thing about shopping for and reading reviews of anything even remotely adjacent to audiophile gear is that every other word of the review or marketing copy triggers my "that sounds like bullshit you made up that doesn't actually matter" radar

I just looked up "linear power supplies" to see if that's an actual thing and yes they are but I don't know if they actually matter much if at all for audio gear like a headphone amplifier

anyways I am looking to buy a new pair of over-the-ear closed back headphones for listening to music at my desktop computer

the Sennheiser pair I used to use for this is kinda falling apart

current prime candidate is the Beyerdynamic DT 700 PRO X

was looking at headphone reviews and then happened upon a review for a DAC/AMP

https://www.headfonia.com/smsl-ds200-review/

its so cute! I love the aesthetic of it..well mostly, not a fan of having a vertical volume slider instead of a knob/dial

new headphones have been ordered (the Beyerdynamic DT 700 PRO X)

I'm excited

realizing that both of the Big electronic purchases I've done this year have been audio related

and that's gonna continue, I'm not done yet

I want to replace the FiiO E10K DAC I have with a FiiO K11

at some point in the next few months, I want to replace my desktop speakers, buy a better mic and a mic arm

the speaker system I have connected to my desktop PC right now is a Creative 2.1 system that we brought with us when we moved from the UAE to Canada

which was 20 years ago, so its that old at this point

its power supply only supports 220/240V so when we moved here my dad bought a voltage converter wall wart for it so it could run properly, that is still in place

I wanna replace it with a newer speaker system that sounds better and also supports 110/120V lol

the FiiO E10K DAC I have is gotta be at least 10 years old if not more

I have used it across multiple desktop PC builds, bought it from a dude in North York from his little audio equipment shop

legit one of the best electronic purchases I've made in my life, still works just fine after all these years

and the Blue Yeti USB mic I have is coming up on 10 years old this November

the audio gear I have with the exception of headphones have lasted quite a while

which makes sense since headphones get a lot more physical wear and tear than the other stuff.....which is why this latest headphone I'm buying basically every part that could need to be replaced is replacable

so instead of the FiiO K11, I decided to go with the Schiit Magni Unity (with the internal DAC option)

https://www.schiit.com/products/magni-unity

I've wanted a Schiit DAC/AMP for a while and I like the physical design of their little boxes

already have a tracking code, probably won't be here till next week since its coming from the US

[ yes Schiit is pronounced like "shit", its a long running joke lol ]

and the new headphones are out for delivery for today

*vibrates with excitement*

so I've had the headphones for a few hours now and yeah they are good

also I've been listening to music on streaming services for so long and so regularly that forgot that when I play music in foobar2000 from my local music library, it doesn't have volume normalization on by default

"why am I reaching for the volume slider with every different album? oh right"

also Fedex just informed me that my new DAC/AMP will be here tomorrow apparently

seems a bit optimistic but maybe Fedex can do it, I did pay a little extra for "FedEx International Priority"

some of the music in my local collection has been there since my teenage years and its very apparent lol

*four* Breaking Benjamin albums? I don't think I've listened to any of this since I was a teenager lol

if my memory serves me right, Breaking Benjamin did a track for one of the Halo games which resulted in me downloading 4 of their albums and they've been in my collection ever since

also so much anime music from when I used to give a shit about anime lmao

y'all can blame @lowficarrots for this

speaking of nu-metal, yeah I have Linkin Park's Meteora in my local collection

and the album still slaps, its not something I would listen to these days but I appreciate the craft of it and its a classic as far as I'm concerned

getting albums for friends is how I end up with "Masayoshi Soken - [Dawntrail: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack]" in my collection

I don't play FF14 and I don't even like MMORPGs

remember when YouTube was recommending Mariya Takeuchi's Plastic Love to everyone for unknown reasons?

yeah so I have a FLAC copy in the collection of the album that song is from

I used to do this a lot back when I didn't have access to streaming services, like one track, add the entire album to my collection

that said I have no recollection as to why there's a singular They Might Be Giants album called "Album Raises New and Troubling Questions" (what a album name) in my local collection

so I'm listening to this TMBG album and I continue to be baffled as to why this is in here

did I get this for someone else?!

once again appreciative how formative what.cd was to my appreciation of music now

truly blessed to have had access to that site as a teenager, it was a good influence

you know it had an effect when I see someone in an Amazon review for this headphone I'm using mention that they listened to music on YouTube to test these headphones and I cringe

wdym you didn't pull up FLACs of your favourite albums to test? smh smh

putting the headphone through its paces by playing a classic

Darude's Sandstorm