My anecdotal experience is that music sounds the best to me currently via my good headphones connected to either my phone's good DAC, or to my PC's separate sound card.
Headphones = Sennheiser HD380 pro, pretty good for under $200.
Soundcard = "ASUS Xonar DGX PCI-E GX2.5".
Sound source = FLAC, Google Play Music subscription)
I'd like to upgrade to a really nice DAC and headphone amp to connect to the PC via USB, but that's way down the list of spending priorities.
I know that I'd probably have trouble distinguishing between audio components and sources in a blind listening test, and of course I have tinnitus, but I think my current "setup" if you can call it that is good enough for most stuff.
I am absolutely with you on the loudness wars though. It's a joy to listen to stuff that has real dynamic range, but it's not something I obsess over when I'm listening to music in the car for instance.
Phone = LG V20 which has an [ES9218](https://www.androidauthority.com/lg-v20-quad-dac-explained-7...) chip for its DAC.
Headphones = Sennheiser HD380 pro, pretty good for under $200.
Soundcard = "ASUS Xonar DGX PCI-E GX2.5".
Sound source = FLAC, Google Play Music subscription)
I'd like to upgrade to a really nice DAC and headphone amp to connect to the PC via USB, but that's way down the list of spending priorities.
I know that I'd probably have trouble distinguishing between audio components and sources in a blind listening test, and of course I have tinnitus, but I think my current "setup" if you can call it that is good enough for most stuff.
I am absolutely with you on the loudness wars though. It's a joy to listen to stuff that has real dynamic range, but it's not something I obsess over when I'm listening to music in the car for instance.