[TyTB]

Especially given how much of your annual budget would go to the headphones, I'm going to make one more plug for the ATH-R70X. I am considerably older than you, a sometime musician and lifelong music junkie, always trying to hear all the details that make music magical. I've been through a lot of headphones, though not in the kilobuck zone. The ATH-R70X are just utterly satisfying to me.

Someone in Canada -- Amazon? -- must have the Audio-Technica ATH-R70X on sale with a return policy. Please try them.

I will actually see if I can find a place that has them to listen to, tomorrow. It's hard to find a place that has both them AND the senn's, to do some direct comparisons. Your efforts to push me towards trying them are not in vain, though, I appreciate it, and will do what I can to find them.

Given what you have shared, I think a quality pair of IEMs is all you need to connect with music and leave spending 1/10th of your annual income on the hobby for another time. I have found great enjoyment out of my Timeless 2/Fiio BRT5 mobile setup. If anyone can’t enjoy the music with this setup then they just don’t like the music.

I appreciate the thought, but IEM's are out of the question for me. I have very, very small ear canals (like, despite being a 6' man, my ears only fit a Women's Small-size earplug.) I find the feeling of anything in my ear to be extremely uncomfortable, not to mention the constant hygiene hassle of having to clean off earwax. It's headphones or nothing for me.

 

[orbilius]

I can appreciate that. What about Focal Bathys? https://headphones.com/products/foc...Zw9rSvN3DoofA0FAI8GSTstR7TYYtXphoCn1gQAvD_BwE

 

[TyTB]

I can appreciate that. What about Focal Bathys? https://headphones.com/products/focal-bathys-headphones-open-box?variant=39893662498887&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping&tw_source=google&tw_adid=&tw_campaign=17139760470&tw_source=google&tw_adid=&tw_campaign=17139760470&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwwr6wBhBcEiwAfMEQs-Ij6vgraP2fBD8ltF4RfZZw9rSvN3DoofA0FAI8GSTstR7TYYtXphoCn1gQAvD_BwE

I listened to some Focal Clear MG's, and they were.... not a good headphone, to my ears. Marginal differences compared to the 6XX. The build quality felt excellent, but they were HEAVY. A little clearer, a little more bass, but overall still vastly inferior to the HD800s / Arya Organics / Meze 109 pros.

And those were the Focal CLEAR MG's. If they couldn't deliver, I'd be very surprised if their lesser sibling could.

 

[michael2v]

Thank you for your comment. Your closing sentence is EXACTLY what I'm getting at.

That's EXACTLY what I'm concerned about. Is tube sound just another audiophile fantasy, thar only 0.1% of people will be able to hear, or is it a sizeable, obvious, noticeable difference that even I, with my apparently crappy, plebian ears, will not notice?

Because I wasn't able to hear any soundstage differences between the HD6XX and the HD800s, for example. So if I'm not even able to hear something that most people here feel should be a day-and-night difference, then do you think there's actually any chance I could hear the difference between solid state and tube sound? Because if not, it seems to make more sense to buy the Jotunheim 2, and get balanced output AND a multibit DAC, for less money.

I would go in and test things to answer that question myself, but none of the stores I have access to in my town have tube setups readily available for listening and rolling.

I think it takes a lot of listening to a lot of different genres on a lot of different gear to learn to hear and appreciate the differences, and even then it can be highly subjective or personal. I can hear a difference between say my solid state and high-impedance tube amps, even though it can be very subtle (but I can’t hear a difference between some DACs that many others would swear say sound night and day).

Could I be perfectly happy enjoying music on just my AirPod Pros? Absolutely, but finding gear that is even more proficient sure is a lot of fun.