Since I had my SR1a (my first highly resolving chain), I got a chance to hear and realize the impact of the recording, mixing and mastering like never before... for better or for worse it made me discover a whole new layer of the hobby. Besides letting me appreciate/comprehend/evaluate better the qualities, subtilities and caracters of the different artists and instruments, now I can sometimes kind of understand how, where and with which gears the music was produced just by listening to the track as the different sounds unfold the story of how it all happened.
It took me time and money to properly set up the SR1a in order to feel satisfied and enjoy most of my music. As the name "Studio Reference 1 a" implies these HP are like a tool revealing loads of informations and magnifying micro details that can, in some situations, be too much of a good thing requiring tuning for normal listening (vocals, with their caracters and artifacts, seem pushed a bit forward also). But they become very rewarding, almost magical, with "greatly" recorded, mixed and mastered tracks, where the experience can actually feel spooky real from time to time with the clarity and space cues, as if you were teleported where it actually took place.
I would dare to say that the SR1a is not a direct link between the music melody and your spirit/soul kind of experience, but put back how each physical impact is creating energy waves that will firstly strike your body, senses and mind then being translated to sounds intruding your psyche before making a cohesive melody that will eventually speak to your soul. Also I would assume the inherent dynamic and transients of the ribbons will make poor recording physically harder to listen and decrease your hearing faster than other, less physically impactfull headphones at same volume.
