For the astro A40 it doesn’t matter but the ps5 audio output has no audible hiss noise which a pc could have.

Yeah sounds exactly like the wh1000xm4s description given there so many times

Another thing apart from parametric eq. Are you using LDAC on android?. If you use iPhone all you can do is AAC. On windows you would need to find software(i don’t remember) to get LDAC. LDAC on highest settinga makes your music sound a little bit better assuming it isn’t already very compressed or has enough complexity

A low shelf filter on eq apo with +5dB on 150 Hz will do it

My sundara, a stereo wired headphone, sounds already more inmmersive(what you call 3d) on the ps5 controller audio jack than my xm4 by a lot. I doubt the pulse headset to be any better than the xm4 if not worse.

A dac/amp combo would be enough to differentiate the sound. That motherboard probably has a lot of noise at those levels

It is possible to fix the problem you described slightly with some code on eq apo. Basically a crossfeed with/without delay. It is like a cleaner version of virtualization. It is hard to get the right parameters tho. If you happen to get stereo headphones(that you already tried for enough time to not hate them) then I could help with the crossfeed.

Sounds like tidal still has dsp problems somewhere since you checked all on apple music apparently. Yes, you can perfectly like a music with this kind of “lower quality”. The best way to know is downloading a music or album in lossless format and compare it with both apps.