If you EQ your headphones, e.g. to match the Harman curve[0] to better replicate the sound of loudspeakers in a moderately treated room, you'll probably find th

If you EQ your headphones, e.g. to match the Harman curve[0] to better replicate the sound of loudspeakers in a moderately treated room, you'll probably find they need a lot of bass boost. This means you have to turn everything down to avoid clipping, which hurts the signal to noise ratio. If you only listen to low dynamic range music you still might not notice it, but for high dynamic range music, like orchestral music with natural sounding mastering, you will probably be able to hear noise from low quality DACs in the quiet parts. Fortunately, good DACs are cheap now, e.g. the Apple USB to 3.5mm adapter [1]. [0] https://headphonesaddict.com/harman-curve/ https://headphonesaddict.com/harman-curve/ [1] https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-apple-vs-google-usb-c-headphone-adapters.5541/ https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/r...