Wireless: Bose QC 35. I almost didn’t know they were on after 15 minutes. The most comfortable headphone I’ve ever worn.

Wired: Audeze LCD-2C. I know this defies conventional wisdom due to the heavy weight of Audeze cans, but the 2C’s had more than adequate depth for my fairly large ears, and the suspension headband distributed the weight perfectly.

Fellow tinnitus sufferer here for about 15 years, but it has intensified over the last four or five years. A few tips:

1. Time to get real: There is no cure, man. If you have tinnitus due to true ear damage and not wax or other obstructions, you will have it forever. You’ll need to learn coping strategies. Sorry to break that news.
2. Protect your remaining hearing at all costs. Wear quality plugs to shows. Wear quality plugs when using power equipment. Use quality plugs anywhere there’s sustained loud noise.
3. Stay up on your sleep and exercise. That can reduce the severity of tinnitus. Caffeine also is a big trigger for some people.
4. Do NOT use IEMs. Shoving sound directly into your ear canal is not good for your hearing or for tinnitus.
5. ANC can help tinnitus sufferers because you don’t need to turn up your headphones that loud due to noise cancelling.
6. Limit your time with headphones and keep the volume down. Sucks, but your hearing and ear health are more important.
7. Find coping strategies. Find ways to relax and/or block the sound. White sound machines help; I usually run a space heater or fan in my office, depending on the weather. That constant noise helps mask the tinnitus. Walking amid natural sound helps. But the biggest step is realizing tinnitus almost certainly is not going away, so don’t drive yourself nuts hoping it will magically disappear. It won’t. So, try to use whatever coping mechanisms work for you.

I wish you well, friend. Tinnitus sucks, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. But you can learn to live with it. I would cry buckets of joyful tears if the noise in my ears ever stopped, but I also have learned to cope with the sound and not let it drive me nuts.

LOL, indeed. Have you even tried Qobuz? And how did you devise the “80 percent better” figure other than pulling it straight from your rectum?

You say Tidal’s app sucks yet the service still is 80 percent better than anything else. The contradictory comedy is divine …

Wired headphones, unless convenience trumps ethics for you.

Best sound quality: Qobuz

Best algorithm for new music: Spotify

Best social sharing features: Spotify

Biggest barrel of snake oil: Tidal (because of MQA)

Pure shit here in Syracuse, New York. Only Best Buy and Guitar Center. No specialty shops.

Audeze’s cables are good. I don’t own a ZMF (yet), but their cables look terrific. Sennheiser’s are deceptively simple and durable. HiFiMan’s cables are total janky trash. The cable that came with my otherwise superb value HE-400se had the thickness of Christmas tree tinsel. I shit you not. Grado’s cables are like a hose on a 1960s vacuum cleaner.

Under 80 db should be fine. It’s the clowns who listen all day at 100 db+ who are in big trouble later in life.

Signed,

Severe Tinnitus Sufferer

Spend your money on headphone upgrades, not amps or DACs. There’s WAYYYYYY more noticeable return for money with better headphones than better amps or DACs unless you’re switching from solid state to tubes.

Even then, you can still get an entry-level or barely mid-fi tube amp and be fine.

Amps, DACs and cables are the biggest subjects of useless spec wars and snake oil in the hobby, with ease. My $220 JDS Atom+ DAC/amp stack drives just about anything with ample, clean power and neutral sonic coloring.

Don’t fall for the Chinese manufacturers’ snake oil that you NEED 4 watts per channel to drive a basic HiFiMan or Sennheiser headphone. That’s pure bullshit, with a few exceptions in both companies’ lines. And if you really think you can hear the difference of a new Topping amp that has .0000002 less THD than its predecessor, you’re one of the most gullible mofos on this planet or a hardcore victim of placebo effect.

Damn fine choice!

This hobby is very subjective. But if you want to hang with knowledgeable, passionate people about this hobby, this sub isn’t it.

Visit the forums at Head-fi, HiFiGuides, The Headphone Forum and Sonus Apparatus if you want less bullshit and more information from people who really know what they’re talking about.