After a certain price things like price to performance bell curves negatively after a certain point, this is basically a case for basically everything that happens to have a luxury category. In headphones the more expensive you go the more you have to skew perspective the more you have to spend on source gear to get the most out of your purchase. Reality is audio is also a. Very subjective thing and mental factors apply directly to your listening experience. Yes these $2000 headphones sound better than your $200 headphone but by how much depends on mood, preferences, how you look at it, what source gear you pair with it, how good your ears are, and how familiar you are with the rest of the price spectrum of headphones and having realistic expectations. A good cheap example of this is a ksc75 vs something like a hd 6XX listen to both judge how good both sound and the differences , and you may or may not be surprised by how close they are in some respects and how far away they are in others now apply that to a different price point
the problem with the expensive gear is demoing it and then being corrupted for the rest of your life knowing you’ll never be able to afford something like it. 
more expensive headphones have better control, superior technicalities.
You have to figure out how much you want for what you are willing to pay and it’s okay if you find out that it’s not worth it, completely understandable.
i cannot name one technically impressive headphone below 800usd but others may, maybe a sundara but haven’t heard them, i’d be interested to hear what others have to say about that as i’m sure there are some
In my opinion no, ever since I have discovered the Koss KSC75 and Koss KPH30is, to me with just a bit of modding like replacing the pads with Yaxi pads on either the KSC75 or KPH30i (You can also mod it with the Grado pads), making the cables removable via replacing it with MMCX or 2pin connectors and removing the foam pads inside of the KPH30i (No need to do that with the Clear version, and I have heard that the Clear version sounded better than the standard KPH30i, still love it though.) I am officially in endgame!
For I am one of those guys who gets easily impressed by sounds if they are fucking good, especially when the pricing from those headphones or IEMs you get are on the budget side of things! I have a drawback as well, I get easily impressed but I also get easily unimpressed when I heard the sounds that I am hearing from a set of headphones not good and just shit, especially when it is an expensive piece of shit. So yeah overall, to me no, not all things EXPENSIVE is equal to BETTER SOUNDS. Sounds are more complicated than just buying for PC parts for example, since you have a damn clue on what to get for the PC parts, but for sounds? it’s more complicated than that.
not sure what you expected to begin with… x2hr is flabby, uncontrolled, and just meh really… its a fun listening headphone but really… its like… what like $80? You get what you pay for with that one lol and m50 is nothing to go on either to be all honest.
Anybody who makes this claim… I will try to be as least insulting here on this because I want to be honest…
A. doesn’t know what their talking about
B. May have tried the gear but decided to just plug them into a motherboard or low grade amp and dac thinking this is okay as misinformation in this hobby is aplenty… especially with some “reviewers” over there driving hd800S off trash sources while speaking about them.
C. Cannot hear the differences in the headphones due to a multitude of reasonings. Since we all hear differently this can be attributed to things like hearing loss, ear shape, etc.
D. he didn’t really try many of them or tried multiple headphones of the SAME signature or within the same brand such as Sennheiser of whom takes a flat line and alters it every which way making multiple headphones much like AKG does with K702, K712, K6 series, K7xx, etc
Okay, so yeah… no this is wrong. Anybody who claims there is a sublte difference between these? They have to be doing something wrong here… especially Sundara over there
It truly varies on a person to person basis as some of us truly cannot discern or hear differences. There really isn’t technically a “ceiling” but rather a limit you put on yourself. The sound does get better the higher up you go but of course to certain degrees. However, with a higher up bracket of headphone you need higher up equipment respectively to go along with that otherwise the sound is quite poor and not fully up to what it’s supposed to sound like… you wouldn’t power a $500 headphone to a motherboard… it really doesn’t make sense less its like… portable but even then most portables at that price point can make use of a portable amp to make them sound better.
Would you be missing out? depends on you personally. I would encourage of course trying the 6xx as its not by any means a bad headphone at all… its actually really good. Then again you do get those people who are more biased towards certain companies… it’s better for you if you try headphones of varying signatures before you go settling on a headphone of choice for your daily driver. Don’t go by strictly measurements, don’t go by the “it has to be a neutral flat line” mentality, and try not to fall into mental bias when it comes to people on here. Of course also watch out with reviewers… this should be a no brainer.
^ absolutely
Here’s what you do:
Shop from a place that allows 100% refund on returns.
Buy a decent beginner amp and DAC (you don’t need to spend more than $200 here).
Buy several different headphones with good reputations.
Listen to the various headphones over a couple of weeks. Spend time with each one before changing - a few days.
If you hear no difference, return everything (or just keep the cheapest).
If you DO hear a difference, welcome to the club.
Your friend can say whatever he wants and, we can say whatever we want. Find out for yourself.
Here’s my take on it:
This hobby is in my opinion all about how insane are you. How enthusiastic? How far are you willing to take it?
If you are just a consumer, you will be happy with something that doesn’t hurt your wallet. “Doesn’t hurt your wallet” is subjective. If your salary is 1000 bucks, a 200-500 bucks is not a small sum of money (depending on how much it matters to you). If your salary is 10000 bucks, you are probably comfortable to spend 1000-3000 bucks on your setup.
