Does music feel different when using premium headphones?

[SonicLamb]

I've been wondering how much of a difference premium headphones actually make in everyday listening.

Some people say the jump from budget headphones is huge—you notice better instrument separation, clearer vocals, deeper bass, and a wider soundstage. Others feel the difference isn't significant unless you're listening to high-quality audio or have a trained ear.

For those who've used both budget and premium headphones:

• What was the first thing you noticed after upgrading?
• Did it change the way you listen to music?
• Was the improvement worth the extra cost?
• Was there a particular song or album that made you think, "Now I get why people buy expensive headphones"?

I'd love to hear your experiences and recommendations.

 

[rob aylestone]

I'm not sure we really use words like budget or premium the way you do? For instance I have a pile of headphones here - DT 100 Beyers. They are bomb proof, musician proof and can go crazily loud, and cost around £200ish. Not budget. However, they don't sound amazing, they sound truthful, and you can wear them for hours. I have some Sony in-ears cheaper ones - 215 being my favourite and these are often mixed up with fakes. However, the Shure real ones sound really nice, the fakes far less so.

It depends what you want them to do. Replace decent monitors? Just be good for tracking and overdubs? or maybe make dull mixes sparkle, when they really don't?
Price rarely indicates anything. You can buy bright or dull, neutral or tweaked, open or closed - so it depends on what you want. Personally, anything the hifi fraternity likes I will probably hate. Anything people are certain can be mixed with, I might go there. Listening with headphones is very different to recording!

 

[Papanate]

I've been wondering how much of a difference premium headphones actually make in everyday listening.

My experience is for Great Headphones to have the following; a balanced sound – Deliver detailed and open sound - and the transient response is great- and are comfortable to wear over a long period - I use Sony MDR-V6s - they weren't premium priced at $100 when they came out - they are no longer made - but you can get the Sony MDR-7506 and they are just about the same -

I have used the Sennheiser HD 800 S Dynamic Open-Back Stereo Headphones - they are very expensive at $1999 - but the improvement over my Sonys was not much - a bit more accurate overall - but for me they weren’t $1899 better.

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

I'm not sure we really use words like budget or premium the way you do? For instance I have a pile of headphones here - DT 100 Beyers. They are bomb proof, musician proof and can go crazily loud, and cost around £200ish. Not budget. However, they don't sound amazing, they sound truthful, and you can wear them for hours. I have some Sony in-ears cheaper ones - 215 being my favourite and these are often mixed up with fakes. However, the Shure real ones sound really nice, the fakes far less so.

It depends what you want them to do. Replace decent monitors? Just be good for tracking and overdubs? or maybe make dull mixes sparkle, when they really don't?
Price rarely indicates anything. You can buy bright or dull, neutral or tweaked, open or closed - so it depends on what you want. Personally, anything the hifi fraternity likes I will probably hate. Anything people are certain can be mixed with, I might go there. Listening with headphones is very different to recording!

Good points there. Not sure who you meant by "we" in that first sentence.

But aren't headphones like a million other things where the specific user experience and opinion is subjective? Similar to microphones in that sense - where you can line 5 of them up - have 100 people test/listen and give their opinion - and while one or two might rise to the top - opinions will vary depending on varying factors. After reading opinions about headphones for 25+ years on the internet - I'm convinced that people just have to try a few and see what floats your boat, checks the boxes, gets it done - given whatever the perceived goal is.

And I certainly don't mean to condemn anyone for asking what works and why - it's just probably a good idea to keep in mind that at the end of the day it's subjective - and ultimately comes down to personal experience.

Fortunately - there are a lot to try and choose from.

And, of course, that's just all my opinion.

 

[Slouching Raymond]

Every pair of headphones I've had have been different.
If you buy actively cheap rubbish, what can you expect?
If you spend a bit more, are you just being ripped off?
I bought some expensive Extreme Isolation phones for use when drumming. What I paid for there was 'isolation' and not hi-fi.
They don't sound fantastic, but they do their job by not bleeding much.
Apart from that, I've settled on 3 pairs of Sennheiser HD280 PROs, for quality listening.
I could be kidding myself, but they sound fine to me.
I don't think I'll ever spend serious money on phones (blew all that on a console).

 

[TalismanRich]

Headphones are just like speakers, they all sound different!

I have at least 5 different types, and none are remotely the same. My Sony 7506s are on the bright side, AKG K240s are pretty neutral but not as revealing as the Sonys. I find my Senn HD280s are bass heavy. My very old AKG K140s are lean sounding and at one time people were raving about some Tascam headphones that I found to be dreadful, but they were cheap on clearance, so no big problem. I've used Koss Pro4AA, and a couple of Sennheisers. At one point I compared the ATH M50s and Beyer DT770s. I liked the Beyers better, but they were not enough different from my 7506s to spend the money.

Surprisingly, I've been using some KZ ZSN ProX earbuds for jamming vs headphones and they have been much better. I needed to change the rubber seals but they were decent enough that I bought another for casual listening from my computer. They run about $25 on Amazon.

I was in Sweetwater a couple of years ago, and they had a wall of headphones that you could try out. It was quite revealing how much different they all sounded. I tried headphones from ~$100 to $500. It seemed to me that sound quality and cost had little correlation.