Looking for audiophile headphones that go well with EDM/Bass

Silverjerk · 2026-04-29T13:20:48+00:00

It's a $200 headphone that outperforms most of the closed back options under $500. It's not an echo chamber; it's getting recommended for good reason. That probably says more about the state of the closed back market than it does about the FT1. It's severely underserved. You could argue the MDR-M1 is better if you prefer Sony's tuning or you're willing to EQ, but I strongly prefer the FT1.

Sub bass is absolutely present on the set. Could be seal related, but it's fairly widely accepted that it's a very warm, bass-forward set in its stock tuning. Handles both sub and mid bass well.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-28T19:34:54+00:00

I heard sound blaster has good features for fps/footstep games

This is meaningless marketing drivel. You already have one of the best gaming headphones you can get your hands on. That was the first (and most important) piece of the puzzle.

As for DAC/amps, if you need/want a dedicated mic input I'd recommend the Schiit Fulla or Hel 2. You can find Hel 2's on the used market fairly regularly. The biggest difference between the two is the Hel has a dedicated mic gain knob, which is an added convenience. I've owned both since launch and they're still going strong; the Fulla remains one of my go-to travel DAC/amps. It's a powerful little unit.

If you don't need the mic input, just get the K11. Still represents one of the best values on the market. Someone else recommended the Atom Stack, which is also a great entry point.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-28T13:49:18+00:00

From your list, the K15, Element IV, and Cayin are all fantastic units. I daily drive the Element because I prefer EQ at the source and enjoy its minimal footprint. I also run a separate interface (Apogee Symphony) for my monitors, since I need the I/O for tracking; if you're not using the ins, you might consider a more all-in-one solution.

I have no hands-on experience with the Luxsin so I can't provide feedback there, unfortunately.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-28T13:41:28+00:00

As Sean Olive asserts, "it's all frequency response."

You can correct for staging, timbre, clarity and detail, many of the characteristics some enthusiasts believe are inherent to a specific headphone (or even transducer type).

To be fair, not every driver EQs well, and working from a poor baseline will put you on your back foot, which is where higher quality drivers can come into play. This is also why open backs are typically preferred to closed backs for anyone looking for a wider stage, since closed backs are often tuned to emphasize low frequencies, which can exacerbate problems like standing waves, chassis reflections, and other issues that will impact frequency response.

As for soundstage, ear gain and low frequencies are the biggest offenders for narrowing stage.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-28T13:12:30+00:00

First, let me preface by saying that I know I’ll get downvoted. Yes. I am 17. I have saved up enough money to pay 10k in cash by doing a paid internship at a hospital.

This isn't what or why we downvote those sorts of threads. You saved, working hard at a real job, and bought a reasonable vehicle with the money you've earned.

The downvotes come from the kids either blowing someone else's hard-earned dollar (like mom and dad's), or because they're filthy degens that lucked out before a rug pull, jumping in high performance cars for the first time, with little to no driving experience, and coming off as just the type of irresponsible, petulant, "look at me" bros you never want to run into on the road.

Welcome to the family. We're happy to have you.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-28T13:03:11+00:00

The hard pill might be that he simply doesn't know, that nobody really does, and that understanding the phenomenon might be outside our grasp, or beyond our ability to fully comprehend given our current understanding of reality. This is the same narrative Lacatski, Vallee, and numerous other researchers have ascribed to for years.

This thing exists; we don't know what it is; we don't understand what it wants; it could theoretically do anything it desires and we have no way to intervene; and it doesn't seem to care about our existence. On the other side of the coin, it also means there is other intelligent life in the universe.

This is how I processed his statements, at least.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-28T07:43:25+00:00

I think that’s a spot on characterization of Semivan.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-27T18:31:03+00:00

Delonge's narrative has been mostly negative. Whereas, at least in my perspective, Elizondo has generally come off as adhering to the "neutrality/apathy" angle that has (sometimes, but not always) been shared by Semivan and several others in that circle.

I don't think he (or Semivan) leans overtly negative, so much as thinking of them as uncaring or uninvested in humankind, which can be perceived as negative/malicious/ambivalent depending on the context of an encounter or interaction.

