Need help for selecting a gift for audiophile

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DanniBoy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
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Hi guys! I need help in selecting a gift for my best man in my wedding. He is an audiophile and loves his audio. He has some pretty expensive equipment and even made his own amplifier. I don't have any clue what specific stuff he has but my budget is around $100-$150. Is there anything I can get him in that price range that he will appreciate or is it a lost cause?
 
Maybe if there is something he has missing in his audio lineup. $100-150 won't buy you much in "audiophile" gear so you probably won't upgrade what he already has. It might be best to go a different route and get something else.
 
buying a gift for an audiophile is very tricky.

For example, hypothetically, let's say there are 5 very good $150 amplifiers. However, each one has a slightly different style of sound, each with - for sake of argument - one strength that it really expresses. one is more "forward" one is more "relaxed" one is "brighter" and one is "darker" and one is "analytical." Whatever those words mean exactly isn't terribly important, just that they each have a somewhat different feel to them and they do music a little differently.

I'm sure the audiophile friend of yours would listen to all 5 of them and settle on which of the 5 he liked the most, and maybe at least one that he really didnt care for at all. Objectively they might all be good amplifiers and they probably all have buyers who love them, but a big part of audiophilia is about getting the exact type of sound that you personally like.
 
it gets even more complicated than that, as certain equipment matches other equipment better than others.

rule of thumb is match speakers to room, match power amp to speakers, match pre amp to power amp, so you can see how it gets...

the only thing i can think of, would be something like a high quality music streamer., if he doesnt have one. the cheapest hi fi music streamer would be something like a squeezebox touch. its got a pretty decent dac in it, plays 24/192 flacs and has a spidf for if he has a high end dac already.

and thats about $250. and if he doesnt have a home network setup, it may not be useful.

we'd probably need to know what equipment he already has.
 
Does he have any headphones? You can get some nice portable IEMS for that price.
 
Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of too... You can get some awesome IEMs for $150 or even $100, and that's something that he may appreciate even if he already has some (they may have a different sound, or could be an upgrade or a beater pair depending on how expensive his are).
 
I say get him a gift card to one of those sites that sells 24bit music. If he's an audiophile he will appreciate it.
 
blinx said:
I say get him a gift card to one of those sites that sells 24bit music. If he's an audiophile he will appreciate it.
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Make sure he's got gear that'll play it, if that's the case.
 
blinx said:
I say get him a gift card to one of those sites that sells 24bit music. If he's an audiophile he will appreciate it.
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This was my first thought as well. I'd suggest HDTracks, but I don't think they do gift cards...
 
If he is into headphones you can get him a nice headphone stand or something of the like.

Audio accessories can be just as nice of a gift as audio equipment!
 
Off the shelf it might be difficult for $100-$150, but if he is really an audiophile you could always buy the parts to make bass traps for his room? Owens Corning 703 is after all the best piece of audio gear there is! ;)

Supercharged_Z06 said:
If he doesn't own one already, get him a FiiO E17. (Roughly $140).
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FiiO E17 has some pretty bad crosstalk numbers, instead if he's into headphone audio I'd suggest an Objective2 amp in that price range. It has no equal up to around $350-400 (objectively measured.)
 
Farkle said:
FiiO E17 has some pretty bad crosstalk numbers, instead if he's into headphone audio I'd suggest an Objective2 amp in that price range. It has no equal up to around $350-400 (objectively measured.)
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Really? What review/source are you getting the bad crosstalk info from? Just curious as all the reviews I've read have been quite positive. (I did a lot of reading before committing to buying.) While the O2 is a really nice amp, it isn't a DAC. You'd need to pair it with an ODAC and then things start to get a bit less portable and run closer to $300. The E17 is a much smaller package and while it may not have specs that are just as good as an O2/ODAC combo, it's damn close. Anyway, my E17 sounds great to me - I've got it paired with a FiiO E9 amp with my desktop, driving Sennheiser HD 650's. I use the E17 by itself with a laptop when on travel. Just can't beat it's portability IMHO.
 
Ah wow, thanks for all your suggestions. I know for sure he has a headphone amp since he wanted me to go get one but I had no use for one. Music gift card is a nice idea that I never thought of, but I would like to get him an accessory. The IEMS sounds good. We are going to Thailand for my bachelor party and I think he would appreciate a nice pair of IEMS on the plane. Any suggestions? He already has a pair of Sennheiser and a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones.
 
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