TL;DR: Buy online and hope that the reviewers/influencers/etc. are not overselling the products. Past experiences will come in handy and help you avoid future problems.

I'm a fairly minimalist, non-argumentative, et cetera person due to poverty. And so sometimes my fashion senses are way off when I'm not at events needed for networking/socialization/et cetera. This also means I try to avoid conflict because ain't nobody got time for that.

Anyway, so I walk into this audio store to demo and buy a specific headphone, hold let me find that text, I was gonna post it in the "https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/10tibxb/the_headphone_show_cables_can_make_a_difference/" thread as like another anecdote about experiencing things differently IRL or debunking myths/marketing/et cetera.

Wait fml, that rambling of mine is like 6000+ characters long, ain't nobody got time for that too.

> Anyway, long story short, about a decade ago I was going to this store to demo and buy a hyped headphone. I had a let's just say unorthodox outfit because I basically just got out of bed, lol. > > The salesman, old guy with glasses, tucked in shirt with the belt, lol, et cetera then approaches me, looks me up and down and says what can I do for you. > > I'm like I'm here to test headphones (they got a wall of them). He tells me here, have some Grados, lol. And I'm like wtf, that's not what I wanted but ya I didn't specify anything so it was kinda expected. This man literally gives me the cheap Grado stuff and I'm not about them on-ears, we here for over-ears. > > I'm pretty conflict-averse due to poverty and so because of the immediate salesman aggressiveness that the old guy approached me with, I was just going along before obviously ya just directly testing the specific headphone I want. > > So like after a while (I was basically the only customer for the headphone section, this same salesman was watching me stand there with the headphones) he asks me what's my budget. When I start pulling out piles of green $20 bills out of my pocket, totaling half a stack or so, his whole demeanor changed. This guy then shoved an Astell & Kern DAP at me, the $1000+ ones, and I'm like wtf is this guy on about, I don't even listen to whatever rock/etc. music they have stored in the DAP, lmao. > > Eventually I was like whatever, this is clearly how other people get roped into overspending. And so I just tell him to give me a brand new set of the particular headphones everyone back then was praising. So then they start selling me cables, insurance, et cetera. And I was like fam, you see that half a stack already gone and my lazy outfit, does it look like I can spend more. > > Seriously, I saved up so much money (same to this day (as I'm still relatively poor) when it comes to audio/other hobbies) and like people be legit wanting you to overspend for no reason. Sigh. > > --- > > Fml, that was so long and specific (I cut it down from 6000+ characters, could be shorter but I wanted to have a bit more context). But I guess the point is that don't buy headphones IRL as if you don't know salesmen tactics or are easily influenced, you will get scammed by people that already have million dollar houses and so on, like rofl. > > Thankfully I grew up in Asia and helped my relatives in the wet markets (just means raw meat, vegetables, clothes, and lots of haggling) and all that jazz. And I already had previous experience with other local audio stores too. So ya, it was just funny seeing a screenplay straight out of the movies. > > My guy's whole attitude changed as soon as the money appeared. Before he just wanted me to go away (remember, appearance is extremely important as being more attractive means better opportunities), but after that, he wanted me to buy twice my budget plus an unnecessary, overkill, etc. DAP, like wtf man.

Anyway, with that random unnecessary story out of the way, just buy from Amazon UK (Amazon USA, Amazon Japan, et cetera also ships there), lol.

If you're in Europe, with Amazon UK I can usually find stuff there available to shipping for a lot of international places. There's also Amazon Germany, Thomann (German audio place), etc. that some people like to use in Europe/elsewhere. And IIRC there was also that Scandinavian/etc. site that some people used.

Wait let me add the beginning of the cut down post:

> Sometimes when I browse Head-Fi and other dedicated audio forums, people be talking about the setups or configurations they use. And then I also have some of those gear and test it. And it's like wtf, is the universe experience really that relative, different. > > Then I remember that a lot of the people there are older people that don't want to use (parametric) EQ for whatever reason. Or visit an ENT doctor or audiologist for hearing tests, ear cleanings, et cetera despite it being covered by the regional/national/etc. government if over or under a certain age. And like some of them be really do flexing for the sake of collection/prestige/etc. > > Like a lot of us got many Pokemons, KZ Pokemons (they just got a new bullet style IEM called KZ LingLong, lol), et cetera, but those folks be legit spending only $500/1000+ and nothing less. They even have them paired with the velvety watch boxes, lol. It's wild out there.

