Help me pick a pair of headphones and a DAC-AMP for it

[tamask01]

Hello,

I'm picking a pair of headphones at a reasonable price and a simple DAC-AMP for it.
I prefer a dark, warm sound signature, that I can listen to all day long. Bright or treble heavy headphones gave me a headache, that's why I returned those I tried.
I mostly play/watch videos or series when it comes to use case.
I'll use this only at home, no wireless or noise cancel needed and I do not do any sound engineering. I'm also not concerned with driver type (e.g. dynamic or planar magnetic) as on my price point I doubt it would make a difference.

One of the headphones I looked at is the Shure SRH840A, while the other is the Meze 99 classic. These two were said to have a dark and warm, almost muddy sound.
The DAC-AMP I checked out was the FosiAudio's Q5. I saw others too, especially from JDS Labs, but those are a lot more expensive than this one.

I wrote here to ask you about these products if you have experience with them, or suggest something else you might see more fitting.

For the record, I tried a couple of headphones, but for some reason they didn't work out for me;
The sundaras have a painfully bright, sharp signature that gave me a headache,
Open-back sennheisers had a clear sound, but I couldn't put enough bass to them, and with my glasses the clamping force was too high.

Appreciate the help.

 

[twsecrest]

Never used the Shure SRH840A or Meze 99 Classic, but guessing the Meze is more bassy and the 840A somewhat lighter bass (guessing).

 

[tamask01]

Thanks a lot. Your assumption makes sense as the Shure is written to be a studio headphone, and a Meze is marketed as an at-home listening pair.
Do you per chance have a recommendation for a budget friendly dac-amp combo?
I understand I probably wouldn't even need one but it's more convenient to have one as an audio interface.

 

[Anderlfs]

A bit late, but If you don't need a closed-back headphone to higher isolation, a (original) Koss PortaPro is what you are/were looking for. I'm also very sensitive to many headphone's factors and I can listen this PortaPro for many hours without listening fatigue.

If you need a closed-back, Shure SRH 840A has low isolation and I see no reason to use a closeb-back if not to have good passive attenuation. I have not used the Meze 99 Classic, but they are similar (in tonal balance) to other headphone I had and which I had to sell for (I believe) excessive bass and auditory fatigue. I like bass, but with closed-back headphones the sound waves have nowhere to go but bounce around inside your ear. This creates a lot of pressure on your cilia and eardrums and wears them out very fast. (source here). But if you want to give it a try, the FiiO FT1 is another option.

Dac-Amp is easier and I think it depends more on the use and form factor. For the Koss PortaPro, I use an iFi iDSD Nano Black Label that I can use both with the internal battery and bypass It when connecting to the PC. There must be cheap second-hand ones and the battery is easily replaceable. I also have a Topping E50 that has a higher SINAD and I don't hear any difference between them.