On July 30th, 2023 the first day of my vacation in 4 years. I slipped on the stairs while going down to my mancave and gave myself two traumatic brain injuries. One on the left and right side of my brain. They performed emergency brain surgery and removed a section of my skull on the right side about 7 inches long and 4 inches wide. They also drilled a hole in the left side of my skull to stop the brain bleed on that side.
After 3 weeks in the hospital I was released to go home with a very large dent in the right side of my head. I had to wear a helmet for months to protect my brain just below the skin.
On November 6th, 2023 I went in for surgery to have the section of skull replaced. A step closer to normal but not quite because I had 157 sutures in my head now.
On November 27th, 2023 I had all the sutures removed and finally had a full skull with no stitches.
Today I was able to listen to my headphones for the first time in 4 months. The experience was spiritual. I literally cried from joy and pleasure. The beauty of the music and the realization that the healing process is moving along was euphoric.
I don't recommend smashing your head in to anyone but I think taking a break from your headphones to truly understand how amazing they are is an experience I think is worth waiting for. It is so easy to become bored or complacent with your gear and a short break can really open your eyes to enjoying what you have in a new way.
Last year I was in a car accident and experienced whiplash and my neck hurt. Because audiophile headphones are so heavy, I just didn't even try them for around 2 months until all my neck pain went away.
It in an interesting point to take a break from audio devices because we get used to them and lose their magic. I barely use my Arya anymore, when I got my DCA Closed X I believed they were Arya quality, just as good. I decided to listen to them for a while, different situation, different genres to write a review. I was going to say they are just as good as Arya, so I decided I should compare them side by side, and it turns out the Arya are clearly better, no competition. Similar with my AKG headphones, they are open back dynamic headphones, and every time I am shocked with how good the bass is.