It really depends on how you listen and what you appreciate. Audiophile is kindve a loose term. There is technically accurate, high resolution, good tonality, things like that that are more objective. Expensive headphones don’t generally have the same price/performance ratio as speakers. They don’t keep getting that much better past a certain price. Find something that suits your tastes and if you love it, it’ll be worth the upgrade. It’s good to try some stuff out and decide for yourself what might be worth the upgrade. I’d check out hifiman, beyerdynamic, and focal. They have good variation in sound signature and offer some very high end options. Also easy to find and try which is the most important. I’m assuming you probably don’t like sennheiser but they make some seriously good models as well.

No interest in the blind AB testing. That’s not how we listen to music. And I’m gonna be honest, it’s blatantly obvious on some tracks. There’s no myth to what I and many other people hear just because the science hasn’t been able to pinpoint what’s going on. I don’t actually care why. What I do know is that one sounds much fuller and less compressed than the other. Also, as a matter of principle, I think when you have high performance gear it’s worth having the best quality source. You wouldn’t put street tires on a Ferrari even if they would probably work OK.

I would say yes. It’s quite normal. For one, tidal isn’t even lossless, so it has its own “color”. Spotify very high quality will provide enough quality for most systems unless they are highly resolving but even then, it depends on the recording. On high quality recordings, the differences are very obvious. On normal recordings, it’s minimal. I think if you are struggling to hear a difference, then in your current situation, I wouldn’t worry about spending more money on tidal. If you have to listen back and forth many times to hear a difference, the difference isn’t worth it. It should be obvious. At some point with the right gear and the right recordings, it will be extremely obvious.

Headphones shouldn’t be flat on an FR graph like speakers because of the different way they interact with your ears. That’s why there isn’t a Harman curve for speakers. So if they sound like crap truly flat, that’s why. That being said, how do you know if it sounds flat? I’d say you’d have to have a trained ear and try to use songs with real unamplified acoustic instruments. If they sound natural, then it is probably close to flat. Not a huge fan of the sine wave technique because it isn’t real music so if you care about the music aspect rather than technical aspect I’d go with what I suggested above.

Jeez people are so quick to crap on anything related to cables I think it’s hilarious. Remember everyone I’m not spending your money, so calm down! Also, digital signals are passed via analog voltages and they are sampled and passed through to an analog output stage by the DAC so noise in the signal path can and does carry on to the output. Better DACs do a better job at recreating the analog wave and shaping the noise but obviously it isn’t perfect so the less noise on the input, the better. I encourage people to listen, try things, and learn with curiosity. If you don’t want to learn and try, then pick a different hobby. Happy holidays!

As long as the cable isn’t too expensive it will make some difference but only if your headphones are detailed enough to tell. A super expensive cable makes no sense since headphones don’t cost that much to begin with. Better to spend your money somewhere else. My headphones are around $500 and I can tell a very clear difference in digital cables so an analog cable with that big of a difference in specs should be pretty noticeable.