Focal Spirit One Headphone Contest!
Hey guys,
The contest is now closed. The winner that was selected randomly from the comments bellow, is valibanu, the 9th contestant that wrote here ( picked with random.org ) .
Thank you all for participating and reading/writing on my blog.
Don’t worry, I may start another contest soon 🙂 .
As I promised a few days ago I am organizing a contest that holds the wonderful Focal Spirit One as prize.
Read more about them here. You can also find them on www.jack-fi.ro .
I really love these headphones. Until now they are my favorite portable headphones and this even extends to “my favorite closed headphones“! I just love their full, articulate, fast and engaging sound.
The sponsor of the contest is jack-fi (audioconcept), and I thank them for their generosity and kindness. I spent a lot of time on their premises lately. Every time I go there for auditions, I learn new stuff and, unfortunately, end up craving for something new. I really think it is heck of a store and it has a great staff. Each and every one is a passionate audiophile.
If you live in Bucharest or you are just passing through, remember that you can always go to Jack-fi and hear their best systems from their 4 wonderful audition rooms.
To enter the contest you have to:
1. Like the HeadMania & AudioConcept(Jack-fi) facebook pages and and share this contest page with the title “Focal Spirit One HeadMania Headphones Contest!” or just share the contest post from the HeadMania facebook page.
2. Read the following posts : 7, 17, 24, 25 (you can find the associated posts to the numbers in the contents section ) and find the words that don’t fit the context. Send me an email with the resulting sentence at cascofil@gmail.com with the subject “HeadMania Spirit One Contest”. Don’t share the resulting sentence publicly or you will be disqualified.
3. Write a brief story, as a comment to this post about how you got into this hobby and how you explain/justify your upgrades to your wife/girlfriend/partner. I think this would benefit/inspire all of us for future purchases 😀
To be noted:
- The contest is available for any country fedex and dhl can ship to.
- The shipping expenses will be covered by the winner.
- The winner will be selected randomly from the ones that followed the rules above
- The winner will be announced after 3rd of June
These said, I wish all of you good luck and enjoy the reading.
Hello! It-s nice to find you here after some weeks of reading headfi forums in my oddisey for finding a decent pair of headphones 🙂
I began my quest by analizing my listening conditions….6 years ago i have built my first pair of speakers…i realized that they were very close to the quality of my father in law speakers and after this i have built 2 sattelites, a subwoofer and an amp with PAudio speakers….i have continued with a small 2x10W tube amp, then i have built a pair of TQWT speakers, i have bought a Harmann Kardon receiver and an ONKYO CD player…..after 3 years i realized another thing….i have not listen more that 3 hours of music on this system 🙂 This year i thought to research about headphones……that menat a huge amount of nights surfing the web searching for information. Forums, blogs, audiophile sites, portals etc…..after 3 months of research, i found that AKG K550 and ATH M-50 were the headphones i needed for listening at home during night and at the office so this is why i choose closed headphones. …..surfing and surfing on the net i found Audio Technica ATH M-50 at just 100 euros second hand so i told my wife that i exchanged some old headphones with a work colleague :)….I do now want to believe that she will ever understand the sums i am “investing” in my hobbyes so i “omit” to mention the prices like 99.9% of the husbands 🙂
To satisfy the requirements of this most excellent contest, I’d like to share store of the arrival of a pair of speakers – the first really high end piece of equipment I’d bought. This acquisition was really a tribute to my late grandfather – he was a ‘simply’ shop owner and butcher – but I know that hi-fi was a passion of his and I’d like to think I’m following in his footsteps. My wife was patient as I went down this path – and in the short story below, I think you’ll see that she eventually did approve of this purchase!
The speakers arrived yesterday.
Quite the event as my wife reports it. A giant tractor trailer partially blocks our little country road, so the neighbors come out to direct traffic. I’m not sure they are as interested in making sure the John Deeres can get by as much as they’re interested in gawking at the giant “THIEL” (?) boxes rolling up the lane.
My wife calls to report the arrival. I can tell she’s not happy with all the attention.
