Magnets can be physically different and have different characteristics. Speaker diaphragm can be a different shape, material. Speaker coil can be made from different wire - thicker or thinner. It can have a different amount of winding on said wire. The actual winding itself can be different.

You cannot EQ a crappy driver to perfection, as it simply does not have a capacity to reproduce all sounds properly without distortion no matter what you do.

The more you wash it, the more the foam and velour will deteriorate. So it might be nice outside, but pads will be trashed. So that is kind of fooling the buyer, which is not cool.

Beyer specifically states not to use detergents of any kind.

Shure SE 215 will last forever. ;)

I use "fool me once" logic. I give a brand a chance. If it's good - great. If it's bad - never buy from them again. Does not matter how good of a "bang for a buck" they are (while they last). If they fail in a year or two - garbage.

Good headphones/earphones can last a lifetime.

BTW, doesn't Schiit have their Schiit together already? I blacklisted them long time ago (Asgard damaging Sennheisers drama and their response) . But recently I've read that they changed their ways and make better stuff now. Dunno it that's true though.

There must be some product (spray, oil, whatever) designed to prolong life of fake/faux leather. Google it up.

Yes. I replaced 990 Pro pads yesterday, can confirm that sound change is real and very noticeable. You can find my post in my history I think. There is an useful link in the comments to the measurements of 770 and 990 before and after pad change.

You meant TB probably. :) With Rockbox, Clip+ can read up to 64GB cards I think. 32GB for sure, as I used that. That was one of the amazing bits about it. Back in the day that was a pretty good storage amount.

Spotify - great recommendations, huge library, convenient.

Waiting for them to rollout lossless service. Aaany day now....

Honestly, what would be the purpose of that?

Balanced hardly makes sense in headphones. Unless your amp can push more power in balanced mode only, and you need that extra power. And with Grados being so easy to drive - that is not the case.

I would be glad if anyone contradicted me with some actual facts what benefits balanced brings to headphones. But for now, I would say that this mod would not be wort time and effort, if you do it for sound quality and not just for fun.

Sansa Clip+ with Rockbox is fantastic. Had two of those. Unfortunately, one started skipping randomly, other one stopped reading SD cards (after multiple years of use).

MOMENTUM True Wireless 3? I've read they have quality issues... Guy I know had to RMA them already, since one bud stopped charging. I have them for a few months without any issues so far.

You're in for a new experience. :) The last time I tried Normalize on Spotify - it totally messed up dynamic range and made everything sound awful.

Check if Spotify does not do normalizing and auto quality adjusting. Normalize on Spotify does weird things to audio. WASAPI bypasses Windows mixer and in theory is bit-perfect. But it might cause unwanted behavior with other audio streams (them not playing properly).

Yes. The only think "unsafe" (more like unhealthy for the battery) is to heavy use the phone while charging due to generated heat. BT uses very little battery, so it's totally fine.

70 bucks?? I remember Portas as a 30 or-so dollar headphones. That's the whole appeal.