I’ve always liked bass-tilted headphones, the Denon AH-D5200 being my favourite pair.

But only in the last few days have I heard great QUALITY bass. I shifted from Spotify to Qobuz, and upgraded from the Topping DX3 Pro to the Topping A30 Pro.

The dynamic swings are so much more dramatic, and the bass is so much more textured. It’s not just a wall of bass anymore, like it has a sense of space now.

While the change in streaming service has no doubt played a part in this, I am now firmly in the camp of “different amps/dacs make a difference”. It must have something to do with voltage swings. And don’t tell me the volume isn’t matched, because it is, I measured it with a mic.