Nokia X100. Shit sucks but it was cheap and it works.

There has never been someone who needs to touch grass more than you.

Your setup is fine, better than what 95% of people have.

As far as where to listen to music, literally any streaming service. (Free) YouTube has some pretty noticeable compression on everything but the differences between Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon, whatever other platform are so minute that you will never hear them unless you are meticulously A/B testing them together, and even then a lot of that could be placebo.

I personally went with Tidal back when I was chasing audio fidelity a year and a half or so ago and I ditched Spotify for it since they’re the same price (I’m on Tidal’s HiFi tier, not the Max one) and I wanted to reset my discovery algorithm. Spotify was recommending me the same albums for years on end even when my tastes were broadening out past just prog metal, so I wanted to reset. I also didn’t want podcasts clogging up my feed because I use a separate app for that. In general Tidal and Spotify are 90% similar to each other, with Spotify having more social features (which I don’t care about at all) and Tidal having more in terms of information about the artists, which is pretty cool. Tidal’s a little buggier but it rarely has an impact that lasts more than, say, 10 seconds. I don’t think you can truly go wrong with any of the big streaming platforms though, so do whatever your budget allows.

I think it’s more about the ritual of it all and the feeling of music as a deliberate experience instead of just something to have on in the background. The audio quality is usually great, to me, but I like the idea of actually owning my favorite albums, even though I also stream tons.

Lol no. Anyone telling you differently is full of shit and trying to cope their way into justifying a dumb purchase.

Swapped out my DT770 for a DT700, but that’s it.

Crinacle has become so much less interesting to me over the last year or so.

Is she unhappy with just any amount of noise coming from them or are you seriously blasting your music? I can only hear noise bleed from my 600s if someone is listening to them like right next to me. If the latter I’d lower your volume before you damage your hearing.

Like all the other answers here, I’ll say get a closed back headphone or IEMs. IEMs probably sound a bit clearer to me but closed backs are more comfortable (for me) and have better soundstage, if you care about that.

HD600, cliche as it is. Heard them for 5 seconds and was like “yup, this is it”.

I keep the door to this room closed when I’m gone and thankfully she’s never gone for my headphones.

Welcome to literally any tech hobby. Cameras, guitars, headphones, keyboards, video games, they’re all the same. People will buy something and then dig their heels in the sand that whatever they buy is the best version of that thing and anyone not doing the same thing is dumb. You have to be able to filter out the dumb/obviously biased comments from ones that actually might be applicable to your question or point of interest.

This is almost as dumb as the people who pop in every once in a while to ask if it’s okay to shower with headphones/IEMs, lmao.

Not really, no. It’s more about usability for me.

I bought a Qudelix 5K to use out and about since I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to have a phone with a headphone jack, and it’s easier to do chores around the house with that clipped to my shirt instead of my phone in my pocket.

I have an iFi Zen Air DAC at my desk since the headphone jack on my computer is in kind of a goofy location and I also really like ASMR, so sometimes I want to jack my volume up for that. It can be nice to have that extra headroom for cases like that, or if your music is mastered really low for some reason, but I only spent $100 on that.

I fully think that people who proselytize the difference a DAC and/or amp make are just trying to justify the exorbitant money they put into their own stuff. This sub is also rife with people who are always chasing that high of buying new toys, so they never really enjoy what they have and just keep buying new stuff and using this sub to talk themselves into it.