> Thankfully some of us have access to local audio retailers that carry a few of those kilobuck and so on IEMs/headphones and sometimes they're often really quiet too (barely any customers, lol) if the separate isolated booth is not available for better hearing experience. There's also the audiophile groups that often do trades, switches, tours, or demos with each other. > > And so we can kinda gauge for a while if something is worth the diminishing returns and so on. Seriously, some of the local audio stores will often let you use your own gear and so you can do whatever you want, oftentimes they will even let you stay there for hours as there's like barely any customers and like people are just chill, lmao. > > Some audio stores be legit pushy af though. But from experience those are usually the ones that have a separate speakers or home theater section.

Sigh, this reached 6000 characters again already, fml.

What I'm trying to say is that a lot of those physical (audio) stores have older salesmen that are really pushy. And so unless you have the patience to deal with that, don't bother and just buy online after demoing the products. It feels bad to do that, which is why sometimes I buy cheap products (say $20 or so for Comply foam ear tips, etc.) for their time.

I'm privileged enough to have a few places here that don't have those types of old people and so they are amazing resources if you don't want to fully blind buy based on the reviews on the internet from influencers, hype people, et cetera. This is mostly applicable to headphones and speakers btw, not so much for IEMs, but it'll different in Asia/elsewhere.

Lmao, let's put this post to the max of 10000 characters.

Thank God now we have $10 dongles (lol) that can do the job. Or $50-100 dongles (with physical volume control) if you still want more volume, Bluetooth, and so on options. Dongles can be legit overkill, no need to really spend more unless you want those extra features like the volume knob, microphone/speakers/etc. ports, et cetera.

Oh and Amazon also offers financing for certain popular (Sennheiser) headphones (legit free, no interest rates/etc.), over 5 months or 12 months, and so on. It'll depend on your account history with them though, as in you will probably get that offer if you buy a lot from Amazon and don't return as much items.

Basically barely any of us have local audio stores like e-earphones.

Everything is unfortunately pretty much a blind buy unless there's like an e-earphone (Akihabara, Tokyo) equivalent near your area: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUbeBBh2guM and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GMP8cjAEq0

Some people also abuse (some people get 5/10+ IEMs/headphones all at once and demo them for 30 days, lol smh) the generous Amazon return system because we can't really test out IEMs/headphones, especially TWS earbuds as the best value are often exclusive to China/etc.

Btw, there's the October to January (some people apparently demo a lot of IEMs/headphones/etc. around this time as it's 4 months of free trial with the product, lol) extended holiday return period.

Wouldn't recommend you do that often as Amazon do ban people's accounts if they abuse it too much. Make sure you bought a lot of (expensive) stuff from Amazon if you're going to test IEMs/TWS earbuds/headphones/etc. as I heard they give more chances if you do that.

Thankfully now we also have squig.link, AutoEQ, et cetera for the more informed resources.

See here for more info about Qudelix 5K, parametric EQ, squig.link comparison graphs, AutoEQ, et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/109meb5/eq/j40cy1n/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11ahxu1/just_picked_up_the_dt990s_250ohm_for_my_pc_sound/j9s5sht/

Look up oratory1990 (check the subreddit, /r/oratory1990, don't forget the preset parametric EQ list (mainly for headphones but there's some IEMs there): https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets) and crinacle's articles on what amps/DACs/etc. are and what they do.

Extra info on wired IEMs/headphones/Bluetooth/et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11a550d/how_can_i_learn_the_basics_about_soundheadphones/j9r9r48/

As for the question on how to appear that you're a serious buyer IRL, just make sure to not be like me, lol. Don't go with casual clothing, and try to speak in say a more fancy accent/dialect, usually they'll see you as coming from the upper class and treat you better, lmao. I don't wear jewelry or anything, so maybe try that too, like an expensive watch.

Phew, this reached 10000 characters, I apologize for that.