When I made my 2018 headphone plan, I expected that it would take several months to get through all of those reviews.

Instead, I went kind of nuts with Christmas money and other savings...and blew through all of them in the first couple of weeks of the year.

So. Now what?

IS IT TIME TO GIVE UP THE GAME?

Honestly, I've thought about it.

I really like the collection I have now. I've got portable, production, and gaming uses all more than covered.

And reviewing headphones is a weird, double-edged sword. It's hard sometimes. It forces me to have an over-analytical approach to everything audio, and not just sit back and enjoy stuff. I'm already bad enough at sitting back and enjoying stuff as it is.

AND YET...

A few things floating around out there still entice me. I was keen to pick up the HyperX Cloud Flight gaming headset...but now I'm not so sure.

I like how I said things still entice me and now I'm starting with one that I'm not sure of anymore. That's funny. I'm keeping it in.

HyperX sent a bunch of free Cloud Flight units out to various influencers, streamers, and YouTubers. Actually getting a retail unit as a normal human person is much more difficult. None of my local retailers carry them, and on Amazon it's backorder city. I know I could backorder one, but I'm generally impatient and don't like to wait for things any longer than I have to.

It's also priced a little too high for what it does, in my opinion.

Last year, the sub $150 wireless headset market got super competitive. Astro's excellent A20, the Plantronics RIG 800, and the Corsair Void Pro are all great choices. And then HyperX came in and priced their model at $160...with less features than any of those pairs. And no version that works with the Xbox One.

Hmm.

In December, Beyerdynamic released the DT 240 Pro. It's a $99 studio headphone, and I immediately wanted one. I'm a known Beyerdynamic fanboy, and the price is right. The only thing I'm hesitant about? The ear pads.

The ear pads are round. That's fine, Beyerdynamic is one of the few companies that makes round ear pads work. However, they're also kind of...small. The headphone is designed for portable use, and so they made the cups and pads as small as possible. I'm worried that they won't be comfortable for long-term use on my giant head with my glasses.

I'm still probably going to get some soon though, so I guess I'm not out of the game yet.

EVERYTHING LINED UP

My 2017 headphone plan was a struggle. I barely got through 75 percent of the list, and I forgot that the list even existed repeatedly. I let the whims of the market determine my headphone aspirations and not my own thoughts.

This year, I was a little too focused. I carefully made a list of headphones I was genuinely interested in, and in fact...I still have most of the headphones from the list in my collection. Usually I sell headphones when I'm done using them. But most of my 2018 plan headphones are still seeing heavy use and rotation on a daily or weekly basis.

That's kind of a first.

And yes, I use about three pairs of headphones per day, on average. Really? Yes really. One for portable writing, one for gaming, and one for audio production.

The DT240 Pro will start me down an uncharted path for the rest of the year, where once again it'll be up to the whims of the market to decide what headphones I look at next. I've tried most of the legacy models I have any interest in, so don't hold out hope for too many classic reviews this year. I might try one or two of Sennheiser's older gaming headsets since I enjoyed the GSP 300, and I'm considering giving the Elite Pro one more shot. And there might be an M70X or DT1770 in my distant future, if I ever decide I have too much money. But that won't be till later in the year.

Summer and Fall are usually big times for headphone and headset releases. Until then, most of the content coming out of my ridiculous machine will be more gaming, tech, and movie focused.

I hope you enjoy it!