I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 that I use to power some 280 ohm DT880s. Sounds just fine to me -- but I don't have a point of reference to a proper headphone amp.

I didn't click this expecting to see my setup!

I think it's pretty good, though I do find the Grados quite piercing in the treble range. Also the Grado headphone wires are super heavy which is unwieldy when moving around and especially when it has such a small dongle attached to it.

Do not, under any circumstances, touch the EQ on the BTR5. I'm not sure if it's just a problem via the app or from the device itself, but, apparently it can brick it. All I know is I changed it and now the BTR5 (2021) will not talk to my receiver.

> I can’t play my speakers past 11pm (for reasons I won’t go into)

gave me a good chuckle

I’m not sure if you’re asking what’s going on technically but as I understand it, instead of delivering you two glorious channels of PCM sound Atmos instead sends you every channel that would have fed into the master mix along with some information about gain and, crucially, 3D position. This means that the final mix happens in the room you’re listening in, with the information about where the speakers you’re listening with are. Headphones are a special, easy case.

Also! They can do the up/down with something called the Head-related Transfer Function. This is a bit of numerical magic: turns out we figure out where things are in 3D space using subtle phasing and tone differences. I’m not sure how individual they are to each person, but I bet they can run a quick training phase. I think some of the fancier apple headphones use accelerometers to keep the sounds in the same position relative to the space you’re in rather than you’re head, even.

Loved it!