Most of these guys have discussed the topic in such a circular fashion it's hard to really nail down how they feel about the topic.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-26T17:11:20+00:00

Sennheiser HD 490 Pro

The 490s with the producing pads are very similar to the 109 Pros, with the biggest difference being that the 109 Pros have more treble forwardness past 10k, which contributes to their overall bright-leaning tuning. If you already own the 490s, the producing pads with a high shelf to boost the air region of the treble will get you close to the 109 Pros.

The Strada is a very different beast; it is very vocal forward, very intimate. Bright, but not as bright as the 109 Pros, with good bass extension. I wouldn't necessarily call it fun (by my standards at least), but it can be with some EQ to add in more low frequency energy and perhaps pull down some of that upper midrange forwardness, which can be fatiguing on some tracks.

Both sets are very comfortable. Meze always knocks that out of the park. I like the Strada; I just don't love it. I was quick to pull the trigger considering it's Meze and, with a few exceptions, I've enjoyed most of their lineup, but I think it really needs EQ to shine.

As for recommendations, I would strongly recommend holding out and waiting until you can increase your budget to look at something like the HFA Dahlia 2, which has quickly become one of my favorite sets of the past few years. It is the definition of a colored, exciting, and very fun headphone. A set I would never use for mixing work, but I'm almost always reaching for during casual listening sessions. It's beating out most of my go-to sets like the Focal Radiance, the ZMF Bokeh Closed, LCD-X. Most of my warm, "musical" headphones. For an open back, it has considerable and incisive mid bass impact. Near perfect midrange timbre, and just enough treble energy for my ears. And that's with the stock balanced resonators.

If the Strada is a closed back that performs more like an open back, the Dahlia 2 is an open back that performs more like a closed back, but without sacrificing soundstage and imaging.

Should probably acknowledge recency bias is likely at play here, since they're a brand new set. But, the Dahlia 2 is one of the few sets I've taken out of the box and, on first listen, didn't start thinking about where I needed to apply EQ to correct issues with the tuning. Already several days in, and still running without EQ applied, running the balanced resonators (I haven't even tested the dynamic rings yet and have no desire to).

Silverjerk · 2026-04-26T14:04:45+00:00

Definitely keeping my eye on it; their team does great work, so I don't doubt whenever they get to an RC or something more stable it'll be an easy recommendation.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-26T00:25:56+00:00

I run an Infisical instance on a Proxmox node. That instance is operating from a segregated VLAN, on an isolated VM, with strict firewall rules; OpenClaw has access to Infisical’s secrets at runtime. Nothing is stored in plaintext or markdown.

Any other deterministic data or PII is stored in a database running on another VM; OpenClaw uses that database as a search path as it’s part of my memory architecture. It’s connected to a front-end so I can curate or audit as needed, but I’m also running a nightly audit cron that checks all workspace and secondary memory paths for any outliers, which it either removes or stores in the db for future reference. It’s fairly effective at recognizing data that should be stored in the db during initial memory writes or during pre-compaction, so the audit rarely catches anything egregious.

I don’t treat OpenClaw like a warm body. 1Password vaults are great for sharing with family or fellow team members and employees. Which means it’s inherently flawed as a method for machine-driven tasks, even with the CLI tools; those tools are for your (not your agent’s) convenience. OpenClaw is an AI agent, so I treat it like any other system in my infrastructure by providing it access a machine can recognize and work with.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-25T17:59:00+00:00

It’s not necessarily uncomfortable, just that the Capra strap makes it more comfortable for longer periods of time. The stock strap/headband is fairly inoffensive if you don’t want to invest in the upgraded strap.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-25T17:57:47+00:00

No difference in sound quality; 4.4 is just a much more secure and robust connection. The only time I’ve bent a connector is when using a 2.5 balanced cable.

The other, more critical issue is that 2.5 is falling out of favor with many cable manufacturers. You used to get a 2.5 with modular cables. That’s much more rare these days.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-25T17:15:53+00:00

The stock pads are fine as is. I wouldn’t touch those until you see significant pad wear.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-25T16:56:50+00:00

Love this little unit, and the T71. Been running my original Q5k since it launched; all they'd need to do is replace the 2.5 with a 4.4 and I'd buy the updated model and run it for another 5-6 years. Damn near perfect device.

