What are the best of the best dynamic headphones out there?

So I’m quite new to audiophile stuff and I have been looking at headphones for a while now. I see that the best headphones out there are like planar magnetic or electrostatic earspeakers.

After some looking and searching, I can’t really find much dynamic headphones that are at that crazy league. Mostly I just saw Focal’s line of headphones as one on the best out there.

Can you all comment what are the best dynamic headphones out there? I’m quite interested. Thanks :blush:

Focal and ZMF are the main ones that compete in the high end from my experience. There is also Audiotechnica but i don’t have any personal experience with them, although i do hear good things about the adx5000. Sennheiser has the 800 series headphones but there seems to be a lot of mixed feeling towards those phones compared to their lower end stuff.

It seems like a lot of dynamic headphones live in the mid range and below market space for the most part. Not many dynamics that can play in the summit-fi category where high end planars reign supreme.

for what it’s worth I love Focal and ZMF, really good stuff. but very different from each other as well, as far as tuning and presentation.

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Fostex is also a good one

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The best ones are the ones that sound the best to your ears. Cliche, but it’s the truth.

There are a bunch of them: Sennheiser, Audio Technica, Focal, ZMF, Fostex, and possibly more. Each one shares specific characteristics that may or may not be what you are looking for.

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The best headphone is the one you have on hand. :stuck_out_tongue:

Jokes aside, I don’t think there is “the best” headphone. Some are more expensive than others.

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Yeah, you are right, there is not a best headphone but I’m interested in what people think are the best dynamic headphones out there. Just curious :wink:.

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You can visit this thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/looking-for-found-end-game-headphones-in-2k-±-price-range.941529/

If you’re feeling enthusiastic, you can read the whole thread. It’s a bunch of people discussing headphones, and their experience. It’s a very relaxed thread, so it went quite off-topic, but people from that thread tried the majority of stuff. The OP just went with the Audio Technica ADX5000, but he has tried a number of the flagship headphones - that one just happened to fit what he was looking for

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This is what I know of. Selection: mainly list price over $2500US to eliminate the riff-raff, grin. Additions and corrections please. (Thanks, FBizzle! Hope I’ve placed them correctly)

Manufacturers of very expensive over-ear headphones:

(HEDD Audio: AMT [HEDDphone ~$1900])

(Audio-Technica: dynamic [ADX5000 ~$2000])
Focal: (beryllium) dynamic [Utopia]
Grado: dynamic [Grado PS2000e]
Mysphere: (glass foam) dynamic [Mysphere 3]
Sony: dynamic [MDR-Z1R]
Spirit Torino: (twin pulse isobaric) dynamic [Twin Pulse 1706]
ZMF: dynamic [ Vérité]

Dan Clark Audio: electrostatic [Voce]
Hifiman Electronics: electrostatic [Shangri-La]
Sennheiser: electrostatic [HE-1v2]
Stax: electrostatic [SR-009]
Warwick: electrostatic [Aperio, Sonoma M1]

Abyss: planar [AB-1266 Phi CC, Diana Phi]
Audeze: planar [LCD-4, LCD-4Z]
Final Audio: planar [D8000 Pro]
Hifiman Electronics: planar [Susvara]
Kennerton: planar [Thror]
Meze: planar [Empyrean]
Rosson: planar [RAD-0]

RAAL: ribbon [Requisite SR-1a]

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Probably a more overlooked choice, but the Grado PS2000e lists ~$2700.
Also in a similar style, the Spirit Torino Twin Pulse 1706 is ~$3900.

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Whats up with Spirit Torino, it’s such a rarely brought up brand. I know they are from Italy, but does anybody have any info on them?

Here buddy :+1:

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