Room lights down low, close up of one of my 6SN7GT tubes

https://imgur.com/a/Xj1kgsn

Honestly, it’s not that big of a difference. Like yeah, in a critical listening session I can tell but these days I just want to enjoy my music. After listening to a few songs I forget what hardware I’m plugged into anyway.

Tubes are cool for the novelty factor, but these days my headphones stay plugged into my solid state 99% of the time, mainly for the heat and power. You can also add the harmonics in software to simulate the warmth of tube amps, so there’s that.

If you want soundstage, then you should try CIEMs. They have the best ambience. You can try custom tips on the pair that you already have.

Try boosting 10k with an EQ before you commit to a new purchase.
If it doesn't help, then maybe lifting the top octave.

I still couldn’t figure it out so I caved and just signed into Reddit on pc lol

Rolling tubes is more dangerous than I thought.

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Yup! There’s literally a heater inside of it that is used to make it function. That heater will glow orange/red.

I mean ive heard some solid state amps sound warm too

Technology wilding

You mentioned you like metal/rock and I love my Anandas for certain bands/albums in those genres.

Like Coheed and Cambria, Muse, and Rush all sound super epic on the Anandas because of how tall the soundstage is and I think they deal with really busy tracks pretty well with great separation.

However, for other artists like Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, or Circa Survive I think there are better headphones around that price point (I personally prefer my DT 1990’s for those artists).

I don’t think you can go wrong with an Edition XS or an Ananda but if you’re only buying one headphone I might do a little more research.

All I do is take pictures of mine in low light conditions, with long exposure.

It's why they're in guitar amps. Nice even harmonic distortions make "warm" sounds if done right.

In some ways, yes. The Edition XS might be better.

A 20 Hz to 20 kHz sine sweep, that's all I listen to /s

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If you want soundstage and clarity, go for the Edition XS. If you want sub-bass and note weight, go for the Dan Clarks.

I recommend mullard pre tubes and Russian outputs.

Except Spotify Premium is actually more expensive than Tidal HiFi (€5.99/month vs. €4.99/month here in Croatia), so even if you don't hear the difference, there is not much to lose by making the switch.

Would it be an upgrade otherwise for the genres I mentioned? I can get a pretty good deal on it that puts it within my budget.

The M50 is the most overrated headphone, easily. All the people who praise it are tech bros who just bought their first nice headphone on the recommendation from random tech YouTubers. Meanwhile, I've never heard any actual audiophile say anything nice about it.

Collab incoming? 😳

I would not bother with going balanced. Especially not when you're only going to use IEMs.

https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/audio-myth-balanced-headphone-outputs-are-better

I'm sure there's a giant thread about this on head-fi.

Bass probably isn't its strong suit.