Not going down that rabbit hole with you.

No, there is a difference to me. Same issues with boringness, I just didn’t get what all the fuss was about (excluding price). There are many on here that hear significant differences as well, so you are not alone.

Don’t think so. There is only so much power to go around.

I had that, and it is just as good. I owned the 660S in the past and really didn't care for them, that was before I found out how to use EQ. With a little EQ, these sound great.

Thanks! I believe it is 3.5mm SE only on the other output.

I jumped back into the hobby (again) and thought I would share this "budget" setup. I have had countless headphones over the years, all less than $2k. While I will not say this is the best combo I have ever owned, it is respectable in my eyes.

There are countless post describing the 660S, but I prefer it over the 6XX when EQ is applied. At their original price, it is not worth it to me. At $250, refurbished from Sennheiser's website, I think they are a good deal. They came in the box and look brand new with all the accessories. I have been using Oratory's EQ profile through SoundSource and it sounds great. Bass is not as powerful as some of my planars, but it is enough.

The star of the show is the little DX1. For $100, I am really impressed. In the past I have not been a fan of Topping after owning a few of their DAC/Amps over the years. This one is not the most powerful, but for the HD660S it is plenty even on low gain. It is really smooth and the build/form factor is perfect for me. It has been nice to be able to power off the computer and not having to worry about another power adapter. The volume pot seems to be good quality as well, which was a surprise.

Anyways, not the best combo of all time, but it's good bang for buck at the moment. Hopefully I can settle with it, only time will tell. Just thought I would share if someone was in the market for gear in this price range.

I’ve lost count, but I have probably owned around 30 headphones and countless DAC/AMPs. I capped out at $1.5k for individual headphones and roughly the same for the DAC/AMPs.

At the end of it all, I realized I was never going to be happy with one. I got rid of everything except AirPods Pro 2s and the AirPods Max. I barely use the Max, but the Pros are excellent. I found that in the end, I personally do not miss the higher SQ and it just ends up being a giant money pit.

Speakers (if you have the space/place for it) are the answer in my case. I’ve owned a lot of speakers as well, with KEF LS50Ws being the peak. I ended up settling with Vanatoo T0 with a Monolith THX 8” sub, and it’s amazing for desktop use. I found that I enjoyed this more than any headphone I’ve used.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I remembered owning something like this, but couldn’t remember what it was.

How about you show scientific articles showing we know “next to nothing about the brain?” You make it sound like it’s fact, how about you back that statement up? There is tons of research in this area and it would take you two seconds to find articles supporting that fact.