Last year I was running planars like the LCD-X and Arya SM through a GSX-Mini. I also got to try out the LCD-5, 1266, Susvara, both Utopias, Meze Elites and other cans. I’m not here to say “I couldn’t hear a difference” because honestly I thought all of those headphones had some really good things and were impressive in different ways. But then my job changed and I couldn’t listen to my desktop setup.

I changed over to the Symphonium Helios and tried a bunch of DAC’s. The BTR7, the Questyle M15, and the Quedelix 5K. The 5K was my favorite by a considerable margin on the dac side. All in all, the sound is not as good in my opinion compared to the desktop setup, but I’d say it’s 85% there and has many of the qualities of what I think of as Hi-Fi sound. Moreover, I can listen to way more music now that it’s all portable. I probably get to enjoy these at least twice as much as I got to enjoy my desktop setup.

I don’t really have a point to make with this post. About 4 months into the switch to a good IEM and I’m really enjoying it. I could’ve kept my desktop setup, but I got to the point where I could only really enjoy it once a week. If you’re desktop-only then it might be worth expanding into IEMs?

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