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List your state of art headphones for smart phone use!

I am looking for over the ear headphones that can play at a satisfactory volume and do not drain the battery.
I currently have Sony Pro MDR 7520 headphones that list at $500 and are on Amazon for $275.
They are comfortable and fairly good for the price.
I use an Audioquest dragonfly cobalt D/A with my iPhone, iPad, and laptop.
If I moved up to $1000 or more what would be much better?
Are earbuds an alternative at all?
At home I use Stax L700 and get very close to SOTA sound quality with a Stax tube/fet driver amp.
I do not expect the same Stax sound quality.
Can I get close to my home headphone quality?
don_c55
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
and everything else is going into a box I’d like to be buried with so no one else knows of my mistakes.

Thx Erik!

Made my day, glad to see somebody else honest enough to admit they are capable of making a mistake.... or three!
don_c55 OP
1,025 posts
 
ERIK with a K,
1) Bluetooth is a distant second to "wired" in sound quality, and not close to SOTA, which is the subject of my post.
2) Earbuds can fit in the pocket for travel, but do not beat headphones for sound quality, and are never close to STAX.
3) You must have never heard STAX headphones which was the sonic baseline in my post.
gosta's avatar
gosta
839 posts
 
Some other fine professional headphones.

For critical listening. Value for money.

Sennheiser HD25
Shure SRH840
Beyerdynamic T51P
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Stax SR-009 used
extravaganza
373 posts
 
Do headphones get any better than the Koss Porta Pros?

Not heard Stax, not heard HD600s but out of all the ones I have heard up to 4/5 times the price none of them have spanked the Pros when it comes to sheer joy and life in the music. In fact some of them have been real dullsville efforts.

I'd love to hear some Grado woodies (if only half the stories are true!) but they wouldn't do for portable use.  
Egrado sound a little better than koss porta pro.Better dynamics and midrange has layers of sound of instruments.Works fine with portable players
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