Best sounding headphones you have owned?


At one time I had gone through Shure, early Stax, Audio Technica electret condenser....and more.

What have you owned in both expensive and inexpensive headphones that gave you pleasurable listening?

 

jusam

Anything from JM Audio Design - John Massaria is nothing short of a headphone savant.  

I was a soldier all my life & now retired so I've never had deep pockets for audio gear & being a firm believer in trickle down tech I have always looked to the manufacture's for the best value in their product lines.After extensive demos of the TOTL from Audeze,HiFiMan,Focal,Sennheiser,Grado & AKG I discovered I like the HiFiMan house sound,settling on the Sundara for exotic driver tech & the absolutely amazing iBasso SR-1 limited editions(500 pair)for dynamics...
 Where the Sundara is virtually dead neutral & fast as lightning,the iBasso is relaxed,lush,dripping with harmonic richness & tonal color that is not unlike the finest 300B amplifiers...

@freediver Sounds like you found a great match, and I’m obviously with you on the Hifiman sound.  Congrats and enjoy!  Oh yeah, and most importantly, thank you so much for your service!!!

Audeze LCD-4 are my best, but the Sony MDR-Z1R are a very close second for a lot less money.

State of the art sound for a relatively low cost is one of my headphone systems:

  • RAAL CA-1a (like regular headphones, unlike the RAAL SR1a) ($2000 naked version)
  • RAAL TL-1a speaker adapter box ($800)
  • Schtt Mjolnir preamp ($1100)
  • Schitt Aegir amp ($800)
  • Benchmark DAC3B ($1700) (dual duty with my 2-channel)

This above setup is so good that I threw out all the shipping boxes. I live close by to RAAL and Schitt if service is needed. I cannot easily sell this gear now. I also use the more expensive RAAL SR1a phones with the above setup.