Besides what everyone else has said, I find myself loving headphones as display pieces as well. I have been a collector at heart for most of my life, so headphones stick out to me as far more distinct and appealing to keep around than speaker systems. I plan to eventually get super nice headphone stands for all my current and future pairs.

That's always a great choice, but "the HEADPHONE COMPARISON song" still has a better ring to it. 🫰

Here's just a few that particularly stand out to me when comparing between pairs. None of it is mainstream, but it is a good peer into my music taste. ;)

1. Busted Bayou from DKC Tropical Freeze: amazing song in its own right, but also great for testing out imaging, instrument separation, and soundstage with everything going on.
2. Camellia's GHOST: the beginning part is perfect for testing out bass and treble in EDM. The former can be quite punchy and visceral on certain headphones and the latter somewhat brighter.
3. Teminite and PsoGnar's Lion's Den: perfect for testing male vocals, which can sound especially full and detailed here. Another awesome choice for EDM, in this case dubstep.
4. Mirror of the World: aka Baiken's theme from Guilty Gear Strive, the guitars here sound simply immaculate and heavy as hell on higher end gear.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend checking out Fog City Audio's shop for this. They have cables for a ton of different headphone brands that can be customized by length, end connection, and even a bunch of color patterns. I recently ordered a 4.4mm balanced cable from them for my Arya Stealths, and it's just wonderful. They're braided too, so quite flexible with pretty much no fuss compared to some stock cables.

That's a good question, so I'll try my best to answer. Music has always been a very personal thing for me, to the point where the variety of stuff I listen to defines part of my personality. I'm quite an introverted and private person, so playing music that others can hear simply makes me uncomfortable (even if they eventually forget about it in the future). I reserve the stuff I enjoy to those who are closest to me since I'm fine with them seeing a piece of who I am. For me, it's also a nice way of showing my respect and consideration to others.

That's definitely a valid concern. One of the main reasons I picked up my SRH1540s was so I could enjoy some music privately while making sure I wasn't disturbing my roommate. I'm that type of person who doesn't want others knowing what I listen to anyway. Nonetheless, the pair looks and sounds great for what I need them for. I still keep the 660S around for more casual video watching, playing games, and for music anytime I'm in our dorm alone.

Well put, I respect your dedication and ability to experiment overall. If I go solid state, I'll make sure to find a combo that has plenty of options to satisfy all the cable types I'd amass over the future. I imagine by the time I'm closer to done, I'll be needing 4-pin XLR, 4.4mm balanced, and 6.35mm ports (with adapter from 3.5mm), so the amp part of that combo having all of those would be greatly convenient in the long run.

The WA2 and WA22 were the tube options I narrowed my searches down to initially, but I'm having second thoughts. They're not off entirely the table and look quite nice, but it's also a steep price tag for a result that might have too little a difference (at least for me) for too much. My personal endgame headphone-wise would probably be the Hifiman Anandas and HD 800S for planar and dynamic respectively, but it appears solid states show quality enough results to guarantee a sound I'd be satisfied with.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and contributions here. They seriously help me out a ton! For a while before today, I was also considering potential Topping and Schiit combos for solid state, and I might end up choosing those since I'm leaning more towards accurate representations of what I listen to (I'm still surprised how complex and interesting tubes are though). The Topping L50 and E50 combo seems like a promising one, so I'll keep that on my radar for now and see what happens in the future. :)

I usually play any music I have from Foobar, so I can look for options and/or plugins that do what you mentioned. I didn't even know that existed until now!

I doubt my ears are completely golden as well. I'll see if I have the opportunity to demo them, but if not, I'll look into solid state combos that would be able to drive any headphone I own well.

At some point, I'll have to see if I can find any headphone shops around that allow me to test various pairs and amps together. It definitely sounds like a safer bet to have some in-person exposure for comparison than just jumping in blind and hoping I've stumbled into diamonds.

That's all good to know, thanks for the info! I'll make sure to look into solid state options and see what might be ideal for me in case I do that instead. I might not want to go overboard for something that has a very small/subtle difference with much higher cost.

Which tube amps tend to lean more towards the colored end? I've looked through plenty of threads with people talking about them, but there was too much headphone jumbo for me to personally understand how certain tube amps sound.