The Sony HD820S are said to be really comfortable. My HD599SE are pretty comfortable and the padding material is so soft

So true ❤️

Actually, “of the modern day” there’s way more people who listen to crap quality music than there is of people who actually admire music enough to purchase high quality equipment to improve their music experience. Think of the loudness wars.

It will definitely make a difference, even on sources from youtube and spotify

On. When I leave my speakers for long times without much cleaning, they gather dust like hell.

Vinyl is supposed to be “warmer”, and fuller, whereas CD is said to be “brittle” and cold.

There are websites that help you identify your tinnitus frequency, so that you can adjust music to accommodate those frequencies

If you listen through bluetooth or just from a phone or laptop, the DAC in there is extremely low quality. And it’s surrounded by all the other electronic parts from the computer/phone so there’s basically shitloads of emf interference going on too. An external DAC will make the difference. Spend well though.

Tidal - premium subscription. Otherwise, download your music in high quality formats from places like bandcamp.

You’re probably used to the bass response in your cloud 2s and the unequal sound profile. Neutral headphones some people don’t like because they’re not as “fun” (in terms of their sound profile). Audiophiles like high fidelity sound reproduction. It includes reproducing sound without distorting or changing it, which nearly all headphones do to a large extent. Audiophile headphones do it to a much lesser extent. It can take some getting used to.

Like all audiophile headphones which are wired, so mostly all good quality headphones.

It’s supposed to be quite a debate over wire qualities, and a large amount of hotheads out there think they can just identify some $2000 dac from some $1000 dac or something. Yes, there have been scientific studies to test these theories and sadly, those hotheads make it seem as if the audiophile community is in words, “obsolete”. There is a fine line though. After working for years with music, perhaps if you’re a producer or a good sound engineer, there are those out there who can tell differences between lots of things in terms of audio. But if you’re just sitting in your bedroom listening to music and suddenly decide your want a $2000 dac/amp, you won’t be able to tell the difference. Another thing, if you do tend to work with music throughout your life, then I guess your subconscious begins to identify these small differences, because it can. But it’s correctly said that lots of people do automatically defend something which they believe they support. Sometimes myths are made because the wrong people represent certain things.

The 660s are pretty efficient, you shouldn’t need an amp for them with your Mac. However, talking about DACs, you should be able to tell the difference if you buy an external DAC and use it instead of a direct connection to your Mac. Companies like Apple or Samsung aren’t too set with using really high quality DACs in their products. It’s not effective for marketing. You can find decent portable DACs online though.

I dislike it. Money can be better spent. Tbh, Apple Music seems to have better sound quality, and it’s UI is liked by many people. Also, for those who are concerned about privacy, Amazon is the powerhouse of data collection, and this can deter some people. When speaking in terms of sound quality though, it seems Tidal is the best.

If you wanted to make the sound quality even better, you could consider purchasing a separate DAC for higher quality. As Otherwise-Rope8961 correctly said, different devices have different Digital to Analogue chips, which do affect sound conversion. I’ve tried plugging in my Hifiman Sundara directly into my old Samsung S7, and I got a sound output only in the right ear, weirdly. Probably dust and stuff in the aux in connection.

You might have a low quality lightning to 3.5mm adapter though, and Apple can be quite pesky with sound and outputs. My headphones have just randomly stopped playing when I’ve got them connected to my iPhone 14 even with a DAC.

Some of the Sennheiser HD800s or HD820 have like £249 replacement cables, I’m not entirely sure if they’re £249 worth cables… There are currently quite a few debates about cable qualities and if some are just unfairly expensive. I find Hifiman cables ok, but whether it’s the chunky cables with metal attached to it, or the headphones, I can hear the knock sound whenever the cable hits me or a table or something. I think some older Focal headphones cables were similar, and disliked by quite a few.

They look like a good deal, and I’ve heard that although their price is much lower compared to newer Sennheiser headphones, they have their place as originals. Pretty consistent, and reminding people of older headphone ages (the only thing is that the cream coloured variants look very pleasing to more people), they have a pretty warm profile and a great soundstage for their price. I would say it’s a great deal!

I’m actually looking to buy them, but the price…😳 -quite the package. I mean, the Focal Utopia 2022 are like £5000 which is pretty crazy too.

You may be pleased with the XM5 headphones, they’re said to have excellent noise cancelling. I think in general Sony seems to have good products, so it would be satisfiable to buy more products from Sony. As a side note - if you’re thinking audiophile standards with Sony, then look to the MDR-Z1R.