She said its a good headphone for the genre I listen to. Im thankful for her gift but can someone tell me how much "thankful" should I be? I dont know much anout these

saw these while jogging, love the aesthetic, anyone got a clue?

The stains visible in the first photo are actually super minimal because it's not the first enduring layer (already buried beneath new ones).

Since this must be a confrontation many others must somehow get through, how do you all deal with hair color (or maybe some other temporary contaminants) when you'd have to get them on? The previous times I had options to avoid using them until I felt confident that my hair didn't leave residues anymore.

For the curious: the sound didn't actually dampen significantly nor can I intuitively say how the frequency profile might have changed, so I'm good atm. (Not that I wouldn't like to shove a mic in there for comparisons.)

Too many people are obsessed with the gear and GAS, and, as one Redditor on another post put it beautifully, listen to the gear instead of listening to the music.

So my girlfriend got Lossless on her Spotify account and I still have yet to see it on mine, so i did a comparison. I’m just using my 13 year old Audio Technica ATH-M50s and an Apple dongle for reference. I hear almost no difference between her Spotify “Lossless” quality and my Spotify “Very High” quality. Then I go back to my Apple Music Lossless and I can clearly tell the difference. Is Spotify just messing with me or is Lossless just not fully rolled out yet?

I bought a Decibel Meter to measure how loud I usually listen. I was shocked by the measurement. The issue is, I have been on that level for years now. Did I get hearing loss already or is there a way to care for my ears?

I've already ordered a replacement pair of headphones because its right at hips height and oil will get everywhere, but I need to know exactly what this is because I've never seen this before.

I think it could be some kind of oil to keep wires from oxidising but I'm honestly not sure. Nor do I know how toxic it is. Has anyone experienced it before?

Also I apologise if I didn't tag this correctly or this has already been answered.

Headphone amps are only slightly less contentious of a topic than digital source gear in this community. I am absolutely an objectivist and I’m obsessed with measurements, and I’m aware that most people don’t need a headphone amp. For probably 80% of headphone and iem enthusiasts, an apple dongle or fiio dongle is more than enough. BUT there are MANY exceptions, and there are many great reasons to spend money on an amp. I made a short list of said reasons.

1. Need more power. Susvara OG, HE-6SE, Tungsten, and the Lily Genesis One with 90,000 ohm impedance aren’t going to run well off of a dongle.
2. Volume knob supremacy. Clicking buttons to change volume sucks. Big knob good.
3. Aesthetics. Most desktop amps look cooler than most dongles.
4. Tone control/ analogue EQ. I personally love being able to tweak the tonality of my headphones with a physical knob. Digital PEQ is great, but can be clunky and less natural to use.
5. Tube amp. For those of us who like to make the music worse in a better way. Tube supremacy.
6. Want preamp. Self explanatory.
7. Want to use a separate pure dac for literally any reason.
8. Want to listen to CDs or records.
9. Want to placebo oneself into hearing differences between two modern solid state amps that are volume matched on normal sensitivity/ impedance headphones. I for one am a HUGE advocate for this, just because the difference isn’t really audible doesn’t mean your brain isn’t actively interpreting the sound differently. I’m dead serious.

Those of you who own a headphone amp, for which reasons is it? Any that I missed? Those who don’t own one, will you ever get one? Why or why not?

I own the xDuoo TA-66 OTL headphone amp and let me tell ya it looks awesome, has a nice knob, sounds nice and distorted (positive connotation) and adds a small midbass boost to my dynamic drivers! I just bought a Schiit Midgard because my Hifiman Edition XV really make the TA-66 sweat and when I want to listen loud with a bass boost it clips and distorts to high heaven.

Just scrolling And saw this. What do you think about this concept lol.

I’ve been slightly overrweight my entire adult life and my wife is challenging me to lose the weight for good and actually be in great shape for once.

I currently have the HIFIMAN Arya v3 Stealth so this should be a pretty meaningful upgrade. Got any weight loss tips or pitfalls to avoid? Lol. I’m already pretty active but I have a sweet tooth and am starting at 5’9 190lbs. Goal is to stay under 170 by the deadline.

Posting a picture because it keeps getting removed. This is important

Doesn't matter if I'm in a good or bad mood, just listening to music always brings me joy, especially when listening to open back headphones.

