Who is GoodCans.com ...(And What is "Listening Station")?

"Listening Station" is our business name, (since 1991), and "GoodCans.com" is our Web Site.   Perhaps you've noticed most of the articles on this web site were written by the same person, Bill Keyser. Let me introduce myself and give you some background on how I became a headphone enthusiast. GoodCans.com is my passion which has resulted mainly from my personal interest in high quality headphones.

Who is Bill Keyser and why is he into headphones? For eight years I owned a small specialty CD store in Boise, Idaho and have been in the music business since 1987. My first CD store was located in Roseburg, Oregon where I sold the full line of Koss headphones. At that time I discovered how good their Porta-Pro Jr. headphones were and purchased one to use with my first discman. A couple of years later, the opportunity to move to Boise came up and soon thereafter I opened up Listening Station CD's. In order to place headphones at our listening stations, I again began selling some Koss headphones, but I didn't really get serious about them until 1996. At that time I had been doing some reseach into upgrading my stereo system and in the process, came across some interesting articles on high quality headphones. I had long been familiar with Sennheiser which was being touted in several articles for their more expensive headphones, but I was not familiar with Grado Labs which was also being praised for their high quality headphones.

Not finding a good source for either brand of headphones in Boise, I contacted Sennheiser and Grado and was pleased to discover both were willing to enlist me as a dealer. As I compared various models including several from Koss, I became aware of how much different each headphone sounded. Based on customer comments after a session at one of our listening stations, I have long known most people feel they hear more detail from headphones than they do from their speakers . But I have also discovered very few people ever even consider the possibility that they could buy better headphones than those pre-packaged cheapies found in the average department store. In my extensive comparisons, I was disappointed with the quality both sound wise and construction wise of the cheaper headphones from the well known mass merchandised companies. In contrast, I was bowled over by the high quality sound I heard from the Grado's!

Headphones Too! was then concieved and I began selling high quality headphones in my CD store. Though we encountered some initial success with Sennheiser and Koss due to name recognition, our enthusiasm for the affordable audiophile level Grado headphones seemed to pass on to our customers and the Grado's quickly became our best selling Cans, (insider lingo for headphones).

Who listens to headphones anyway? Unfortunately, these days it can be hard convincing busy folks to slow down and listen to their music. Too often we are distracted by projects around the house and don't really listen to our music. As someone who has re-discoved how relaxing or uplifting music can be, I try to find some time each week to sit down and pay close attention to the music I love. The best times for me to enjoy my music tend to be late in the evening or early in the morning, so headphones are a natural way for me not to disturb my wife or my neighbors.

Have you considered upgrading your stereo system, but hesitated due to the high costs of good equipment? I did upgrade my stereo, but in the process, I discovered headphones could be your inexpensive compromise. If you buy a high quality set of headphones and hook them up to your current stereo, you will be most of the way there to better sound quality! Plus you will have the added benefit of not having to worry about speaker placement or room acoustics.

Portable CD players are an amazing source of great music reproduction! (And MP3 players and iPods can be good too.)  My first discman was purchased back in 1989, and I have always enjoyed the convenience of being able to listen to great music any where I want. With the price of discman's well below $50 these days, great sound quality is now more affordable than ever. I have written many articles in the past mentioning the poor quality of headphones included with portables these days, but since this group of listeners can benifit the most from better headphones, it's hard not to re-iterate the point. It is my goal to convince you to hook up a pair of high quality Grado's to your discman, (or mp3 or iPod), or a least a PortaPro from Koss. I really think you will be amazed at the sound quality your portable is capable of!

In the Fall of 1998, we began experimenting with placing my reviews on the Internet for all of you to read. The response has been wonderful and we have now evolved into a full fledged headphone specialty store on the web. GoodCans.com is the result! Using a secure order site, we have strived to ship out headphones quickly and treat our customers right. The hundreds of positive E-mails we have received back from our customers has made us proud of what we have accomplished.

Hooked on Headphones: There you have it, I'm hooked on headphones. I use them around my home, at my computer, at my cabin, on vacation and sometimes even at work. If you would like to upgrade your personal experience with music, give a thought to buying a pair of high quality headphones and begin "Listening to your Music"!

Copyright © 1998 - 2008 Bill Keyser and Listening Station, All Rights Reserved