Setting this up as a very selfish exercise but as a newbie hi-fi music listener would love to learn more about the attributes of my headphones and how they may match best with particular music/genres. Can you match what you think would be the best headphone to listen to each song below?
My setup is streaming with Apple Music on a MacBook Pro with a iFi Zen Can2/DAC2 combo.
Headphones:
Sennhesier HD800S
Sennhesier HD650
HiFiman Arya Stealth
Focal Stellia
Audio Technica ATH-M50
Tracks:
A. SZA - Too Late
B. Owen Pallett - Scandal At the Parkade
C. NewJeans - Supernatural
D. Kacey Musgraves - Too Good to be True
E. ScHoolboy Q - Yeern 101
F. Louis Cole, Metropole Orkest & Jules Buckley - Cruisin’ for P
F. Khruangbin - May Ninth
Some will most likely call me a heretic and start tracking my IP do thay can find me and tie me to a stock and burn me, but…
I just pick the headphone I feel like listening to, and do the same for the music. I know, shocking!
I used to do like you want to, and try to “match” my headphone and the music I listened to, but it ended up being more a chore than something that gave me enjoyment. So I stopped doing it, and haven’t looked back.
My listening sessions are a lot more fun now, as doing what I feel like, instead of that I “should do”, os much more engaging and enjoyable to me.
The best part is that I don’t feel any degradation in sound quality at all. Each headphone I own puts different things en focus, and that what I like about have multiple of them. And it turns out it works quite well to just let the phones enhance whatever they do on random music. Only 1 or 2 times have I run into music that was recorded in such a specific way, that I ended up switching to another set.
And that another part of this topic, I feel recording quality and methodology had far greater impact on if the music “matches” a det of headphones, than a specific genre of music.
Anyway, just my 2 cents, enjoy your music the way you want to
I appreciate the suggestion. This is less of an exercise to rigidly prescribe headphone to music but to better understand the characteristics of the headphones with music as the variable.
I’ve definitely tried listening to the same track with diff headphones and noticed it pulled out different details. If I’m in the mood to listen to the emotions behind a vocal performance I may steer to the HD650s. In the mood to hear the scale of a big orchestral piece, HD800S, etc
Do yourself a favor, replace the ATH-M50X closed back headphone with something like Sennheiser HD620S or lower priced Focal closed back Azurys or bit higher priced Celestee. I suggest the 620S because it’s cheaper and close in timbre to other Sennheiser 600 series open backs, since you already have the Stellia, which is significantly warmer sounding. The HD620S will
Give you more intimate mids, more analytical, less warm, giving you an alternative to your Stellia closer to your HD650 but closed backed. Although I may have been your first headphone, ATH-M50 has no place in an audiophile’s stable. And If you need a good DJ headphone then go for the HD25. Otherwise stick with Stellia or HD620S for closed backed headphones.
I am also old. Would you mind adding something from the past? Supertramp, crime of the century. Good piano, drums, vocals. Love to see how that stands up between the various headphones as the group you have chosen are within my upgrade goal.
Sorry 