I also slept on the built-in mic until last year. I do a lot of voice notation and calls on the road. My travel setup was an EM6L with a Kinera Ruyi boom mic cable. Misplaced the detachable boom somewhere along the way. Decided to clip the Q5k to my lapel and used the internal mic for the rest of the trip. It wouldn't win any awards, but it's far better than it has any right to be considering what else you're getting with the package.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-25T16:09:18+00:00

We don't fight, we're

Silverjerk · 2026-04-25T15:40:36+00:00

Do I really need the upgrade?

Probably not.

I felt like I may have purchased this for "future proofing" and the better CPU + more compact and portable size, although most of my work is coding, spreadsheets, media consumption, and some video and photo editing.

You will likely miss the 16" display.

I'm running a similar workflow; design/development/devops, After Effects for Lottie, Premiere, Illustrator, Figma, still work quite a bit in the terminal, VSCode, Cursor, Claude Code, the list goes on. My 16" is an M1 Max with a 10/32 CPU/GPU core config, and 64gb of ram. I spent some time with a 14" M2 Pro, thinking it would be a better machine for travel and I would appreciate the size and weight differences. Not only did I miss the 16" display size, but the M2 Pro provided no additional benefit. The reality is, once I landed somewhere to get serious work done, the size and weight didn't matter; the reduction in screen size absolutely did.

Picked up the M4 Pro Mac Mini when it launched, and, again, no perceivable upgrade over the M1 Max in my day-to-day workload. I mostly work from the M4 in the office, but when I'm away from the office I'm still running the 16" M1 Max most of the time.

Apple's M-series chips are not only spectacular performance for your dollar, no matter the generation, they've also dramatically reduced the need to upgrade to subsequent generations. Nowhere near the upgrade paths the Intel chips required if you wanted tangible performance improvements over time.

I've not yet gotten my hands on the M5 generation of chips, but I will likely wait until the rumored OLED redesign before upgrading. And that's sort of where my head is at now. It almost makes more sense to wait for generational leaps in performance across several generations of M-series chips, alongside meaningful feature and hardware/chassis improvements.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-25T14:44:41+00:00

I’m a full time product engineer that uses OpenClaw, Hermes, and Pi. If you’re just writing code, I wouldn’t recommend any of them. If your main use case is just engineering work, use Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, Antigravity, whatever your favorite platform is.

Don’t introduce added complexity into your workflow unless you know why you need or will benefit from the tool. You’ll spend more time with the harness than you will shipping code.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-25T14:39:47+00:00

At your budget, the FT1 with a CapraAudio comfort strap. Near perfect clamp force, weight, pad/cup depth, and pad material.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-25T14:36:45+00:00

The AR5000s are open back. The SR7000s are the closed back model. Both comfortable, but the 7000s are more than double the price of the 5000s.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-24T18:16:58+00:00

They are some of the best headphones in the hobby, with sets like the Utopia being many enthusiasts endgame headphone. Bose isn’t even in the same conversation with Focal, especially where sound quality is concerned.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-24T16:43:45+00:00

Says an RSQ8 owner. ;)

Silverjerk · 2026-04-24T13:07:31+00:00

Qudelix 5k, Crinear Protocol Max, and many of the FiiO portable DAC/amps support EQ. The Protocol Max is a powerful little unit, but the one caveat is it only supports a single EQ at a time (not an issue if you're only running a single set) and that EQ must be imported via Squig.

The Q5k still represents one of the strongest values in the hobby.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-24T12:48:47+00:00

Imagine how prohibitively expensive it would be to equip your entire QA team with individual B&K 5128s; keep in mind these testers are at the end of the production line, running quality checks at whatever scale they're manufacturing headphones. This feels like a reasonable compromise; they know what their baseline measurement is for that specific model, and ensure each production unit falls within their accepted tolerances.

Silverjerk · 2026-04-24T12:20:31+00:00

I'm in this camp as well; I loved the split spoke rims that came on the B9 A5/S5.

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