The hardware that I use personally sounds very good and has not been discussed in the first post.
I would like to make a contribution by sharing some sound recordings of this hardware.
Infinity Alpha 5 + Sony STR-DB790
drive.google.com
drive.google.com
F&D F550X
drive.google.com
drive.google.com
Kawai stereo headphones
drive.google.com
drive.google.com
When I listen to the recordings on headphones on my specific hardware and software, I hear the main differences between the three recorded audio sources very clearly.
I use OpenBSD, music player daemon and an ASRock motherboard with integrated audio.
However, that does not take away from the fact that there are differences that the micro cannot register.
I can give these differences in addition to the recordings.
The F&D speakers are a higher-quality experience than the Infinity setup in 15% of cases. In 85% of the music I listen to, the Infinity setup is a better experience.
The Kawai headphones and the Infinity setup are closer in terms of experience.
At 128 kbps audio, I feel that the Infinity setup has the advantage because you do not perceive the low audio quality as well.
With Opus 130 kbps -170 kbps audio files, the Kawai headphone experience comes very close to the Infinity setup. In terms of bass, it strongly depends on the specific song which one gives the best experience.
In the most ideal circumstances, 24-bit lossless audio made by audio engineers with a lot of talent and high-quality hardware + software, the Kawai headphones possibly exceed every speaker setup (and many > 200 dollar headphones).
You can often hear how high-quality the hardware (or software) of many sound engineers is with these headphones.
I can hear in music that the voice has been digitally processed in a way that I don't think the band's sound engineers want it heard.
I also frequently hear roughness and imperfections in songs that I would think the sound engineers simply won't have heard.
The headphones render more details than what many people who arrange CD mastering have heard, and this strikes me strongly.
But with Lana Del Rey's original 24-bit lossless songs, it is then again noticeable that the sound engineers used high-quality equipment for mastering the songs and there you hear their talent for this job.
The Kawai headphones are technically capable of beating all stereo speaker setups, but this potential is usually not exploited because not all audio engineers are talented.
And often they do not know which software and audio hardware is best suited to hear all the details.
