How much are you likely to pay for headphones in the near future?

[Jasonovich]

How much would you spend on a good pair of headphones 🎧?

Headphones had always been the poor cousin to speakers, possibly the last consideration on the list of upgrades but for many, a pair of cans is the only option, due to lifestyle choices or living in a flat with thin walls making it impractical to have speakers.

Much of my music listening is predominantly on headphones and I live in a detached house!

My Hifiman Edition XS Planars opened the door for me, l liked what I was hearing, this was on a budget level and I was curious how much better it would sound, were I to upgrade to their costlier models.

The He1000V2 Stealth were on another plane. The Ed Xs lacked tampere, the vocals were clear but on a micro level, the Hexi's you can hear the supple changes in the voice, it's almost like a speaker experience, those cans disappear. I'm still evaluating them, so far, they're amazing.

It'll be great to have your feedback, is it the least significant part of the HiFi chain or do you rate them more highly and happy to invest a significant amount to get the best sound?

 

[R2D2]

My B&W PX8 headphones cost just under £300 from Amazon Germany and I still think they were a great buy, not so good at lower volumes but I have owned them nearly a year and listen to them quite a bit. I live in a detached house too with my dad and niece and my niece when she is not working likes her lay-ins so I listen to the headphones then. And generally just enjoy listening to them as a good quality alternative to my speaker system.

RRP they were £600 which is a lot for me and would’ve bought them unless they were just under £300, then I traded in my B&W P7’s that cost around £280 brand new. My B&W PX2 that went faulty after nearly 2 years were something like £260, so that’s how much I roughly spend.

I will now only have one pair at a time, so if I bought another pair I would sell my B&W PX8 headphones to help fund them. And I really like them so I am not going to do that at the moment but I was tempted by WHF’s recommendation for a wired pair because I know that they are better quality, but buying all the Apple adaptors again didn’t appeal to me, and now just listen to Apple Music instead of no cost Spotify to get a better sound quality from the headphones, and that’s proving to be enough for me.

 

[Angle Poise-Lamp]

I'm not likely to have enough money in the near future but, if I did, I think I'm looking at north of a grand to see a meaningful upgrade over my Elegias.

I don't see the point of spending money to get a tiny, incremental improvement, that I can only hear on certain pieces of music, when the wind is blowing in the right direction.