Not if these subjective reports are made from sighted, non-level matched listening, for which it's impossible to delineate the myriad possible nuisance variables and subconscious cognitive biases involved from actual sonic preference. That would certainly not be scientific.

Thanks for all these measurements and the detailed write-up. Could you post the GRAS 45CA distortion measurements at 94 dBSPL (425 Hz) for completeness and to allow for a direct like-for-like comparison with ASR's distortion measurements?

Firmware 1.5.1 has just been released which increases the max PEQ gain to +/-50(!) dB - could you try this to see if it's fixed that bug?

From the Qudelix forum, apparently there's a bug, in which PEQ filter gain values over +/- 12.8 dB won't work correctly. Could any 5K owners confirm this by trying for example -14 dB for one of the filters and see if it sticks after saving the whole PEQ profile?

Did you do a blind listening comparison between that and EQ off (all bands set to 0dB)?

That makes no sense whatsoever. How is decreasing the 16kHz band by 1dB 'disabling EQ'? This is just the opposite, enabling EQ. The EQ is disabled when all bands are set to 0dB.

No, the HE5XX is not a step up from the HE4XX. On the contrary in fact, as they have a significant lack of bass in comparison to the latter:

Thanks! I spoke to someone else who bought the leather Vesper pads but with suede on the ear-facing surface, and they said there was some loss of upper treble 'airiness' compared to the stock pads. Do you notice anything like that with your full-leather pads?

Great review, thanks! Apart from the improvement in bass, did you notice any other changes in sound with the these pads? Oh and how much did you pay if you don't mind me asking?

Ok sure. Could you do me a favor instead? Could you download and play the below 30-second BS EN 50332-1 'Program Simulation Noise' through the Qudelix 5K (USB-C wired connection to source) at maximum volume and record its output (e.g. using the free Audacity program) by connecting the line-out...

Thanks for the Qudelix 5K impressions! Could you upload your RMAA measurements for it by any chance?

Neutron Player also bypasses the Android audio mixer, when playing offline files. But no app integrates Spotify, so that will always go through the Android mixer unfortunately. Do not use the Android graphic equalizer at all if you can help it (keep it on 'normal', with all other sound...

Would owners of the Exynos S10/S10+/S10e mind taking a few minutes of your time to download and play the below 30-second long BS EN 50332-1 'Program Simulation Noise' through the phone at maximum volume with Google Play Music (all system EQ and sound enhancements off) and record its output (e.g...

Would owners of the Qudelix 5K mind taking a few minutes of your time to download and play the below 30-second long BS EN 50332-1 'Program Simulation Noise' through the Qudelix 5K (USB-C wired connection to source) at maximum volume and record its output (e.g. using the free Audacity program) by...

There will likely be no audible difference in sound quality between them. Here are the distortion measurements of the S10+: And here are the same measurements for the LG G7 (which has the same audio chip as the G6): The distortion spikes to the right of the main test signal in the middle...