I'm curious about the effect of gain settings and DAC volume (e.g., in Audirvana) on overall sound quality. I recently acquired a Questyle CMA Twelve. Even on the low gain setting, it drives my on-ear phones to my preferred volume by 9 o'clock on the volume dial. I've read elsewhere that the...

I'm not sure how to justify this scientifically (and I'm a scientist, so that bothers me), but I consistently hear all balanced armature (BA) iems as treble dominant and shrill. I've tried a lot of them, including some of the "best" (Shure SE846, Ibasso IT03, Campfire Jupiter and Dorado)...

I recently purchased a pair of custom leather and memory-foam ear pads from Vesper Audio (https://vesperaudio.com/) to replace a worn-out pair of pads for my ATH-ESW990H headphones. The stock earpads are leather, but rather thin and a little painful, at least for me. They also have to be...

I have a Stefan Audioart Endorphin cable with a 3.5mm SE jack.  It has four conductors going into the jack, so I'm assuming it could be rewired as balanced (specifically 2.5mm balanced).  But there is no way on Earth I trust my meager soldering skills on a high-end cable.  I've emailed Stefan...

New here.  My equipment consists of:   Concero HP usb dac Beyerdynamics T90 open headphones Shure SE846 iem Shure SE425 iem Fiio X5 (first gen)   I'm slowly building a collection of flac and HD music I keep on a NAS.  I listen mostly to alt rock and indie, but also to 40s-50s-60s jazz...