Headphones

-frequency response is just a tiny part of how headphones sound, it's useful info but you can't see whether headphones are good with just frequency response. -apple dongles are pretty good. -the jack on your pc/laptop will probably sound better than a super cheap amp. -EQ is fun and useful.

A 3000 dollar amp will not magically make your headphone sound any different (unless it's doing something wrong)

A decent 2-300 dollar amp that has the plugs (inputs/outputs) you need and measures with low distortion will suffice.

Tube can sound slightly different due to higher distortion numbers and a tendency to roll off the bass and treble, making a slight warmer sound.

"Brain burn in" is 100% a thing. Give any pair you purchase at least a week of exclusive listening to get used to its sound signature before making up your mind about it.

"headphones and speakers aint shit when compared to car audio".

this is just based on a comment I recently read on reddit. but I think it's kinda true.

Cables are the most important part of any audio equipment /s

Most reviewers are getting paid to encourage you to buy the product they are reviewing unless you go to a small channel.

Many haven't heard enough headphones or auditioned them long enough to give you an honest review.

This might be obvious, but any youtube video title that ends as a question is clickbait and probably going to give you misleading information. For e.g. "Is this the best headphones for 200!?" Why avoid these.

Reason 1: The best is purely subjective Reason 2: unless they have heard everything for 200, how would they know Reason 3: They are really so great, then just say, " x headphone is great value for $200 bucks"

I've been in this hobby for about 10 years or so now. And have spent (wasted) a lot of money chasing the best sound. The only way to know is to demo yourself and see if you like it if you are unable to, then i suggest you compare multiple reviews to get a broader opinion as well as learn how to read frequency response curves and find the curve for a pair of headphones you like, this will act as a base for comparison.

For E.g, your headphone measures with a lot of bass, and you enjoy it. If another headphone measures almost no bass, you probably won't. It's an oversimplification, but you get the idea. However, fr curves aren't everything they are a rough idea of how it will sound not if you will like it.

Best of luck.

Thank you to everyone who commented for your great advice!
I definitely learned a lot.

take your time, don't rush and try to keep stepping up and upgrading. Find what makes you appreciate music first before you start buying more expensive sets and going "well theyre better but I cant tell by how much"

I learned almost nothing useful about IEMs from here.

I learned a lot from Oratory1990

Don’t start with a planar driver as your first IEM.

Porta Pro are amazing. Amazing natural sound, and one of the very few or only/ cheap open back with good bass. They just sound amazing, and I wish I didn't need to buy over 50 different pairs before finding them. They are probably the cheapest I've owned, yet they are my favorite and now only pair of headphones I listen to. So glad I found them, finally happy with the sound of my headphones. But I still like trying new stuff, never stop searching for something even better.