I’ve been struggling with this list for a while but I think I’m finally ready to put down an actual ranking (including two more pairs I’ve purchased since this proto ranking):
1. Sennheiser HD6XX: I love these things. Most people here are already familiar with them, so there’s no much else I can say, but the warmth and ‘gooey’ smoothness to them is just so comforting. What’s surprising about them is that they have a fair bit of detail. Perhaps not as much as some of the TOTL headphones people talk about on this board, but the 6XX are more detailed than they’re given credit for. That comforting sound of a warm blanket is deceiving because you’d think it’s a sound signature that trades off technical sophistication for that warm sound, but it doesn’t. For a $220 headphone, I find these very technically proficient. And that’s in addition to the lovely warm sound. These things also feel well built (despite being largely plastic) and they’re deceptively comfortable. When I first put them on each time, they have a decent clamp and don’t feel particularly comfortable, and yet 4 hours later I’m still going with no issue at all. They seem to get more comfortable the longer they’re on, which is the opposite of most headphones. One other point that needs to be made is the power requirements are vastly overrated. I mean, I have to turn up my Topping L30 louder than I do with other headphones I have, but these still manage to sound great straight out of my iPhone with just the Apple dongle.
2. Grado Hemp: These live up to the hype. They’re clear, impactful, surprisingly detailed, and have nice punchy bass, while still retaining the Grado sound signature. I’ve loved my SR60 for nearly 20 years (they were my first pair of real audiophile headphones) and after thinking about upgrading to a wooden pair for a long time, I’m glad I took the plunge. These headphones are exciting. While they’re mid-focused in the same way the 6XX are, the Hemp sound entirely different, in that they’re more upper-mids and they’re extremely forward, as opposed to laid back. The old adage is true about Sennheiser sounding like you’re in a beautiful concert theater and Grado sounding like you’re up on stage with the band. As a friend of mine commented upon hearing my Hemp, these sound like you’re at a music festival. They’re punchy and exciting. They take everything I’ve always liked about the SR60 and supercharge it with more clarity, greater detail, far better bass, and just a more refined sound all around. They’re also beautiful to look at. The two drawbacks for me are comfort (ie. I have to take a break after 45 minutes, as the flat pads can make your ears sore after a while) as well as the annoying kinks in the cord, where because the cups swivel 360 degrees, the Y cord will press against your cheek if not rotated properly. But overall, I absolutely love these headphones. For many genres of music, these beat the above 6XX. Anything with strings or acoustic based music sounds incredible on these. But unlike some other Grados that only sound good with that type of music, the Hemp are far more multifunctional due to their improved low end. And regarding the highs, as forward as they are, they’re never piercing. So even though Grados can be known to be bright, they still manage to be smooth and enjoyable, not harsh at all. I love these things.
3. Apple AirPods Max: These are both overrated and underrated at the same time. On one hand, you have non-audiophiles who may believe these are some of the best sounding headphones around, due to their price tag and the fact that Apple makes them. But then on the other hand, you have people people trying to write them off as merely a gimmick from a consumer tech company. Both of those views are wrong. Can you find better sounding headphones for $550? Absolutely. If your one and only concern is sound quality, there are better options out there. But these are absolutely audiophile grade headphones. They sound excellent. The sub-bass is the real star. It’s powerful and very present without feeling bloated. The bass is good, the mids and highs are decent, and the soundstage is pretty good for a closed back. I find the instrument separation is quite good and the dynamics are excellent, although the detail retrieval is merely okay. The best way I can describe it is that in a multilayered track, you can hear every note, but some of those notes may not have the kind of texture you’d hope for in this price range. The way I’d put it is that the detail is good but the microdetail is merely okay.
Of course, that entire description is missing half the puzzle. Aside from sounding good, the APM are wireless, they’re fantastically built, they have the best noise cancellation and transparency modes in the industry, they’re comfortable, and they have all sorts of other great features like ear detection, auto-switching, spatial audio and so on, if you’re in the Apple ecosystem. So if you think about these as a $550 audiophile headphone, there are better options out there. But if you think of these as a $300 audiophile headphone with $250 in awesome and highly useful smart features and convenience factors, these things are incredible. I highly recommend them to anyone in the Apple ecosystem who has the budget.
4. Grado SR60: Initially I ranked these a lot lower in my above quoted proto list, but after spending a lot more time with them, I realized why I loved them to begin with. I picked them up nearly 20 years ago and they still sound great. After listening to them for years and loving them, I eventually ‘upgraded’ to more expensive headphones like the Audio Technica A900, and so my SR60s sat in a drawer for years, with me not going back to them because I thought I had evolved past them. Turns out that view was wrong. They still sound amazing. When I first pulled them out of the drawer a few months ago, they didn’t sound that great to me. I don’t know if there was dust buildup in the driver or if it was purely a mental thing, but the sound wasn’t what I remembered. Then after spending some time with them, they started to sound fantastic to me again. Now that the have the Hemp, the SR60 are clearly not at the same level, but they still sound excellent and I love that Grado sound.
5. Koss KPH30i: I really struggled with this placement. These are super cheap, not well built, and they sound less technically proficient than a bunch of the headphones below on this list, and yet I absolutely love them. The way these things are tuned is just perfect. They strike the perfect balance. Even though they’re lower resolution than something like the A900, I enjoy them far more. I feel guilt placing these so high because they were a whopping $20 from Drop and because I recognize that they don’t have the resolution and body of most others on this list, and yet I can’t help but love these headphones.
