Best quality-price combination

For your music, a used Grado RS-1 would make you very happy. Grados are overpriced outside the US, so try to find a used one here and have it shipped over. They go for around $500 USD.

You don't need to amp the RS-1, but it does give some improvement. One European supplier in high regard around here is Meier Audio - take a look.

Heya,

 

A lot of the quality of your sound is going to be determined by your DAC, or digital to analog converter. This is what takes the digital signal and turns it into an analog signal that can be rendered into sound from a driver. If you have lossless audio, and a good clean DAC, your audio will be a lot better sounding in your expensive higher quality headphones. If you have compressed MP3's and AVI audio from compressed movies coming out of a soundcard or basic phone or something, the quality of the sound coming from the same expensive higher quality headphones will not sound as great, and may sound outright awful. So I would stress getting a great pair of headphones as your primary budget, probably something that does not need an amplifier (ie, low impedance headphones). Then with the remainder of your budget, look to get a nice clean DAC that is stand alone (or a DAC/AMP combo if your budget requires, etc).

 

That said, a Grado SR225i would probably give you the performance and sound you're looking for in those categories you listed. Another alternative would be a BeyerDynamic DT880. Another alternative would be a Sennheiser HD598 (or even HD600 if you could swing it). There's also Ultrasones, like the 580 or 750 to look at possibly. And also, the Shure 940's perhaps could be of interest. I've noted some headphones here in the roughly $200USD range. That keeps your entry price better so you can have more room to even get two headphones if you wanted. And still have room for a DAC in your budget. It also leaves you room to grow into your sound, so as your taste evolves and you figure out other things you want, you'll have funding towards it. I find that around the $300 mark, the increase in quality for the cost is a pretty big plateau in terms of value. That's just my observation though, not fact.

 

I would suggest to you the Matrix Cube DAC + Grado SR225i or BeyerDynamic DT880 or Sennheiser HD598 (or HD600 if price permits). That would be a roughly $500USD entry to the world of HiFi that has a lot of room to grow (plenty of input options) and a headphone that will be excellent for a solid decade or more.

 

Very best,

Beyerdynamic DT880 and Sennheiser HD600 should be around the same price over in Europe considering they are manufactured over there. Both of these phones will handle any genre nicely, a good solid state or tube amp would be required for their high-impedance. What's your source?