The good folk of MCF may have found themselves subject to my yapping about music. In this post, allow me to briefly expand on audiophilia, which I consider an equally important aspect of music appreciation.

I feel that humans ultimately want experiences that provide them with the satisfaction and novelty of being alive - eating good food, proficiency in their craft, or more relevantly here on MCF putting a car through its paces on the track. Audio gear, I like to think, goes hand in hand with the music itself to provide listeners with auditory nirvana.

A BRIEF HISTORY

Audiophilia was and still is a rather niche hobby. Audio quality is highly subjective given the lack of consensus on what sounds good, so marketers have to convince consumers to buy even mainstream gear with other appeals like status (primarily the result of brand endorsements) and the number of features (active noise cancellation, Bluetooth connection, etc.). In addition, the hobby has always been seen as one for the rich, an understandable sentiment given the proliferation of snake oil that sees the foolish buying cables costing thousands that claim to improve the sound of their home systems.

But what about personal audio (i.e. headphones and earphones)? While there are still pieces of gear with frankly ridiculous (with a few exceptions) price tags lurking in audio stores, in recent years, there has been a consumer-friendly trend. Good sound can now be had for as low as SGD$30 (often less during sales).

This is in large part due to the rise of Chinese manufacturers who disrupted an industry long dominated by Western and Japanese brands, first with affordable yet decent-sounding products, and in recent times employing cutting-edge components that can sometimes come across as self-indulgent. The likes of Moondrop and Truthear produce some of the most popular budget products, while others like HiFiMan and I\O Audio represent Chi-Fi as worthy contenders to established brands like Sennheiser and Sony.

For an idea of the Chinese market’s scale, here’s a video from renowned audiophile Crinacle, whose claim to fame is creating the world’s largest database of IEM measurements.

Is there a catch? Of course - you still get what you pay for. While much of the sound from a piece of gear can be achieved with promising new technology and in recent times software, the laws of physics do not always allow these to match up to critically-acclaimed gear that make extensive use of R&D to achieve their sound, not to mention higher-quality parts for the overall build implemented in an almost-artisan manner.

However, like other consumerist hobbies (watches, mechanical keyboards, fountain pens, and to some extent cars), price tags don’t always correlate with better value. Diminishing returns hit hard at a certain price point, but what that price point is depends on the person.

MY STORY

As detailed in a duology of posts, I fell in love with music slightly late as a kid. Consumer technology was already a major interest of mine, and when these intertwined I was naturally going to look for audio gear to experience music in the best way possible.

Unfortunately in 2013, I fell into the consumer trap of buying the Street by 50 On-Ear headphones, mostly because I wanted to be different from the Beats and Audio-Technica ATH-M50x owners (and being unwilling to pay for either).

For the rest of my teenage years, I got hold of a smattering of gear (as broke teenagers are wont to do), with the most notable being:

• A Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro (the longest-surviving piece in my collection) from Jaben Singapore when they offered them in a combo with a cheaper on-ear pair (a DTX 501p) for SGD$199 in 2017 
• JBL TLX 60 speakers and Luxman L-80 amplifier from my maternal grandfather in 2015 (he and his brother-in-law, my granduncle, are audiophiles of the speaker variety) which now sit in the living room
• Ultimate Ears triple.fi 10 in-ear monitors (IEMs), a Christmas gift my father received from a colleague in 2015 that I “stole” and turned into my daily driver for a couple of years (until I broke the left earpiece in 2021 when I pulled too hard trying to disconnect the cable)

As I took the UE triple.fi 10 out for this post, I found the black plastic all cracked up. Note the hole where the 2-pin connector would be.

Heartbroken I was, I considered re-shelling the triple.fis. Reshelling is the process of transferring the inner components of an IEM, both drivers and circuitry, into a new shell. This is often done to turn universal-fit IEMs (which are designed to fit the majority of users) into custom IEMs (where the shape of the shell is based on moulds of a specific user’s ears), and since I was already curious about CIEMs, I figured it would be a win-win situation.

However, a certain IEM released right around this time. I decided to give it a try at SAM Audio (when they were still at Sim Lim Square), and left satisfied.

DEEP DIVING

Around the final third of 2023, my parents embarked on a cruise around the world, while my brother was serving National Service and thus often in camp. I was taking music composition modules during that semester of my part-time studies, so I took the liberty of buying myself music equipment, in particular the Sony MDR-MV1, to help with recording both my school work and my personal projects.

The MDR-MV1 is the Japanese brand’s first pair of open-back headphones in over a decade.

I had been eyeing a pair of open-backs for a while to complement the closed-back Custom One Pros (henceforth the COP) due to their inherently superior audio reproduction, and after a two-hour session at local audio cafe Zeppelin & Co. comparing the MV1 with classics like the Sennheiser HD600 and spiritual successors like the Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X, I made my choice.

The next year, I got my first-ever bonus, and while I was thinking what to get with a small portion (after CPF, “filial piety tax” and 50% of the total as savings), Dad asked if we wanted to do a makeover of the study room, where our family of four would eventually work and play in (though my brother and I had “taken over” the room years ago when we got a shared gaming PC).

I decided to get a pair of studio monitors to provide myself with another reference for mixing audio (both for video work and music production) even if I didn’t have the room treatment in place to get the best sound out of them. I had an audition list, but after listening to the first pair, the Kali Audio LP-6 v2 at Sinamex on a Saturday morning, I placed an order. The impulse turned out to be instinct, as I would find myself underwhelmed by the other options I heard later at Luther Music (Yamaha HS5, JBL 305P Mk II, Adam Audio T5V) despite all of them being well-established gear among musicians and audio engineers the world over.

My parents were shocked at the size of the LP-6s when they arrived at our doorstep (16" MacBook Pro for scale). But big speakers = big sound, literally.

THE JOURNEY COMES TO A HALT

Once I got the LP-6s, I realised I had a slight excess of audio gear. With the studio monitors making up most of my home listening time, I was mostly using the MV1s when I did not want to disturb my family, needed to check audio in detail for videos and music, or making online calls.

It was more complicated at work. Early into my career at Sgcarmart, I was exclusively using the Arias, but found over time that my ear canals were getting irritated, forcing me to work without audio monitoring increasing frequently. Soon after I got the MV1s, I brought the COP to work to reduce my time with IEMs, but my 11.11 impulse purchase of the Truthear Hexa (also from SAM Audio when they still had exclusive distribution rights) in 2023 meant I now had two IEMs to work with.

In the end, I decided to make the Hexas my main pair, while the Arias would be primarily used for outdoor shoots as its bubbling paint (which I shaved down eventually) meant they were more suitable sacrifices in unforseen circumstances.

A side-by-side view of the Moondrop Aria, one before and the other given a rough shave down with some sandpaper.

ENDGAME

In consumerist hobbies like audiophilia, are there even stopping points? In the past few years since I dove into this rabbit hole, I’ve tried quite a number of gear, and found that endgame is a state of mind.

Now that I’ve covered my bases (speakers, headphones, IEMs), I treat audiophilia as a hobby where I try gear I have yet to listen to, but abstain from buying them until something in my collection needs replacing.

Speaking of which, I forgot to mention I’ve had the Sony WF-1000XM3 as my on-the-go solution for about four years now, and they are starting to die on me (I get the “Low battery, please charge the headset” notification with every use, where it used to be almost weekly). What should I get next…

~ Wei Feng

Images from: Myself