I suffer through the rest of the day at work, calling to “check” on the boxes several times. “They’re not in the sun, are they?” My wife finally sends an iPhone pic labeled: “baby picture”.
I want to text back asking if she can pose my two real children in with the boxes as well, but I think better of the idea.
My wife suffers through my distraction that evening as I clear out “her” room to serve as a testing room. My intention is to “break-in” the speakers here, and it’s clear that my spouse is hoping they break-in quickly, very quickly.
It is interesting then, that it’s my wife who is running her hand over the dark cherry finish as they’re freed from the cartons, “They really are beautiful.”
And when they’re finally set up (although I’ve long ago decided what track to play first) she’s again in the room, this time with a CD containing McCartney’s Mull of Kintyre.
I frown, I don’t recognize the CD, it’s probably a poor recording. “Would it be ok to play this one?,” she asks, “I went to this concert with my mum and sister.”
As the first notes come through these new speakers, my mind’s preoccupied with critical observations.
Meanwhile, tears are running down my wife’s face.
Since “audiophilism”, much like any other worth obsessing about hobby, is always an odyssey I’ll try my hand and my keyboard at writing this post Homer-style (no jokes with oppa Homer style please :P)
In times long gone a young boy lived,
He gamed, he read, he movies watched.
And music listened often did,
To crappy headphones he once found.
But when a student he became,
His music tastes evolved a lot.
And as his cans were rather lame,
Some entry level Senns he bought.
The years went by (and some hair too),
The music passion deepened still,
So with a smartphone that was cool
In-ears each year were the drill.
But a big danger has now lifted:
An audiophiliac friend appeared.
And soon for name-days cans were gifted,
And amplifiers to cards billed.
With no wife (or more) in the picture,
At least a stress was still avoided,
But who knows what comes in the future
So an advice: buy now when you afford it!
(Or win them from a blog if luck will have it.)
I got started on my audiophile journey for the best audio gear (headphones, preamps, recording gear, etc.) since I started writing music and collecting vinyl. I made it very clear to my girlfriend before we got together that music is my main passion in life, she’s also a music lover so we have that in common. She doesn’t mind me spending rediculous sums of money on audio gear because she enjoys it as well and it helps the relationship since we have so much in common musically. We both live for the magical moment ‘When Sound Becomes Music.’
As music is one of my most important activicy i always respected the tool which allows me to listen to it from hi-fi to instruments. My partner have similar interests so i don’t need to persuade her. I always try to remain within reasonable budget limits. I’ve recently bought a Focal XS Book which is one of the most beautiful speaker i ever had.
I use headphones for study and traveling. I got Shure in-ear monitor once, it was a very new level in enjoyment. I prefer the cleanness and intimacy of headphones over a stereo. I’ve auditioned a Beyerdynamic once and I’ve to admit i never heard music in such fullness. They were so itchy that i was happy to give them back. So something high end is not necessarily pleasing. I’ve read about these Spirit headphones, reviews are very good and i’m very curious about them.
Cheers!
Hello to every audio enthusiast!
I’m a few years in the audio field, I have little experience, but I enjoy every moment that I can listen to some good songs, recorded in high quality. And when favorite music is coming from a good source is playing through a pair of speakers or headphones professional training, then the result is up to expectations. and this is a magnificent thing. I am happy when I hear that there are other enthusiasts who understand that this has gone from being a hobby to something extreme, without which you can not conceive a nice lifestyle in harmony with everything around us. Thank you!
I am currently on my sister’s laptop as I write this n she is waiting for me to leave this laptop but I have managed to get a few minutes. Where is my laptop well I sold it because its too rare for someone to buy headphones here(Pakstan) let alone someone to sell Sennheiser IE8 for half the price, so I jumped at the opportunity n sold my laptop n bought the IEMs from the guy(although people say that laptop is my girlfriend). Unfortunately they where broken by me only after 3 months of listening n since then I have been collecting money to buy a nice headphone or earphone. All of my friends said i was mad when I bought those IEM but I thoroughly enjoyed them, the soundstage the wide spectrum everything was too good I was screaming the first time I heard “now we are free” from gladiator on it, it was eargasmik to say the least, they opened a whole new world that now I can never escape. My love for music was always there but it was when I started to hear movie’s OST(like the dark knight, gladiator, tron book of eli) I realized that I m getting serious. I am surviving now on ultimate ears UE200 which are good but clearly have limitations(frequency to 15kHz n offcourse soundstage n weak bass). I just tell my friends to forget the price n close ur eyes n just listen to it n than they admit that they can see(hear) why I have paid so much. I think in the end its all about priorities, if u want something u will definitely get it, and others will understand it too.
