Best Headphones for 500$ or less

Denon AH-D2000 for home use

 

AKG K550 for home or travel

 

beyerdynamic DT1350 for portable

Hifiman HE-400s ($400 new) + FiiO E17 DAC/Amp ($140 new), best possible sound you can achieve spending ~$500 for a setup, for your diverse musical tastes.

 

The HE-400s do every genre of music justice, hands down the best quality bass you can get under $500 due to planar magnetic (quality between HE-500s and Audeze LCD2s), has a slight bass warmish tilt for your electronica / acoustic needs, extremely realistic mids timbre and imaging, and a fatigue-free treble that has tons of upper-range air and sparkle, for all the instrumental music.

 

Oh don't forget to get velour pads ($10) with them, they improve comfort and SQ with zero disadvantages compared to the default pleather pads.

 

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The Beyerdynamic DT1350 is on ear.

Have the Pro 900s and had the he-400s. I shipped the he-400s back for a refund. Although their soundstage slightly upstages the pro 900s the ultrasones do almost everything better. I had trouble with the clarity of the he-400s and just didn't find anything about the way they sounded to be all that impressive. And although I used both primarily out of my schiit lyr I did get a chance to power both out of an ipod touch. The pro900s sound great out of anything, the he-400s not so much. And bass? I have no idea how anyone could speak highly about the bass quality of these headphones? To me it sounded very loose/sloppy. The pro900s outshine these in pretty much every single possible way, for 80 dollars less.

And they are closed! Although sound leaks quite a bit.

 

 

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While there isn't one that can do everything when portability is a factor, my first impressions of the Dt1350 are very positive. I have no fit issues and easy to adjust and they simply sound fantastic. They can very looooow and they suppress outside noise surprisingly well. Quality is great, too. these things look darn cool... but somehow I look dorky with them on. Oh well. Maybe you will look better in them.

AFAIK the dt1350s are a mostly metal construction save for the ear cups themselves. Since they are relatively new, they have not yet withstood the test of time. I would expect them to rival the hd25s in durability, or even surpass the durability of the senns.

 

My opinion is that they're very solidly built, plus they also have a carrying case that is pretty sturdy on the inside, so I really think you'd be fine taking them with you. If you're good about keeping them in the case during transport, I wouldn't be concerned at all. 

 

haha, I look pretty dorky in mine, too, but it's a price I'm willing to pay.