[plmon]

Wow. Lots of good info. Thanks man. I've got some shopping to do.



Are you talking about Mass Drop? I remember that site from a decade ago. Bought some studio monitors from there.

Yeah, they rebranded as just DROP a few years ago.

 

[helljudgement]

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?

I'm in a similar situation as you 2 years back. The biggest shocker to me is the price of new flagship but if you can get over the fact that flagship cost 3-4x more compared to 10-15 years ago there are plenty to choose from. Audio Technica did release a few headphones including the flagship adx5000 which I find to be very competent with the hd800. Grado are also revamping their lineup but Sennheiser seem more or less the same to me now as back in 2011 with nothing interesting in the last few years.

Some of the newer brands that stood out to me in terms of sound are ZMF and Focal. These 2 brands really pushed the bar for me and I find myself gravitating to them the most out of all the stuff I tried. I'd recommend looking at those 2 brands on top of the 3 that you've mentioned if you are looking for something new and interesting. The ZMF in particular makes great looking headphones.

 

[Monsterzero]

The ZMF in particular makes great looking headphones.

.....and sounding too, unless you prefer overly analytical, bright, textureless headphones.

 

[vcoheda]

popular (much discussed)

• audeze, hifiman, focal, zmf.

less popular (at least compared to years ago)

• sennheiser, akg, grado, beyerdynamic, audio technica, denon.

other headphones that gain good attention

• meze, abyss, hedd, dark clark audio, fostex.

i think a lot of the "older" headphones hold their ground and if i only owned the hd650, k812 and lcd2, i would be quite happy but understand and can attest that some of the newer headphones offer more in terms of sound.