Actually at first I was against buying these earphones… But I just couldn’t resist the shape. They look really good. And I was also very curious — no wait, curious (why the hell does that keep autocorrecting…). Plenty of forum kids absolutely trashed this earphone, going on about “boomy,” “hard to drive,” “bottom-heavy,” “nothing but bass.” In my experience, whatever audio mystics on forums say, you should read it backwards. I also checked a review by 盖子 on Reddit and, with a clear head, went ahead and bought them. I’m a low-key guy. The K374’s brushed metal is flashy, but to stay true to my low-key nature I steered clear of the showy silver and bought the wine red. Then I bought it on JD for 499 with a -50 coupon, and the very night it arrived the price dropped to 399… I agonized over it for a while. I don’t care about that little bit of money and I didn’t want to bother returning and re-buying, but no matter how I looked at it, it felt like JD had screwed me. “Fuck you, Liu Qiangdong!” I raised my middle finger once again, venting my anger helplessly.

Back in high school, when I’d scraped together every last cent to buy a Sennheiser MX500 and plugged it into an iPAQ hx2412 to listen to Tony Daimoku with great relish, I’d already heard of Audio-Technica and was quite impressed by it. The reason wasn’t sound quality or anything like that — it was just that hearing the name made a triangle (the little steel percussion instrument I’d banged in elementary school music class) pop into my head. Later, as I sank deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit of audiophile mysticism, the idea that “Audio-Technica = female vocal poison” gradually dissolved into my brain. Honestly, I’d always wanted to try out just how poisonous the legendary Audio-Technica was for female vocals. Later I bought a CKM55 — no particular feeling on first listen, but after listening for a while, especially after switching to other buds later on, I realized what was good about it. That feeling of retaining both female vocals and bass at the same time was indeed nice. After that I kept wanting to get an Audio-Technica around the thousand-yuan mark, but Audio-Technica’s good stuff, including the CK100pro, can’t be had for a thousand yuan — too expensive, couldn’t afford it. Until one day my brain short-circuited and I bought Audio-Technica’s new product, the ATH-IM03, and my wish to “finally listen to a high-end Audio-Technica” was fulfilled.