several floor standing speakers. I had always loved the sound of B&W speakers, as well as Klipsch, which he had listed. In fairness my exposure to both was limited, but I had romantic idealism. After all, B&W had been the studio monitors at Apple Studios at 3 Savile Row in London for years.
I gave him a call, and mentioned I didn’t have a clear sense of what I might be interested in. He generously offered to bring over three pairs of speakers for me to audition; all being very different from each other, and, I could hear how they sounded in the room. He mentioned that if I heard them all, perhaps I would get a better sense of what I actually liked, versus preconceived notions.
He brought the B&Ws, the Klipsh, and a name I didn’t know; Infinity (Overture Two). He set them up and had me listen. I was surprised to find that what I enjoyed the most were the Infinity Overtures. So, I bought them at a very reasonable price. And the adventure began… they were a fabulous jump in quality, and, because they were active, and had built-in down firing subwoofers, I was able to get rid of a bulky subwoofer that kept getting in the way. However, they were missing the spikes underneath and were wobbly on our carpet. Living a half mile from the Hayward fault, I wanted spikes to help stabilize them. There was nothing available anywhere; these were a couple of decades old. In desperation I did a search on the internet and found that Andrew Jones (who had designed them) was working at a company named Elac. I naively thought that if I could find him and tell him my plight, that of course he would still have some old spikes laying around I could buy… I called Elac, expecting to leave a message for Andrew, but they put me through to him. He was delighted I had those old Infinities and said he would check in with the engineer who built them to see if they had any old spikes for them. If you know Andrew, you know that there isn’t a more generous person who gives his time to beginners like me. In fact, he became something of a teacher to me; answering questions in back-and-forth emails; really giving me an in-depth look into not only speakers and their myths, but headphones, something I had a passion for, but limited experience with. I asked him if he enjoyed headphones, being a speaker guy and all…and he said that when he listened to headphones, he enjoyed his STAX. I had never heard of either STAX or electrostatic headphones, so I learned about those as well.
His best advice, however, was suggesting I reach out to a group of audiophiles, especially Leslie Lundin, who was the president of their club, and who was in my area. So, three years ago, I signed up. I’m grateful to Andrew because not only did I find my tribe, but wonderful friends, and a future as a headphone reviewer, thanks to fellow member John Johnson who put a notice out that he was looking for reviewers for his online audio magazine. Though I had scant knowledge about any gear, I did know a tiny bit about headphones because they were something I loved. I contacted John and asked if they needed anyone for headphones. In fact, they did want to bring on more headphone reviewers, so he set up a phone interview with himself and his new editor-in-chief, Carlo Lo Raso. It was a long, but relaxed interview, really being more about me prattling on about how much I loved my Bowers and Wilkins headphone collection and talking about the requirements of the job. Honestly, it sounded overwhelming, and, to me, it was clear I didn’t have the experience as either a writer, or the technical knowledge I thought a reviewer should have. By the end of the call, I expected a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” moment, but instead, John said, we’ll send you some paperwork to fill out. Yikes! What had I gotten myself into? The only writing I had ever done, was for the Muse, thanks to a request by the editorial team after I wrote a short report about a field trip the club had gone on. I did have some experience as an occasional freelance photographer, and that meant I could add my own photos to the review, so I was able to offer that. I don’t know if John agreed to invite me to join the magazine because he saw a glimmer of potential, or, more likely, a woman reviewer in the audio world was a rarity, and he wanted to bring more women on board.
For me, I was excited about the chance to listen to headphones I would never experience otherwise. I thought they might want a few paragraphs about my experience listening to whatever they sent me. Views from an average consumer sort of thing. And then, that was when the trial by fire began. John asked me to write an opinion piece about why I loved headphones. An introduction to their readership about who I was.
I sent him a cheery simple piece about what I thought he was looking for but got back detailed notes. Why, he asked, did I prefer wired headphones over Bluetooth? What was the current state of Bluetooth Codecs and could I please explain the history of Bluetooth and the various Codecs. Honestly, I didn’t even know what a Codec was…and why did I love binaural recordings? What about the history of that? Technical details, please.
I owe much of my love of and comfort with audio gear to my father, who was a professor of electrical engineering. I was a bright kid, but my father’s attempts at educating me about the technical side of all that cool audio gear just couldn’t sink in and I much preferred to be outside riding one of our horses. He never stopped trying to turn me into his little engineer, but it was clear I was much more like my artist/poet mother...
And so, the echoes of my father’s stern looks and lectures paralyzed me as John’s requests for precise, accurate writing about technical subjects I knew nothing about increased in intensity. English was one of my worst subjects in school, having never gotten over the trauma of trying to diagram sentences; something as opaque as algebra was for this very right-brained student. I guess karma is destiny, because what I had avoided with my father was right in front of me now. I seriously wondered if I had somehow oversold my skills to John and Carlo, because I honestly thought they, and I had made a mistake.
However, what has always driven my learning is a burning curiosity to know about things. And what was in front of me were Codecs and Bluetooth. When I learned that Bluetooth technology was named after a Viking king named Harald Bluetooth, who had united Norway and Denmark. I was hooked. I had to know more. And suddenly even Codecs were interesting. And John still asked for more. He told me I had one chance to impress the mostly male readership with this first article. My pride kicked in and I knew I couldn’t quit. I finally turned in the article and John’s simple response was “good”. My dad would have been proud.
I owe John Johnson a debt of gratitude. He pushed me past my fear and doubt. He showed me I could write about technical things. Shortly thereafter, I received my first headphone to review; the Edifier WH950NB Bluetooth wireless headphones. Priced at $179.00. I was so relieved to be asked to write about a headphone that was consumer level rather than high end. It was like they were giving me training wheels, and I thought I would gradually progress up the prestige ladder as I proved myself (by the way, that review and all the others I’ve written so far are published here in the “New Toys” section).
The training wheels came off big time with the next review. The HED Unity; the world’s first wi-fi enabled lossless, hi-res wireless headphones. The pressure was on. I felt the responsibility of writing about a “world’s first” technology and crossed my fingers the HED company didn’t find out that a brand-new reviewer was going to write about their first venture. After that, it was learning about IEMs, dynamic and planar magnetic headphones including two HIFIMAN offerings; the Arya Organic (which is still one of my favorites) and the Susvara Unveiled.
18 articles later, just as I was almost getting comfortable with these reviews, today I received notice I will be reviewing another “first” for a manufacturer, and once again I’m back in the deep end of the pool. I don’t know much about amplifiers at all, other than having reviewed to portable dongle DACS. And I just found out that I’m being trusted with writing a worthy review of the Rotel DX3, the fabled Japanese company’s first venture into the headphone DAC/Amp market. It’s back to the books; learning about the basics of amplifiers and DACS; more importantly how to evaluate one.
It’s a wild ride, and I have the Audiophile Foundation to thank for the support and encouragement by so many of you. Stay tuned.