I once had the opportunity to wear headphones for audio engineers. This was quite an experience. They even offer custom models adapted to the measured shape of your ears and stuff like that. Priced were rather steep, though.
this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
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My music taste changed when I went from crappy headphones to good ones (AKG K702)
Being able to listen to each instrument individually rather than a soup of noise really make a difference.
Rock the Casbah has a Nokia ringtone in it and it drives me nuts. I wish I never noticed it.
It's sort of off beat too, I feel ya.
but be careful you don't fall into the audiophile hobby trap
It's easy to get caught up in. I find value in some different tech or approaches, like trying planar magnetic or open vs closed. But most of that can be found at reasonable prices.
If people want accurate sound reproduction, a decent set of monitor style headphones are their best bet. My favorite headphones are my audio technica studio monitors. They weren't expensive but they give great sound reproduction which is what I'm interested in.
All the super expensive stuff is a combination of specific tuning, fancy materials and tech, or an appealing design coupled with heavy marketing and fomo exploitation.
So for anyone looking for general advice from someone that was almost sucked into audiophile land...
Quality matters for sure, but not up to the level some audiophiles say. Biggest feature that someone getting into better audio would observe is open vs closed back. It changes the soundstage noticeably. After that, decide if you prefer flat tuning (accurate to original recording) or something different. I actually really enjoy bass boosted for certain EDM but I don't like that for much else so I don't own any bass boosted headphones anymore.
Fitment is a whole other topic. I'm just talking about over ear headphones here.
Good news is, since you aren't breaking the bank, you can get a new pair if you don't like what you get and decide something else suites you better.
Edit: good source quality matters too.
Too late for me :(
When I first got some monitor headphones, I listened to one of my favorite classical orchestra albums, and for the first time I could hear the wood of the stage floor creaking and the score pages flipping. In a moment of silence I could hear the faint sound of birds tweeting in the distance (it was recorded in an old Italian building, a large cathedral possibly, so maybe some birds got in? Idk).
You can't just say that and not provide the album's name
Ah sorry. It was early music ensemble Modo Antiquo's recording of Corelli's op. 6 concerti grossi.
Found this on youtube. Would you mind confirming it's what you were referencing?
Yeah that's it. It was originally two albums (concertos 1 to 6 and 7 to 12). It's a very special recording because several of the concertos have hypothetical reconstructed parts for woodwinds and brass that are thought to be missing in the surviving manuscripts.
Album schmalbum. Which headphones are this good?
We are spoilt these days - there are lots of options. You can get that level of resolution from $20 in ear monitors. But, if you're after that level it's not just the headphones - it's the whole chain (assuming you're listening to digital):
- you need a decent DAC - again, it does not need to be expensive - a $10 Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor will do it (but the built-in one in your laptop, or older phone, may not).
- you need decent, or preferably no, compression. Turn up the bit-rate in whatever streaming app you're using or preferably use CD or uncompressed (FLAC).
- perhaps most importantly, and most overlooked, you need good source material. Lots of music out there has been horribly recorded and/or mastered. With low quantity reproduction this isn't an issue, but once you've taken care of the rest and you're spending time really listening to your music you will find yourself from time to time thinking "this sounds horrible", and you know you've done everything at your end and it turns out you're listening to a bad master. There are forums dedicated to discussion about the relative merits of various versions of different recordings.
It's a huge rabbit hole, which stereotypicaly is very expensive - but doesn't need to be.
I've only scratched the surface, but with my old, damaged, ears there's no point digging further.
Me when I got my first subwoofer. And then a bigger subwoofer (not even for volume, but for hearing/feeling even lower frequencies, plus a more even frequency response).
So much dance music hardly makes sense if you can't hear/feel the subbass.
Ngl, I had subs for my studio monitors for a long time, but recently I've been leaving them off. My monitors are flat till 50 Hz anyway, and they integrate into my space much better than the subs ever did (which is on me for having a mediocre space). I'm actually enjoying music—especially bass heavy electronic music—more now. In a well treated room, I imagine the story is different, but I'm too lazy to fix my standing waves...
Some styles like mid 2000s dubstep really focus on the subbass - room treatment or no, in many of those pieces I don't hear the bass at all if I leave my subwoofer off. My monitors don't go as low as yours, though, definitely not flat at 50Hz.
Koss Porta Pro is as fancy as it gets for me and they sound awesome to me
Used them for years, now they have a crackle if volumes too loud. Will probably get another pair once it's too hot to wear full over ear outside. They really are perfect for me.
Their cable is prone to breaking rather easily, sadly. If you're comfortable with a soldering iron, I've heard that fixing them up isn't too difficult. Never ventured that far personally, but it may be worth a shot
It got overshadowed for me by the world of cheaply recorded live performances/mixes where/if artists take a slightly different approach.
