I have a JDS Atom + Sundara setup, and I can hear the difference vs my Galaxy Buds 2 pro (Crinacle's best wireless IEM winner). But, I have been wondering what percent of it is placebo, given the effort it takes to use a wired setup routed through an amp.
I’ve got a schiit stack for my 400i’s (apparently they are designed to be drive-able by mobile amps but it is definitely right at the edge of what my desktop could do).
It is hard to say how much is placebo. I definitely see how having a “plugging stuff in” ritual could get you in a different headspace. But FWIW, I ended up having the 400i setup in another room that I wasn’t able to use every day, just because of the vagaries of pandemic era “adjust the apartment for multiple people working from home” stuff. One of my strongest “oh this sounds better” moments came from realizing I’d gone through a couple room changes and (without thinking of it) been sitting next to the 400i’s, all plugged in and ready to go, for a while and just using the Sennheisers without thinking, hahaha. So there was not much ritual in that case. Could have still been influenced by placebo or some sort of pseudo-nostalgia thing, though.
IEMs are even stranger, right? I had them mixed up with earbuds for a long time and assumed they were all just junk, but of course they can get really good sound quality by virtue of their position. Don’t need to push a big diaphragm if you are right up there in the ear canal!
I have a JDS Atom + Sundara setup, and I can hear the difference vs my Galaxy Buds 2 pro (Crinacle's best wireless IEM winner). But, I have been wondering what percent of it is placebo, given the effort it takes to use a wired setup routed through an amp.