Top 3 Headphones

My favorite are my Stax 009s, however, you won’t find them around $1,000. There are better headphones out there, but again you won’t find them around $1,000. For that amount, I suggest you look into the Audeze line. I bought a pair of LCD-XC to see how closed-back phones might sound. They sound very good, although a bit heavy in the weight. I see lots of Audeze LCD-X at around $1K, and I think you could do a lot worse for your thousand dollars. Just my two cents. You might also try a used pair of Sennheiser 800 (800S, if you get lucky).

I just re-read your post, and realize your budget is "greater than" $1,000. In that case, I recommend Focal Utopia (on my shopping list too), RAAL, and the current top of the Abyss line. Also, be sure to get a dedicated headphone amp worthy of your initial investment (Blue Hawaii comes to mind). By all means, try to attend a Hi-Fi show to help you make the right decision.

I believe that in the $1,000.00 range new, the Audeze LCD2 open back headphones are a no brainer and available used for much less, Audeze has a great quality build and a strong factory support. If you  can stretch that budget the Hifiman HE1000V2s are the best phones I have ever heard and they follow the good company and good factory support  as well and have seen some new ones recently for a used price. Enjoy the music

I agree with tooblue’s comments about the HiFiman HE1000 V2. I heard them years ago at The Show in Irvine, California. I still remember them as being one of the best sounding phones I had ever heard up to that time. I had planned to find a used pair, or one on a half-price sale (retail at $3,000). Since then, I realized that I have two first class phones already and how many does one person need?

I used to be pretty heavy on headphones a few years ago, and back then, the Focal Utopia was my favorite one. I went through many headphones.

There is a new 2022 Focal Utopia, now retailing for $5,000. Yet to hear it, but I am curious.

I did listen recently in an audio show the T+A Solitaire P. It was the best headphones I have ever heard. But it’s a lot of money, if I am not mistaken around $7,000

I just saw this review for my rock and roll headphones. The reviewer does not use the best amp for it, the RAAL VM-1a, and his comments about the headphone running a bit hot are surprising. I purposely use a hot DAC, the Benchmark DAC3B, with the VM-1a because my smooth DAC is not a match with the VM-1a. My DAC3B is too hot with my 2-channel setup.

(47) What’s a RIBBON headphone? RAAL Requisite CA-1A Review with Resolve! | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

I do have a different view of the 2 RAAL headphones from this reviewer. I am a 2-channel guy so the SR1a is the holy grail while the CA-1a is incredible in-spite of the fact that it sounds more like headphones. The reviewer liked the CA-1a more because he was not into 2-channel audio.

The reviewer really has not heard the best from the headphone using the amps he tried. He also explains why I call them rock and roll headphones.