They’re Audio Technica CM2000Ti, Definitely on the top end for earbuds and hold up for the price, earbuds arnt for everyone though
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Lulz the mountains are you in NE Wyoming or Idaho?
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Oh my bad lol, Im in the Alberta Canadian Rockies actually
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Teton would be a good name for an earbud or an iem though
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For me, it was learning to set expectations and learn what to listen for. When I first got into this hobby seriously, I did a lot of research on gear in my budget and recall reading tons of reviews with over the top hyperbole like ‘my jaw dropped’ and ‘night and day difference’ — all the BS phrases that some reviewers love to gush. So when I finally bought the (expensive to me at the time) new gear and set it up, finally pushed play and listened, I was expecting to be the Maxell guy, totally blown away with never-before-heard amazing sound. What I heard was… a little better. Nothing ‘night-and day’. I mean, it was still the same music I had listened to before! It wasn’t like the songs were completely transformed. I was underwhelmed and wondered if I had done something wrong and what I was missing.
I realized that reviewer phrases like that were misleading and that different gear doesn’t magically transform something that sounds decent to something that sounds like angels are singing it in the round, if that’s what you’re expecting. Everything is in context. As I’ve gone further into this hobby I realized that one has to be tuned in to what they’re hearing before and after an upgrade, to try to be super open-minded and realize that the changes are broader and milder at the 4,000 foot view, but once you zoom in, you hear the real differences if they’re there. Sounds simple enough now, but it took a while to understand and realize it.
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This is the part a lot of people outside the “hobby” miss, and why at some level the “hobby” is a bit self absorbed. You have to learn to listen critically.
I’ve said before the most useful discussions I’ve had on gear have been discussing with others what they hear in comparison to my own experiences, distinct from their or my preferences. I was lucky enough that when I was at University, there were half a dozen others also getting into Hifi at the same time.
It’s more difficult to do on the internet unfortunately, because you can’t both sit there in front of the gear and discuss it in real time, and you never know what other factors are impacting an experience.
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I have probably had about 12-15 rental cars in the past year for whatever reason. Each time I get one, I always have a criticism of the audio system in one aspect or another and explain it to whomever is riding with me. That’s basically the only discussion I can have on what we are hearing in in real time. Car audio systems are vastly different from one vehicle to the next, so its a different beast. But, there are some models I refuse to rent.
It’s the incremental changes that get very nuanced. Once you have a system you like and know very intimately. Tinkering to achieve some sort of sonic change (better or worse/slight or drastic, unexpected) is all part of the fun.
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I want to do one of those overnight luxury trains through the Canadian Rockies.
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That’s what you’re going to run into for the most part when you start. They’ll also accompany those reviews with short links where you can run right out and buy them things they’re raving about.
That said, I’ve had those “my jaw dropped” moments in my own journey. So they exist and they exist for a reason. usually that reason is crossing some sort of threshold. Like moving out of your PC as your USB source. Or connecting a DDC or finding the right headphone/amp pairing. Synergy goes a long way and IMO is the component that so many reviewers don’t touch on and thus leads to the lack of being blown away. Your chain and the reviewers chain may not be the same and thus a lot can be lost in translation.
That’s why you should try thing yourself, try them at home in your own chain and either buy something you can resell for no much or no loss and gain the experience.
I’ll add one thing, the most “finished” your chain is, the more noticeable some changes that would otherwise go unnoticed can be. It’s why the diminishing returns argument tends to get a bit nebulous and why throwing $5k at a $60k chain can still account for a jaw drop experience especially if you’re upgrading a bottleneck.
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I think to summarize my first impressions of upgrading to ‘real’ hifi gear was really that I was over-expecting, especially based on those reviews and articles. What I actually heard was pretty good, but not mind-blowing. So the lesson learned was that my expectations weren’t realistic (I didn’t know what to expect, but clearly I was expecting too much).
As I’ve had more and more experiences with equipment, be it at shows, other friends’ systems or my own journey, I’ve come to learn more of the parameters within what to expect, and in that context I can more accurately and realistically assess what I’m hearing and to what degree it’s significant.
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My latest lessons learned, as someone owning a lot of gear as many of you 
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YT-reviews are a starting point, but never ever blindly purchase based on an review (if you are not yet experienced enough! NO EXPERT is born over night!! Listen, Read, Learn!)
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Don’t try every time you listen to music to analyze it to your gear, it will make you unhappy and you get a listener fatigue. I make a clear distinction between: “listening to music” and “testing new gear”.
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If you go “up-the-hifi-chain”, buy used from trusted, local dealer which are specialized with highend gear …except you don’t know what else you should waste money for, but you loose in the first 6 months as much money as with cars
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Listen as much in different places (preferable in “real-life” private homes and not brutal-acoustic-treated dealer rooms). I’ve met a lot of Hifi-Enthusiast, as well extreme-DIYer’s and it was always tremendous helpful in my learning curve!
HAVE fun with this wonderful hobby and most important: ENJOY THE MUSIC, as long your hearing is still fine 
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This is such a good lesson to learn. It changed my perceptions a lot too when it occurred to me. Finding a sound I like is so much more interesting and less expensive than chasing the new shiny and pricey. I still get tempted but then I listen to some music and realise how much fun I am having with what I already own.
I am also going to add a recent lesson I have drawn from my DIY projects:
Using a very clean digital signal, shielded cables to eliminate as much interference as possible and good, clean power supplies will make most low- and mid-fi sound noticeably better.
This is how I learnt it:
I tune my DIY gear with tweaks as I learn. I recently swapped all the internal AC power cables in my Whammy for heavily shielded mains cable between rear panel, power switch and transformer and this took it from a good class A with some typical background fuzz to something with a background black enough for IEMs. My next tweak will be a rebuild with a PSU section physically separated from the amp pcb.
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A friend reached out to me earlier today bitching that his AV receiver blew and he was going to need to replace it. I offered proper condolences on his loss. Then he let me know he was going to use the opportunity to replace his speakers too. I congratulated him on his future purchases. He started to prod me on brand choices for new equipment. I reminded him that ALL my stuff is older and outdated and that he is the type that enjoys shiny, new technology of which i know less than nothing about, especially when dealing with AV equipment.
He reminded me that he’s been to my home often enough to know that I have a substantial investment in AV gear, again prodding me for a recommendation of Speakers. I promptly then texted him links to proper AV equipment forums and proper AV centric web sites where folks love to review and endlessly talk about the newest fanciest gear available.
His next response was delayed by a good 20 minutes, and it was a proper “thank you” for giving him some good places to start his research. One of the best lessons i have learned about this hobby is that my appreciation, adoration, and preference in equipment is genuinely my own and to be shared sparingly and w/ caution w/ friends and acquaintances 
There is no faster way to lose a friend than to possibly steer them wrong when they are excited about spending thousands of dollars. It’s best to let friends make their own decisions and to leave the arm twisting to the salespeople and manufacturers marketing. 
I enjoy my stuff and happily try to share my own personal experiences here in the forum but over the years I’ve accepted the fact that everyday no matter my newest experiences at best I would consider myself a seasoned neophyte of the hobby. Friendship saved and friend happily moved on to spend his hard earned money making his own choices. 
I had to pat myself on the back knowing i done good 
using wisdom instead o my desire to spew forth rambling opinions.
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Remind your friend that in this uncertain geopolitically charged economy, save his money and pick up used stuff for pennies on the dollar after the coming crash of all crashes. You know this shit ain’t ending well.
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Holy thread revival Bat Man, but I believe it’s an appropriate location for it.
I don’t believe I’ve shared this, but it’s a game changer.
For many many years, I used one of those business laptop streamline external CD drives because they were convinient.
Well a year or so ago when I decided to re-rip many of my incomplete albums, I swiched to this setup. It’s a 18 year old internal CD drive, you know, from back in the days when we actually used CDs for media. I got an external SATA connector for it, with an external 12v PS and I put some foam on the bottom of it. Used whatever decent USB cable I had laying around.
Holy shit what a tremendous time savings. Where before I used to get roughly 8 to 10X and a max of 14X or so on good CDs. Now I’m getting 20X on average and often hitting 28X and greater while ripping. Additionally, CD errors or misreads are next to non existent. If you’re still using one of those shitty external drives, kick it to the curb, pronto.
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@dB_Cooper , did you add a PASS HPA-1 to your HP set-up?
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Yeap, being fed by the Lumin A1, but I haven’t been able to really “listen” to the full chain yet. My Lavricables were stuck in Portuguese customs for 3 weeks! I get them Monday though, so very much looking forward to it.
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Out of the box problem solving skills 
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