I've been increasingly into headphones for the last 2 or 3 years and have been investigating the various technologies and makes.

It's the wife's fault - she's a late riser and I'm an early one. And being unwilling to wait to start the music until 11-ish when she gets up headphones are the logical way to go.

Here's the 4 I seem to have settled with for now ...



I guess the leader of the pack are Grado PS1000. Very clean and open and detailed and dynamic. They also cost the most, which is a bit of a disappointment!
They do suffer a little from the distinctive Grado Treble, which is a little on the enthusiastic side for my tastes, but some careful fettling (cable choice is important here) and they are just fine and dandy.

Stax SR3 electrostatics live in the conservatory along, usually, with the Fostex TH600.
The Stax are awesome for transparency, but can't really be regarded as all-rounders as they do lack heft in the bass and rather water down big dynamic swings when they can get a bit strident. Still great fun to listen to on a lot of material, though.
The Fostex TH600 are marvellous for when closed-back is necessary (the Grados and Stax leak an amazing amount of sound). I got them after owning and liking Fostex T50RPmk3, similar sound but even better.

And finally Even H1. These have settled in the bedroom, fed by a portable CD player! They have a little in-line widget which provides a hearing test and corrective DSP. You press the button and a series of 8 music tones are played at increasing volume. You press the button again when you can hear each one. This is done for left and right. Works well, but they do like to add a bit of extra bass. A pleasant listen. They may become increasingly useful as the years go by.

I've tried various planar magnetic from Audeze and Hifiman. But have come to the conclusion that they are not for me - I almost always hear a layer of "smooth" that comes between me and the music. Some people love them, but I miss the final layer of dynamic resolution.

In the main system, usually with the Grado PS1000 I use a Lehmann Black Cube Linear headphone amp which I am very pleased with.
The Stax (which require a pukka power amp) are fed from a Topping VX1 (25wpc).