6. Apple AirPods Pro: A jack of all trades, master of none in terms of sound. These sound good across the board, but never great. They’re solid, inoffensive performers through and through. Decent lows, decent mids, decent highs, decent soundstage, decent detail, decent dynamics. These are something that everyone can like but no one can really love. The reason so many people do love them is because of their convenience factor. I literally take these with me everywhere I go. You know that small change pocket within the pocket in your jeans? That’s where I put these every time I leave the house. The significance of that is huge. Most people don’t take very many items with them in their pockets when they go places. Wallet. Keys. Phone. That’s pretty much it. The AirPods Pro are the first time since the advent of the cell phone that I’ve added a new object to my pocket at all times. That is positively massive. I now have access to headphones wherever I go, any time of day. That’s a brand new phenomenon in our society. The AirPods Pro are like a step towards bionics, where we, as human beings, have an audio device we have almost constant access to.
If this list wasn’t about sound quality and was purely a question of which headphones I’d choose overall, it would be the AirPods Pro. If I had to get rid of every single pair of headphones I own and could only keep one pair, it would be the AirPods Pro. That’s how good these things are. The sound quality may not be fantastic, but it’s absolutely good enough to pass the threshold of listenability, even for audiophiles. So you combine that “pretty good” sound with the literally life-changing convenience of the AirPods Pro and you have a real winner. There’s a reason these sell so insanely well. They’re worth it.
7. Audio Technica ATH-M50: Like the AirPods Max, these are both overrated and underrated. On one hand, they got hyped several years ago by prominent YouTubers like MKBHD as being true gems of audio quality, but then on the other hand, some people in the audiophile community are faaar too harsh on them. These sound good. Not great, but good. Well, I should say that they do sound great by consumer audio standards. But in the audiophile world. they’re still pretty decent. The soundstage is narrow, there’s a lot of bass, and it can be muddy, but they’re still fun to listen to, decently detailed headphones. They’re also decent for comfort (albeit not fantastic) and they’re extremely rugged, which made them my go-to headphone for public transportation during winter months in the pre-noise cancellation days, as they’re relatively isolating and they double as earmuffs. One nick on them is despite their ruggedness, the headband has begun flaking on my lately, with small pieces of black fake leather coming off.
8. Apple Powerbeats Pro: Don’t let the Beats name fool you; these sound good. Beats has come a long way since the Apple acquisition. And while these are still bass-heavy headphones, the bass no longer drowns out the rest of the frequency response. These are solid performers and possibly some of the best workout headphones in existence. These are my go-tos whenever I work out. Surprisingly, I think these may be a tad more detailed than the AirPods Pro and in some ways I prefer them over the APP. They’re better workout headphones not just because they stay in your ears for even the most rigorous workouts, but also because I find the accentuated bass is nice for when you’re working out. For day-to-day non-workout use, they’re still pretty good, but I’d take the AirPods Pro over them due to the convenience factor (ie. the case is much smaller), the noise cancellation, and the flatter frequency response.
9. Audio Technica ATH-A900: I feel bad about putting these so low on the list because they’re Top 3 in terms of technical proficiency, but I’m just not a big fan of their sound signature. They’re detailed, have good bass, and a surprisingly wide sound stage for a closed back. They’re also very comfortable. And yet I find the lack of mids, the echoey resonant sound, and just the general sound signature to be a little disappointing. They’re neither exciting like a Grado nor smooth like the 6XX. They’re laid back, but not in a relaxing, enjoyable way. They’re just a little boring to me. It’s funny because in terms of technicals, these beat the pants off the KPH30i. And yet I have the KPH30i four full spots higher on this list because I just enjoy their sound more. Don’t get me wrong, the A900 are a good headphone. And they were my go-to high end headphone for many years (from when I first put my SR60 in the drawer many years ago until I really got back into audio last year), but I just don’t find their sound signature to be all that enjoyable compared to some of the other items on this list.
10. Koss KSC75: Even though these are low on the list, I still absolutely love them. These were the best deal in the headphone world prior to the release of Koss’s own KPH30i a few years ago. They’re similar technically to the KPH30i, but they’re more focused on the highs, lacking in the lows, and just don’t have that same sense of balance. I also don’t like the form factor as much as I do with the KPH30i, as the KSC75 has those unusual ear hooks that sometimes pop off the headphone, and they’re also quite fragile. I’ve had several pairs die on me over the years, although Koss does have that great lifetime warranty. For under 20 bucks, these are still an absolute steal.
11. Koss PortaPro: These have the same relation to the Koss KPH30i as the KSC75s do, but in the opposite direction. They have similar technical proficiency, but they’re too bassy and bloated. Taken in isolation, these are great sounding inexpensive headphones. But compared to the rest of this list, these are the weakest ones, in my opinion. In some ways, the sound reminds me of a worse SR60. The sound signature is similar in a lot of ways, but they’re less detailed, have more bloated bass, and aren’t as smooth. But they’re similarly warm and give me the same kind of vibe, albeit much worse. They’re also not particularly comfortable, as the earpads are small, the adjustment mechanism is weird, and the metal band snags your hair. Don’t get me wrong, for $35 USD, these are great headphones. But something has to go at the bottom of this list and in my opinion, the PortaPros easily nab that spot.
That’s my ranking. I was thinking of adding Tone/Technical letter grades to each, Crinacle style, but maybe I’ll save that for the next time I update my ranking. Hopefully that won’t be any time soon, as I’ve spent way too much on headphones lately, especially with the 6XX, Hemp, and APM all purchased in the last 4 months! Time to take a bit of a break on my purchases. The plan now is to stick with and enjoy my current collection, and then in the next year or two, I’ll save up and go big with something from Focal or Abyss.
Onkyo A800 using mod (let me replace the cable with any cable) LQI Silver 3.5mm Cable
Have A Happy New Year Guys, 2023 Here We Come!