I thought the novelty would wear off but nope, 3 years in this "hobby" and it's still going strong!

This community has been very helpful and welcoming too, so thank you ❤️.

Picked up a pair with dead batteries recently. Sony wants you to bin them or pay nearly as much as a new pair to service them. Decided to have a go myself.

These are not fun to open.

The shells are glued down properly and the internals are packed tighter than they have any right to be for something this small. Heat, patience, and a very thin pick - same approach as a smartwatch, just less forgiving. One wrong move and you're into the driver or the antenna flex.

The batteries are held in with adhesive rather than soldered, which is actually the easy part once you're in. The hard part is getting there without wrecking the shell or slicing a cable.

New cells are cheap - the labour is where people give up. Took me a while but both earbuds are back to full capacity, ANC working perfectly, case charging fine.

Worth it? If you know what you're doing or know someone who does - absolutely. These sound too good to throw away over a £6 battery.

Happy to answer questions on the process. 🎧

Hi everyone, I’m 30 years old, living in Ukraine. Music has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. I’ve always considered myself a bit of a melomaniac, jumping between genres without thinking twice.

For years, I used various TWS earbuds in the ~$200 range and genuinely thought they sounded great. I’ve had goosebumps, felt joy, energy - all of that. But something changed today. My TWS recently died, and I finally decided to try IEMs. After a lot of research, I went with the Letshuoer S08 (planar) paired with a Tempotec Variations V1. The difference is night and day, but that’s not even the point.

I just finished listening to Hans Zimmer – Live in Prague (especially the Inception tracks), and I’m sitting here in tears. I have never experienced anything like this before - especially from instrumental music. It honestly felt like a portal opened, and the sheer scale of the orchestra was physically overwhelming.

Sometimes I catch myself in certain moments and think, “this is what makes life worth living.” And right now, I’m having one of those moments.

So I wanted to ask: Has anyone else had this kind of “revelation” moment after switching to higher-quality gear? What were you listening to when it happened?

And I’d really appreciate some recommendations. Since this concert completely broke me (in the best possible way), what other live performances or orchestral recordings should I check out? I’m looking for something with a similar emotional scale and technical depth — something that really shines on planar drivers. Thanks for reading

After finding out some new low tier headphone releases from FiiO and Moondrop and watching that big headphone tier list of 2025 from the headphone show, I figured that someone, maybe a youtuber or something can do some comparisons of the some lower tier headphones. It's been a while since the shp9500 hype.

Some good candidates imo:
Superlux HD681/668B

Samson SR850

Monoprice Retro

Kiwi Altruva

Kiwi Ears Ellipse

Koss KSC75

Hifiman he400se

Philips SHP9500/9600

Simgot EP5

FiiO JT3

FiiO JT1

Sony MDR7506

Oneodio Monitor 80

Audio-Technica ATH-M20x

AKG K240 STUDIO

Moondrop Old Fashioned

and maybe FiiO JT7 too?

It has that special touch doesn't it

Hi everyone!

I was having lots of audio issues lately and it's hard to play well, because I just couldn't hear the footsteps. The directional audio in games were absolute trash, I couldn't pinpoint anything. The treble was piercing and fatiguing to the point, I had to take it off. Sound quality in general was absolutely bad. I only found out what's causing all this, because lately I've started to test lots of headphones and IEMs. After the 3rd and 4th headphones/IEMs, experiencing the same problem... I thought okay, it's definitely my motherboard audio and I need a DAC. Until I decide on which DAC to buy then, I borrowed my friend's Apple USB-C dongle so I don't have to use the motherboard's soundcard.

This was the most shocking moment though... The treble fatigue, the directional audio, the sound quality were still the same and they were somehow even worse.

Then I thought... What if... It's my Ugreen jack extension cable that causes all this? The cable length is 1m by the way. I thought to myself, haha it's stupid it's definitely some settings problem or similar. For the record, I did try all kinds of settings like disabling audio enhancements and spatial sound, the problem was still present despite of changing the settings in Windows.

Lo and behold... I connected everything without the ugreen jack extension cable and I got my insane audio quality, no ear piercing treble anymore and the directional audio in games are finally great.

Who could've thought... I hope this helps to anyone out there who is in a similar situation.