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Sorry if that came off a bit rude. I'm not trying to pick on you, I just wanted to coax out a more definitive answer. I'm only recently fascinated by this topic. Don't feel obligated to answer this either (and i'd like to open this up to anyone/everyone) but can you elaborate how do you define "sound quality"? Is there something specific that you look for that you like? Sparkly detailed treble, realistic mids, visceral bass? Speaker-like soundstage? PRaT? Good matches with your favorite artists/genres?
I can't say anything beyond what I have experienced yet, and I have not experienced the $600+ range yet. My standard is neutrality and accuracy. A good headphone is defined by many things, a few of which for me are: Neutral mids, not recessed, clear, not nasaly, detailed, tonal where instruments do not get confused, neutral bass that does not accentuate what the song already has, if the song is meant to thump it thumps how it's recorded to thump, if it's meant to be the subtle strumming of a bass, it is subtle, with lots of texture. Highs that are not piercing but not recessed, but that are accurate, I want highs accurately reproduced, with accurate clarity. (one reason I did not like the hd650, and prefer the hd600, and yes I had the newer model)
And that's just frequency response. More detail, better driver design to imitate good soundstage, better more realistic timbre, instruments should sound like how they sound in real life, IF the recording is good, if the recording is bad I don't want it to be masked into a muddy mess, and the list goes on.
Sound quality is defined by anything I consider to be better, some things are prefernce based ( I prefer neutrality for all my genres.) Some can border on objectivity, for example detail, having more detail is most almost always a good thing, having more realistic soundstage is almost always a good thing, etc.
All the headphones in my sig have led me to this methodology, so I'm not speaking from owning 1 or 2 headphones here. I hope to see how the higher end of headphones is, and if I get a subjectively or objectively better phone, even if only slightly, it will have been worth it to me. But that's really because I put such a high worth on music in my life, to each their own. Hope this answers your question.