It’s been a long time since I forked out $'s on high end headphones … last time it was a pair of Denons that broke the bank, Realistically I’ve spend many thousands on various “things”, but nothing with a big fat cable that plugs into a dedicated headphone amp.
What are Rooners using for high end private listening?
Sennheiser on a Musical Fidelity amplifier for living room use and Grado GW100 on Bluetooth. We are moving and packed the Sennheisers. So I can’t tell you what they’re called. We bought them some years back at roughly $400. Grado makes awesome headphones. These use Bluetooth Aptx, which uses lossy compression. So not exactly fitting your need for high-end. Still very good, though.
Focal Clears are high-end by almost any objective measure. They are great headphones. I think they are a better value proposition than many more expensive pairs I’ve heard, and are virtually unbeatable at their price.
Within our niche subculture the price is on the “upper-middle” end, but it’s twice as much as anything someone could walk into most retail stores and buy.
I tend to find nirvana in a headphone and use it for years.
After 8 years of loving the HD800 from an ECP audio L2 amplifier, I heard the RAAL-Requisite SR1a and lost my mind. They’re the most detailed headphones I’ve ever heard and I adore them.
I’m currently running mine from a Schiit Jotunheim R amplifier while I wait for ECP to design something that can drive them. My DAC is an RME ADI-2 FS, hooked right into my Roon server with a USB cable like I’m an ape.
I really enjoy my (low end?) Jabra Elite Active 75t bluetooth earbuds just as much, in different situations.
Now I got that out the way
I have Focal Utopia (open back), new Focal Elegia (closed back), Sennheiser HD800S (open back) and Dan Clark Aeon 2 Noire (closed back).
Soon getting the new Focal Celeste (closed back).
Cans are driven by Chord Hugo2, RME ADI-2 FS DAC (V2) and Merging Anubis interface, in different locations.
My absolute favourites are the Focals headphones.
Subjectively, I find the entire Focal lineup (including Elear and Clear which I had previously) are all ‘punchy’ (to my ears) in ways I’ve not heard from any other headphones for some years now. Like punchy speakers. And I love them for that. I’ve demo’ed all the popular cans.
Here in Oz Focal Clear Pros go for about $AU2K … I think that compares favourably to say AKG Masters at almost double that! … and I fell out of love with AKG as a brand a decade ago.
I’ll be nervous to step up to anything exotic like Meze as I doubt my 60+ year old ears would appreciate the difference though they are a thing of beauty!