Yes, I remember when I once bought Deep Purple’s “Made in Japan” on CD, some 20 or more years ago… It was such a disappointment. As I had an old vinyl recording (most likely the “original” pressing) that I listened to back in the days, I was shocked how compressed the digital mastering sounded in comparison. It took all the fun away and was clearly inferior.

Yet another rabbit hole? I just started tube rolling my headphone amp and opened the floodgates… 😱

Interesting to hear that there’s a growing jazz catalogue, I really only had SACDs in mind when thinking about classical music. Nevertheless, my Marantz CD-6007 only plays compact discs, so that would be another (probably hefty) invest I’d rather put into my headphone chain (good thing I don’t have a room where I can put speakers the way I’d like to (having a wife and my family around), so at least that’s a non-issue!).

If you’re near a city my advice would be to either find an audio store near you that will let you bring in your headphones to try on their equipment or check out if there are any head-fi meetups near you where individuals and sometimes companies bring their stuff for people to try.

That’s what I’m currently looking for… Hamburg ⚓️ people, do you hear me?

But if you can afford the Euforia I’d get that first and upgrade the DAC later since you already have good equipment and the amp will probably be more of a noticeable improvement between both components.

As I got sucked into the head-fi adventure some two years ago (damn!), I’m experiencing this massive rabbit hole of audiophile seductions (being a hobby photographer, I know the “gear acquisition syndrome” all too well) with a limited budget, so I’m not really sure if things like the Euforia are something I could or should afford if there’s something else that gives me more goose bumps for the buck.

Closing the cirlce, I’ll never find out until I tried – which brings us back to the first advice you’ve given. ;-)

It’s not an either or to me, and you are absolutely right: streaming subscriptions are probably the best way to discover new music – I wouldn’t want to miss it. But it’s been a few times already that albums from my streaming library weren’t available anymore or have been swapped with a new (and potentially remastered) release, which I find disturbing.

Good point. Supporting artists is another strong argument for buying physical media. You’d have to stream A LOT to have them being payed out correspondingly…

Back then, the first thing I did when visiting friends at their place for the first time was glancing through their records or CD collections which stood around. Quite often, it made them more interesting than before… Sometimes not. 😂

I personally never experienced any Hifiman QC issues, neither with the Ananda (after years of heavy use) nor the HE1000se (bought more recently), or the HE1000 Stealth I owned in between. To me, the build of their cans is maybe nothing to rave about, but definitely more than “good enough”. If you take care of your headphones, those should entertain you for years to come.