[DJDREEM]

Definitely not Shure. The 1540 and 1840 are their first truly good headphone and even those are not great.

I'd say

AKG
Senn
Beyer
Audio Technica

Some could even make the argument that Fostex should be in there since they have made instant classics like the D2k and up and continued with the TH600 and up.

 

[XVampireX]

There's no big four, it's all about personal preferences.
 
But if we're talking on big "names" then sure, Audio-Technica, Shure, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic
 
Everyone knows these names
 
We should also add a 5th, Beats, for shizzles... XD

 

[CybDev]

For name recognizion alone Beats probably blows all the others clear out of the water anyway...

 

[Silent Xaxal]

For name recognizion alone Beats probably blows all the others clear out of the water anyway...

Quality makes for a different story.

 

[Ishcabible]

I feel like Grado is definitely up there. While their sound is controversial, the SR60 and SR80 are undeniably two of the best gateway headphones for most people. AKG, Beyer, Senn, and Grado makes more sense than Shure, who I continually forget makes headphones that aren't IEM's, AT (while I'm a big AT fan, once you get past the M50, it starts to get comparatively lonely--how many people have actually heard an A2000X or their other rather obscure higher end headphones?), or Sony (too broad of a brand; while they did make the R10, Qualia, and other really cool stuff, they aren't really a "headphone" company as much as they are a consumer electronics conpany).

The case for Grado is that they have, for years, been the standard recommendation for rock music. I still haven't found anything that sounds as fun with rock as a Grado. I just wish the fun factor didn't make them so fatiguing.

 

[tinyman392]

Quality makes for a different story.

Then we should start talking about Stax, and other electrostatic companies as well as ortho, etc. lol. If we're ignoring popularity that is.

 

[xdog]

Please note I'm talking about headphones which are not IEMs (then in fact Shure or ATH gets more attention)
 
The 'Big Three' (because as the fourth you can always add 'beats' ) are:
Sony, Panasonic, Philips for general public (followed by JVC, Pioneer, Superlux  maybe Yamaha or TDK)
[and those brands are much more recognized than Sennheiser which nobody even knows how to spell]
[and for instance Denon is not known widely as a headphone producer]
 
In terms of headphones enthusiasts [or the companies which in my opinion increased the quality of sound for global public,but here you would have to put superlux as well], I would bet on
- Sennheiser
- AKG
- Sony [now it kind of seems passe but there were R10, Qualia, ECR series even CD3000 or mdr-1r now]
- maybe beyerdynamic
[after a while I have this feeling that for 'increased the quality of sound for global public' beats done a lot, basically by making price tag of 100-300$ more natural for normal people, and we can also THANK Sennheiser for doing the same for 1000$> price tag]
 
In terms of audiophile world, I would put
- STAX
- Sennheiser
- Hifiman (at least recently it gets lot of attention)
 
As for Shure, ATH (maybe with exception of ATH50), grado (maybe in US is diffrent) they I don't see that they get a lot of attention (unless you are large counting discussions about is grado good for people with impaired hearing ). But that is my opinion + statistics from ebay like sites, and shops

 

[CybDev]

What about those earbuds that come with iphones and android phones? Surely they must have a huge chunk of the market as well, hell I have several of those in a box somewhere

 

[CybDev]

Quality makes for a different story.

I'm sorry, nobody said anything about quality.
My next stab at it will be colour correctness when compared to the picture on the box!