I haven't bought a real nice set of headphones in probably over a decade. I still have a love for my Audio Technicas, Grados, and Sennheisers, but its been so long since I actually did any research that I don't know where to start. Since I bought my last pair of nice headphones, so many new brands have popped up, so many old brands have improved or fallen in quality... Can anyone give me a crash course on which brands to look into and which to avoid?
In terms of FOTM kind of stuff:
Hifiman has become a benchmark-setter for price/performance value. Their "sale" price is basically permanent and has made it very hard to recommend anything else for budget-conscious people since they're priced so competitively. But to price their sound like that, they seem to trade-off on build quality. Their headphones are not very user-serviceable and have various design issues like headband adjustments that scratch themselves and flimsy plastic mounts for their pads.
Dan Clark Audio has some of the best tuned and comfortable closed backs in the game, which is doubly surprising since planars are often quite heavy. The downside to their house sound is a lack of impact that even EQ doesn't seem to fix, it's a sound that some people can't get used to.
Audeze is still pumping out planars with top-tier performance and excellent build quality, but they've also started to revise a lot of their headphones to sound less dark in the upper mids. For some people, it was too relaxed up there and was lacking in clarity, adding some congestion and muffledness to the sound. The downside for Audeze is that while they've been trying to lighten up their headphones, they're still extremely heavy compared to other brands.
Focal produces some of the best dynamic driver headphones out there and with excellent builds that are more indicative of their higher price points. There have been remarks about QC issues though and what people describe as a "metallic" sound in their tuning.
Meze has come out with some aesthetically amazing and nicely built headphones. However, their tuning seems to be the point of contention, having been hit or miss with the crowd.
Many of the "mid-fi" offerings by brands have been given new life through collaborations with an e-commerce site called DROP. Companies like Sennheiser, Fostex, Dan Clark Audio, Focal, etc have brought some extremely competitive offerings through them. Examples of which are:
- Sennheiser HD6XX - literally a reskinned HD650 with a lower price tag.
- Fostex TX-00/E-MU Teak - Some of the best bass and V-shaped tuning you could get under $500.
- Focal Elex - A revised Focal Elear with different pads (supposedly Focal Clear pads), again with a comparatively lower price tag.
- Dan Clark Audio Aeon X - Retuned version of their OG Aeon Flow series, priced less than OG.
- KOSS ESP/95X - Revised version of KOSS's older electrostatic system, one of the most affordable electrostatics around.
Chi-fi has also been bringing some interesting offerings into the market, with brands like HarmonicDyne and Sendy Audio. But where they've really been taking off is in the IEM sector. Brands such as Moondrop, Tanchjim, ThieAudio, DUNU, etc are pitted against stuff like Campfire, 64 Audio, Sennheiser, etc.
Together with the effect of DROP offerings and regular sales on older flagships for full-sized headphones, the sub-$500 market has become extremely diverse and competitive in performance with more expensive gear.
Sennheiser also released the HD560S, which has been praised for its more analytical tuning of the 500 series that makes it sound closer to the performance of the 600 series.
Beyerdynamic released various gaming iterations of their DT series with tuning revisions, such as the MMX 300 and TYGR 300R. They also recently came out with the DT 700 and 900 PRO X line, which are supposed to be more neutrally tuned successors of the DT series.
The Koss PortaPro gained buzz as a budget king, offering exceptional sound performance for its sub-$50 price point.
Various boutique brands have popped up like Hyland Headphones, ROSSON Audio, Ollo Audio, Verum, etc. ZMF has the strongest reputation out of them AFAIK, great tuning and build quality, and plenty of online presence/communication.
Audio Technica and Grado had extreme popularity with their entry-level stuff in the past, but I think this has waned a bit despite releases of revised models. Their higher-end offerings still have a decent following and as mentioned by someone else, the Audio Technica ATH-R70X was an interesting release with a kind of "Sennheiser-ish" twist to the typical Audio Technica tuning.
A lot of reputable headphones are available on Amazon these days, though ordering from there can have more issues than a brick/mortar store as Amazon doesn't always ship stock that's vetted by the manufacturer.
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