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
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.
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.
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
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: