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.

As someone who slacks off at work, I can’t function without music. I used to listen to tunes on my JVC SR500 headphones, but unfortunately my desk is right by the door, and the boss is always walking past, criticizing me for wearing headphones at work and saying it looks bad. Fine, I figured I’d switch to something low-key—an earbud. Considering I’ve been listening to a ton of fripside lately and really love that thumping bass, I went looking for a tiny thing with strong low end. I skipped the Beats that would’ve boosted my clout and ended up buying the KOSS Spark Plug—the legendary “spark plug.” Of course, all that above is bullshit—I just wanted to buy something. Life itself is meaningless; only buying things lets you understand the true meaning of life.

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.