Headphone Recommendations – The Ultimate Headphones

Sennheiser's HD 800 headphones are likely to ultimately please even the most discerning ear.
Sennheiser’s HD 800 headphones are likely to ultimately please even the most discerning ear.

If you want to get a pair of the unassailable universally acknowledged very best headphones available, you’re probably in for a disappointment, because there’s no clear consensus on which those would be.  You’re also in for a moderately vicious attack on your wallet!

It is just as much a case with top end headphones as with bottom end headphones – you must let your own ears be your guide.  Check out and follow through our recommended method for headphone evaluation, and don’t obsess over price, manufacturer statistics, or even third-party reviews.

However, to point you in possibly the right direction, the Sennheiser HD 800 headphones marked pretty much the start of mainstream super-headphones and are still today thought by many to be the absolutely best, even though there are esoteric headphones costing many times more.  Remember – price has nothing to do with quality.

The HD800 headphones are truly lovely, and have a nice feature.  Each pair has its own unique personally tested frequency response chart, so you can see just how level a response curve your exact headphones will give you (and it will be amazingly level).  Yes, we know we regularly urge you to ignore things like frequency response statistics, but it is rather nice to have your own personal headphone response chart!

Most people consider there is at best only a slight improvement in sound between the HD 800 and the lesser HD 650 model, and there’s certainly an appreciable difference in cost ($1500 for the HD 800, $400 for the HD 650).  You’d want to be sure you could hear the difference between the $400 and $1500 headphones before spending the extra $1100.

Other high-end headphones to consider might be the Beyerdynamic T1 ($950), and the HifiMan HE-6 ($1300).

When we win the lottery, we’ll be getting the HD 800 headphones ourselves.

If we can’t persuade you otherwise, and you really do want to buy on price rather than performance, you could consider the Stax SR-009 (about $5200) and the Abyss AB-1266 (about $5500).  No, we’re not going to give you links.  If you want to spend that sort of money on a pair of headphones, we refuse to be enablers – and plead with you to carefully evaluate them first!

Or you could buy an ultra exclusive pair of headphones direct from us – the Travel Insider XQ headphones, costing a guaranteed to be most expensive in the world price of $50,000 a set. Any resemblance they have to a pair of $85 Sony MDR 7506 headphones with the Sony brand scratched off is, we assure you, entirely coincidental!

This is a part of our buyers guide series on headphones.  Please also visit :

How to Properly Compare Headphones

Five Headphone Recommendations – Introduction

1.  In Ear Headphones

2.  Noise Cancelling Headphones

3.  Around the $100 Range

4.  Under $200

5.  The Ultimate Headphones

Leave a Reply

Scroll to Top

Free Weekly Emailed Newsletter

Usually weekly, since 2001, we publish a roundup of travel and travel related technology developments, and often a feature article too.

You’ll stay up to date with the latest and greatest (and cautioned about the worst) developments.  You’ll get information to help you choose and become a better informed traveler and consumer, how to best use new technologies, and at times, will learn of things that might entertain, amuse, annoy or even outrage you.

We’re very politically incorrect and love to point out the unrebutted hypocrisies and unfairnesses out there.

This is all entirely free (but you’re welcome to voluntarily contribute!), and should you wish to, easy to cancel.

We’re not about to spam you any which way and as you can see, we don’t ask for any information except your email address and how often you want to receive our newsletters.

Newsletter Signup - Welcome!

Thanks for choosing to receive our newsletters.  We hope you’ll enjoy them and become a long-term reader, and maybe on occasion, add comments and thoughts of your own to the newsletters and articles we publish.

We’ll send you a confirmation email some time in the next few days to confirm your email address, and when you reply to that, you’ll then be on the list.

All the very best for now, and welcome to the growing “Travel Insider family”.






David.