The other aspect is how crazy are you about the hobby. How much does music matter to you? How much does gear matter to you? It could be either of those two, or it could be both. There are gear enthusiasts, there are music enthusiasts (listeners), and then there are both of those combined. If listening to music, or the gear itself, is very important to your life, you are probably ready to save up and spend more than an average person. This means that if your salary is 1000 bucks, you might save up some money and buy a 3000 bucks setup.
How much are you willing to spend to pleasure yourself? How much does it take to please yourself? You see, a lot of people here can be happy with a Sennheiser HD598 or a HD650/HD6XX, but there are people who like the luxury of high-end. Think of it as an addiction.
Speaking of luxury, it comes with an invisible tax. When something is exquisite and abstract, luxurious, it costs more. Not because of the performance, not because of the materials, but simply just due to the exotic nature of luxury. Exclusivity costs.
Whether or not you need this luxury is entirely up to you. I strongly think this hobby is individual. People spend their money on fine clothing, fine food, drugs, women, gambling, computers, cameras, cars, vintage things, there are a lot of things that people spend their money on, a lot of things that evoke pleasure, in our case it is things that produce sound.
At the end of the day, I think the #1 most important thing is that you are happy and can sleep well at night. If you spent a lot of money on something and it is not making you happy or it makes you feel guilty, it simply wasn’t worth it.
Stay happy, and enjoy yourselves!
kph30i’s are like baby Aeolus’s
all the money
Audiophile Edit :-
If you gonna do headphones with me
We be swopping between $5g’s
Oh why do I listen this why
Must be the money.
There is the law of diminishing returns, which has never really let me down.
Non audio example:
I’m a motorcyclist. I used to own no motorcycle for 0$. This was pretty bad. I then got to drive my mom’s moped for a bit, for free. The step from nothing to free sowl clunky moped was massive! I then bought my own bike (Z300 in case you cared) for around 3700$. It was fast and fun and worth every pen. Rode it for two years all over, put down twenty thousand miles. WHAT A DREAM! Then last year I bought a new BMW F900R. brand new. All the latest tech. Engine three times as big and powerful. And yes it was amazing but… $12000… is it three times as good as the Z300? Not at all. 12.000 times as good as the moped? Certainly not! Worth it? Well… For me? Yes. I’m big and take a lot of luggage with me, i needed the bigger engine. Cruise control makes long trips easier,… But is it worth 12k for everyone? And why didn’t I buy a 24$ bike? It was in my budget… But to me the upgrade didn’t seem worth it. The return on investment deminished the more I invested.
So too it is with headponies. I used to rock some Sennheise HDR170’s. They’re okay but the wireless tech in them is so outdated it’s garbage sound coming out of there. So. I upgrade. but to what? KPH? 20$ and millions of times better than no music. HD560s? $200. Better than the KPH but not ten times better. Arya’s? Nearly $2000. Again. Is it ten times better than the HD560? A hundred times better than the KPH? NO!!! But is it better. Yes! How much? Debatable but honestly not the point. They are better, but the more you spend the less better they get
Invest more, get more, but less with each ‘more’ you spend. That’s how most products work. More expensive is usually better. But the more expensive, the less better. Still better. But less better.
I have been going back and forth over this topic for a while now and honestly I have made no progress. There is so much to consider, and it’s all so expensive. It’s turned me completely off. Frankly this is becoming a rabbit hole that I don’t think I am going to go down.
I have 2 different headphone stations at the moment based on what I feel are the best pairings from what I have - I have the Denon AVR-2808ci paired up with my Sennheiser HD280 Pros in the bedroom and the Voyager 8200’s paired with my Topping MX-3 in the office. Both offer very good yet different experiences, both are pleasing to me. The thought of dropping thousands on a new headphone rig seems ludicrous right now. Especially since I am pretty unsure that the extra expense will produce the expected result.
Maybe one day I will be able to audition some of these hifalutin HiFi cans and hear with my own broken ears if they are worth the extra dough. Until then I am stopping this madness. I’m OK with what I have. As long as I am enjoying the music…
That is the goal and should be where a lot of people are at.
As long as you’re happy with what you have, there’s zero need to go down the hole. The purpose of this whole thing ultimately is to enjoy music and be happy.
Copy that. @RiceGuru I hear you, Sir. It got to the point where I was chasing ghosts. Do I get a tube amp? A Class A / AB? THX? NFCA based? At one point I had it narrowed down to either the SMSL S-9 stack or the duo of Ares II and Singxer SA-1, but then the V280 came into play, not to mention a nice Schiit stack, with the damned power in the back… what the… Schiit!!.. sigh… See what I mean. It’s all good stuff. But which is best for me? No idee! And we haven’t even brought up the headphones yet!
Nope, my 8200’s and my old-ass HD280’s are lookin pretty sexy right now. At least for the time being. I need to acquire some knowledge before I dip another toe in that pool.
That’s the secret right there.
There’s always going to be something different.
Isn’t that true for every hobby? 
You’re not alone! I struggle with this as well.
In the end I just really want to try everything!
Not sure if you saw the What did you buy today thread, but a “situation” came up and before I knew it I was ordering a SP200! I’ve been hashing over this for a while and I figured it’s time to make a move. I’ve been intrigued with the THX amp, and this one has the 888 chip set, which is nice. So we are gonna see how she does. This feels like a nice progression.