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@kota1 I never took headphones seriously either until Atmos. It's really important to understand that we do not have any releases in this format that represent the highest end of the format.  Early days.  I'm working in the format every day right now developing techniques and what's clear is that great Atmos sounds just like stereo in terms of cohesion ...  but better ... bigger, and more dynamic. 99.999% of what's on the market falls short in terms of cohesion never mind harmonic, distortion and frequency balance.  Early days. 

@donavabdear you bought a brand. Not a great set up. Sorry to say. I’m happy to suggest DAC amp / headphones options given a number. For 8000 you can do better. 

And someone's ego grew three sizes that day. 

@brianlucey That's exactly what I did Naim was supposed to be good and class A but I compare my headphone setup with my personal system and it sounds more like my Genelec system. I think the headphones are good what would be a suggestion for the amp/dac? I definitely think headphones need tube amps just on a guess, tubes sound much better to me and if I need to monitor for accuracy the ss system, but for fun the tube system. 

Also I understand your philosophy of sound but it is self refuting if you think about it, ultimately sound being recorded as accurately as possible rather than sounding better subjectively is best practice. Our brains just like sex are the most important organ in hearing and interpreting music but the standard is nature and real acoustic instruments along with natural sounds we hear everyday. Our brains will always hold real sounds as a base line. I remember the B&K omni measurement mic was considered the only accurate reference mic for many years by a government measurement group.

@donavabdear ,

You use monitors that are accurate. Cinemas are professionally set up so there is some level of consistency from cinema to cinema in term of frequency response. You can't assume that with consumers. You are working from a flat response so the only deviation in perception would be your own ears. The customers system may not be flat or accurate but the deviation is only from the flatness of your system and your ears.

If you were to mix and master with a system that was pleasant to your but not accurate, wouldn't that compound the deviation a customer would experience? And that's just you. If someone else doing the same job had a different preference of setup and tuned their working environment system differently couldn't the end result at the customer be a complete swing in tone?  That sounds like a formula for added variability when the customer is looking.

Wouldn't that contribute to why some albums sounds great and others do not, but someone else may have a completely different view?