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Listen up: Thanks to smartphones, music is more accessible than ever, but are you hearing everything the musician wanted you to?

Audiophiles — people passionate for high-fidelity sound — are quick to tell you the earbud headphones packaged with your smartphone are offering your ears an inferior listening experience. Quality headphones, they argue, offer superior, crystalline sound, with each brand providing unique sound signatures.

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A group of local headphone enthusiasts recently got together to meet each other and more importantly, try out each other’s gear.

“It’s nice to see what other people have and what other people think,” said one of the organizers, Pei Wang, 36, about the Jan. 27, 2018 meet-up that took place in a room at the University of Alberta.

Around 10 people showed up to share their headphones, which ranged in price from under $100 to over $1,000.

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Wang says the informal event allowed fellow headphone enthusiasts the chance to test more than a dozen headphones, including digital-analog converters, known as DACs (a device which converts digital signals to analog, supplying high-calibre sound to your headphones) and headphone amplifiers (used by sets which require more power than what your smartphone or laptop can provide.) Because of price and availability, the meet-up gave participants the chance to test headphones they may not have ever had the chance to listen to.