Can confirm. Some sets are so clear and "correct" they make recordings like that sound worse.
You're good around $100 for in-ear/earbud.
I'll never have the kind of money necessary to own a high end set of cans ($500+).
Beyerdynamic or Audio Technica are my companies of choice and of course they sell super high end expensive stuff but also their $100-$200 bracket is still amazingly good (like the DT-990 Pro).
I'd rather invest that money once than buy new headphones every year.
Add FiiO to the list. They're currently eating everyone's lunch.
Currently using a fiio headphone Amp with an old pair of beyer dynamics I found used. Great little product.
You don't need $500. You can get good audio for half of that. Probably less. Definitely less if you ship second hand
The recent $25 Moondrop Old Fashioned, for example, have some of the best vocal reproduction I've ever heard!
FLACs through a half decent DAC and amp in something like an LG phone sound amazing on $100 audiotechnicas
I just landed what seems to be a dream job for me, and possibly my first truly stable job since college, I start tomorrow. Part of me wants to reward myself so I'm looking at the Focal Bathys MG right now... Going to have go find a way to try them out first. I already have some great headphones so I'm not sure if the difference would be worth it.
Really happy with my Shure 440A's.
It's a spectacular sensation, even if only concerning minute differences.
I'm about at the end of my current set pushing 6+ years. If anyone knows, what's out there that's worthwhile without breaking the bank?
Hifiman Edition XS have had some pretty crazy price cuts, but quality control is weak. For IEMs, the CrinEar Daybreak and Truthear Pure are insanely good. If you like Harman, the Truthear Blue 2 are also great, though the treble can be sibilant for some.
If you're open to try IEMs the Moondrop Space Travel 2 are insane value for the sound quality they offer.
The OGs arguably sound better and they're like 30 bucks. Only last about 3-4 hours on a charge though.
13mm in an earbud format???? That's nuts.
Been away from my mx50s using bone inductions. I'm tossing these in the cart for later.
How did you like bone induction? A friend is looking for something that doesn't interfere with ear piercings
It's weird. As for durability and battery life 10/10. and podcasts or atleast verbal focused audio they're great for. For music it's a toss up.
For normal everyday listening I couldn't go back. Pausing on ear touch and not closing your ear holes. Not to mention not dealing with a cable.
There's definitely an adjustment period where you're going to hyper fixate on the vibration, but it should pass when within the first few hours.
I use the aftershokz openrun.
Intriguing. I hadn't considered using in ear vs over for home use being viable. Just used to the feel, I guess. Will investigate further. Thanks for the starting point. Still weary of having a non-tethered set, but that's on me to be more aware.
I assume they meant the moondrop chu 2 because the space travel 2 are not iems, they are tws.
I didn't. There are in ear monitors that are also true wireless stereos as there are overear headphones that are true wireless stereos as well. So tws would be pointless in this context as a distinction.
The Chu 2 are also great even though some might find the treble a bit much. Space Travel 2 appeal to a broader audience in my opinion and are a safer recommendation. The tws part is just a bonus in addition to the sound quality.
Thanks for the clarification. Either way, still used to larger sets for home use.
Then after you buy a bunch of hi-fi audio equipments you realised it's all just placebo. So you keep the pair you liked the most and combine a dinky phone with headphone jack and micro sd card slot you then proceed to sell off the junks you've accumulated all these years.
Honestly for headphones this is the case. There's absolute crap low to mid segment. But there is really really good stuff mid segment. The main quality factor for headphones to me is how comfortable they feel for you, physically, on your ears. Supergood sound but bad feel = very unpleasant.
I can only imagine that you're assuming that to be the case, or your hearing is damaged worse that mine - because I can't imagine anyone that has heard decent audio reproduction saying that. And I'm not being some audiophile snob - you can get decent reproduction from a $10 DAC and $20 IEMs if you do a bit of research before buying.
Alright, I'm gonna be frank here. I'm just a casual albums enjoyer whose comfortable with a bt dac around 50 bucks and under, paired with an atypical iem ranges £20 >. As long as I can enjoy my tunes and the teensy bit of details from aforementioned things. It's pretty pointless to just crave for kilobucks or more hi-fidelity toys if all you'd receive is a tuning ranging from decent(as with the cheapo pair you're currently own) to Ultrasone's Edition 10 treble. Sure, the more premium sets has better soundstages and yeah, it sure can make some people cries when they can hear just a little bit more of "the details" they haven't notices before. But idk, it feels scammy when you wanted to scratch the itch with an expensive stick that function just the same.
Also fuck you for assuming I have hearing damages. My ear can steel hear what my neighbours from across the street shit talking about.
You can pry my tube amp from my cold, dead hands.
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