ShearMe

Bought these after seeing you mention them and they're pretty decent. Looking forward to testing them on plane flights with a Microclimate helmet. In my apartment, ANC blocks out constant noises like fans and A/C. Kinda poor isolation on their own for noise the ANC doesn't handle.

what bluetooth headphones are you using with that much delay? Latency is undetectable on my brand-name products The RF headphones you're describing are kind of a niche and unpopular product simply because of the base station requirement. They don't get much development in the modern age,

Surround over S/PDIF requires active compression technologies like Dolby Digital Live. First party devices like the Xbox, playstation, DVD/Bluray players and some TVs will handle that automatically. On a PC, you need specific hardware and/or software to accomplish it. actually getting it working is usually a pain in the arse because the software part tends to be buggy. Example product that advertises Dolby Digital Live: https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Internal-Headphones-Discrete-Supports/dp/B08HYPH5T6/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=creative+sound+card+optical+surround&qid=1655148890&sr=8-5

The latency is technically higher, but I havent had issues with that myself using various computers and headphones.

There is no objective sound quality difference - it will come down to personal preference as to which sounds better, and even then it could be due to manufacturing variability rather than specifically the difference in impedance. I would suggest the 80 ohm variant just because it is more usable on a larger variety of equipment.

Have you tried normal bluetooth headphones yet? Aker Q30 is decent for the money to trial that tech. Would definitely want to invest in that modmic with any bluetooth headphone.

There could be an argument for 24-bit 192000Hz being more favorable, but you're unlikely to have source material for either anyway.

Don't have personal experience with these, but Koss is who I trust for cheap headphones. Koss SB40 analog headset, and Koss SB45 USB headset

Koss KSC35 for exercise! They are cheap and sound great. Open-backed so you don't get hit by a bus. One downside is the earclips can be a bit tight for some people - easy to replace them with earclips from the KSC75.

The noise floor of most recordings is going to be higher than that of almost any off the shelf equipment you buy today. Most humans can't hear past a 75dB SnR, and typical hardware SnR is about 120dB. This video has SnR examples @ 32 minutes:

Set it to the highest possible value, and as long as the pc is stable there's no reason to change it. The computer wont actually output that quality unless you have source material saved in the proper format.

Balance signals require two signal conductors per audio channel. Standard non-balanced consumer audio requires one signal conductor per audio channel, plus one ground for all. Thus, a 4-pole connector can carry 2 balanced signals (stereo) OR 3 unbalanced signals (stereo + mic)

S/PDIF does not natively support surround sound. The protocol only has the bandwidth for stereo. Nvidia drivers do not like to output surround sound, but it is possible to force it. Guide here: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/discover/133846/if-anyone-is-having-trouble-with-their-tv-passing-edid-through-their-receiver-to-nvidia-cards-th/

if you're using a KVM, couldn't you just add in any audio USB interface and use whatever wired headphones you wanted?

Based on what I'm reading on Sony's community forums, Linux supports LDAC on most bluetooth hardware. MAC and Windows simply don't for whatever reason. There are optical-in transmitters which support LDAC if someone wanted to avoid an unnecessary analog conversion. Bluetooth headphones have a DAC inside of them. The Sony's specifically sound like crap when you use the analog input, because the transducers are tuned with software instead of the physical housing. They have to be powered on for the DSP to be applied to the analog input and at that point you might as well use bluetooth. The best way to improve audio quality is to try different headphones. Once you find the sound you like, occasionally you can tune different audio systems to your preferences with EQ or DAC/amp swaps.

if it's anything like my 2008 Yaris, the speakers are very cheap and made of paper. The head unit also has little to no cooling available to it... how beefy is the amp in the aftermarket stereo?

the second point was the one I was suggesting... Mastering trumps arbitrary formatting

For surround, I'd recommend against S/PDIF because it has limited bandwidth for all those channels. The formats for surround over S/PDIF are also effectively defunct in modern times, which makes them difficult to use.

I have the headphones. The functionality is kinda quirky and the ANC does little to nothing.... but they are definitely comfortable in bed.

I'm a bit confused... what of my statement does your "less of a feature" apply to?

Hopefully you have an audio enhancement called "Loudness equalization" - this can help bring quieter source material up to a more normal level.

Do you already have an extensive headphone collection?

how old is the PC? Time to do a clean windows install!

First I want to point out that in Windows, Bluetooth headsets appear as two different audio devices and each has different functionality. One is usually called "Headset" with the Hands-free label and the other "Headphones" with the Stereo Label The "Hands-Free AG Audio" is a built-in Windows generic driver and you cannot remove it. Using this device will only give you mono audio through the headphones, because Bluetooth needs the other channel of audio for the microphone. You should also have a "Stereo" driver for normal headphone operation. You cannot use the microphone in stereo mode. Next I want you to check your default devices. Open a command prompt and type in mmsys.cpl to open the sound control panel. Windows will often automatically set the stereo driver as the default device, but sometimes sets the default communication device as the hands-free driver. You want to select the driver you wish to use, and then click the Set Default button at the bottom right to make the same driver be used for both situations. https://www.mcbsys.com/blog/2018/09/set-default-communications-device-in-windows-10-1803/ After that, you might also need to ensure you have the correct device/driver selected in your application. Voice chat applications like Discord, zoom, teams, and even windows game bar have their own audio settings which often ignore system defaults. If you've got the opposite driver set in the application as what's chosen in the sound control panel, you'll often end up with no audio. Quick note: Most people change their audio by clicking the sound icon in the taskbar > arrow next to current device > choose new device. This ONLY changes the default audio device, NOT the default communication device.

Some artists/producers will also provide a better master to higher end services like Tidal so that the "stream quality" becomes irrelevant. Same thing that's been done to Vinyl vs CDs for decades. Edit: just seen that someone already mentioned this/ GG no re