I’ll start by talking about music. I was lucky to have access to a variety of good music as a child. I have a brother, which is 10 years older than me, and a sister which is 8 years older than me. They started to really dig music and parties (like most of us) in high-school. I was still very young at that time, the little one which needed caring and attention :-), so I usually spent a lot of time with them. My sister was into the more emotional and romantic music, like Celine Dion and rock ballads, while my brother was more on the hard side (Prodigy, Beastie Boys) and classic rock. So I got the best of both worlds :-). At that point though music didn’t make that much sense to me. It sounded good and you could play-along, but that’s about it. When I reached high-school I discovered the beauty of it. Experimented a lot of genres, went to a few concerts and parties, and even DJ-ed at some.
Where am I getting with this you ask? I want to express that I don’t see music as a hobby. For me songs usually take you somewhere, they create a certain atmosphere when you listen to them. They sometimes deliver a message to you and sometimes just happen to play at the right moments with the right people 🙂 creating beautiful memories.
Music is also made to be experienced live at concerts, or with friends at parties and club nights. And it’s awesome. But in order to really enjoy music with others, I think you first need to do some discovery by yourself. So when you go to clubs and parties you have that “Hey! This is my song playing!” moment. Or when you turn on the radio you sometimes get the “God, I love this track!” moment. This is because you’ve listened to the song before, by yourself, and discovered all its beauty and the feelings I was just talking about above. And what better way to do this than using a great pair of headphones with the appropriate sound system. There’s something very intimate about it, because it’s you and the artist which is taking you places with his music. And you close your eyes and feel that sound in your whole body, with goose bumps on your hands. And no one else is there but you and the sound that flows from the headphones.
To wrap things up, I consider that listening to music (really listening to it) is something very personal and intimate. And if you feel that you’re missing out on stuff in this area, go get those expensive DACs and cables! Your close ones will understand because they want what’s best for you. And we all know that money is not a purpose, it’s a tool. Emotions and memories are priceless.
PS: Props to Andrei for the great little poem. Very creative! You deserve to win this contest just for that.
Thanks, but your composition above is way better 😀
I started to notice the differences in IEM from 7 years ago, when I was a high school student and I thought that buying a 20$ IEM from Walmarrt was a steep investment. However, I just actually got into headphone when I first visit headfi when I move into another country because I am looking for a replacement of a pair of speaker that is broken. And now I own a Sen HD650, Mad Dog with O2/ODAC. I use to have HE-400 but I sold it.
Hey Vincent!Thank you for the post. Don’t forget about the other rules!
I just sent the email to you and like every pages that you requested.
Thanks HeadMania.
Hope I’m not late to the party.
A couple of years ago I thought, as many others, paying more than 20-30$ on a headphone was stupid. Boy, was I wrong! After having for a long time a pair of cheap creative IEMs, I decided to try a pair CAL!s after many recommended them as being a great pair of phones. Biggest mistake ever 🙂 They were so much fun, there was a night and day difference compared to my previous pair. So this got me started into this hobby and I ended buying other expensive gear since then. The last bit was a pair of HD800s that totally changed to game for me. I can’t describe was good they sound with a proper source and amp. You feel like you are on stage with the ones that play the music.
Anyway, my dear ones think that I’m crazing having bought that many expensive audio gear lately, but every time I let them try a pair of headphones with a great song, I love the watch the face they make. They are amazed of how good music sounds and they actually enjoy it. That is all that counts.
Hello. Did I miss any details aout the winner? Did you chose one of us? 🙂
Hey Stefan. Read the first part of the post, it has been updated a while ago. I will put some pictures soon!
Stay tuned. Another contest may arrive soon 😀