The Headphone Show's "Best Value in Audiophile Headphones" Round-Up

(Andrew Park)
Okay, so we recently did a live stream talking all about good value in audiophile headphones, and we figured rather than having you sit through two hours and 40 minutes of us droning on and on about this topic, we would just do a concise video for you guys talking about exactly this. So in today's video, I am joined by Cameron and Griffin to talk all about the best value in audiophile headphones. So let's get going. All right, so the landscape of audiophile headphones and DACs and amps and all that stuff is absolutely insane. There are so many different things that you can buy, potentially, and there are many products that are good but don't represent good value. And some of the best products out there are just insanely expensive and not things that we would say, yeah, this is good value in this space. So we're focusing today on value specifically with the express caveat that this is not necessarily, you know, all the best things because the best things cost money. It turns out nice things are nice. But there are also nice things that are cheaper and better value. And that's what we're going to focus on today. But with that out of the way, let's dive in and start off with the sub $100 price category.

(Griffin Silver)
Yeah, so starting us off, we're going to start with the absolute value kings of audiophile headphones, which are actually IEMs. And the least expensive of which is the Truthear Gate, which is a $20 dynamic driver IEM, which is tuned roughly to the Harman IEM target with a few differences here and there. But it's an inexpensive headphone. that fits me really well. And honestly, the sound is no slouch either. I think there are plenty of other safe options in this price bracket. This is just the one that I have the most experience with and the one that I like the most. But right above that, a recent entry is actually the Moondrop Space Travel 2, which I just put out a review of, which you can find linked below. And I really like this thing. The stock sound quality, I actually prefer to the gate, but it also has five band parametric EQ that is stored on the device itself. So for someone like me who uses an iPhone that can't really use EQ for most devices, this is great for me. So I've really been liking using the Space Travel 2. And for only $30, the kind of subpar ANC and transparency mode are forgivable.

(Andrew Park)
All right, so coming up next, we're going to have the Truthear Zero: Red at around $65 and the Truthear Pure and Hexa. So the Red is Crinacle's collab, of course, and I picked the Red over the Blue because the Blue was aiming for more of this sort of Harman-like sound signature which really doesn't work for me and for anybody who doesn't like that sound signature the Red is going to be quite a bit more palatable it has a little bit more of like an old-meta tuning, not necessarily the new style but it's still less glarey and biting and sharp sounding than what you might find with typical Harman IE tunings, and still has a, you know, solid bass profile as well. And then moving up to the Hexa and the Pure. In my opinion, the Hexa and the Pure are both the default IEMs under $100. The Hexa for a neutral, brighter leaning sound signature, and the Pure for that same kind of tonality. in the same shell design roughly, just warmer. So it has more focus towards the lower mids, an emphasis at around 300 hertz and then a little bit less of that treble presentation overall but both iems you can't really go wrong with either one of them yeah they're both good value i just want to quickly add a note on the red as well is that it comes with a little impedance adapter that for bass heads out there allows you to get quite a substantial lift in the lower frequency region so that's something which is going to be a nice feature for quite a few listeners as well speaking of which cameron what would your i guess under 100 value pick for headphones be?

(Cameron Oatley)
Okay, well, I'm going to break the rules and go just a touch over 100 and pick the Hifiman HE400se. That is a over-ear planar magnetic headphone, which I think just does a lot of stuff really well. It's pretty comfortable. I think it looks pretty nice. And the overall sound is neutral, but with some of Hifiman's typical slight sort of quirks and colorations. And the overall treble region in particular is one which I think it's just doing a better job of than most headphones around that price. That's one which I really enjoyed. I would happily recommend to most people, even if they haven't tried many headphones to go and work out what their exact preferences are yet. It's just one that is Not just inoffensive, but just generally good and also a good platform for if you did want to EQ it and tweak things slightly. The HE400se is probably going to be my pick there, even though it's $9, I think, over $100. The slight caveat with it is you do need a relatively strong source in order to power them. They're not super easy to drive. And so, speaking of source gear, I'm going to throw a little bit of a recommendation out there. Under $100, or lower than that even, the common recommendation is the Apple Dongle USB-C to 3.5mm headphone adapter. And that's because it's good. It measures well, it's pretty clean, sounds decent, and it's, what, $10 or something? I'm actually going to recommend this. This is the FiiO KA11. This is about £20 or so if you're in the UK. It's a little more expensive than the US now, I think $40 or so. Thanks, tariffs. But it's quite a bit more powerful. It measures quite a bit better. And it's also significantly more durable, which I actually think means that the price is more sensible. I've gone through several of these, whereas this I've had for a while and it's never broken. So as long as you're not going to go through two or three of these, this is actually probably going to be a better value. It sounds better. It's more powerful. And this will drive the HE400SE and many other slightly harder to drive planars as well.

(Griffin Silver)
And I think that brings us right into the next price bracket up. which is going to be under $500. And this is where IEMs stop being the obviously better value in terms of sound for your money. That said, I do think one really strong contender in this price bracket is the new CrinEar Daybreak, which comes in at around $170. That is just a neutral with a slight extra bass and treble coloration, but really reasonable. Andrew and I both enjoyed it with a different tip than came stock. But overall, we think a lot of people are going to like this IEM. It's one of the least expensive IEMs that's actually tuned like this kind of new meta type of tuning. So it's very natural, but again, with slight colorations to keep it exciting. And with that, I'll throw that to Andrew, because I think you probably want to talk about a headphone.

(Andrew P)
Yeah, now let's talk about some real headphones. So my headphone picks in this category actually start with the FiiO FT1, the close back. and the FiiO FT1 Pro, which is an open back planar. It's kind of weird the naming scheme, they're very different from one another, but they are similar in the sense that they both represent good value for the kind of finger they're trying to do. I used to actually have the AKG K371 in this sort of like, you know, good value close back under, you know, whatever price we're at here. But I think the FiiO FT1 has kind of eaten its lunch. It feels more durable. It's going to be a more consistent headphone. It feels like it's just more robust overall. The sound signature overall is a mostly balanced, slightly warm leaning presentation. that has a little bit of a relaxed kind of character throughout the ear gain and the treble, so one might call a little bit on the dark side, but the bass quality here is exceptional with the FiiO FT1. The FiiO FT1 Pro is probably the default neutral-ish planar headphone at around the $220 price tag. There are other headphones that aren't planers that you might want to consider, but this one has a very even balance between bass, mids, and treble. The bass is really well extended, even though it's not bass boosted. You do get flat linear bass extension all the way down into the sub bass. But this is where its one limitation lies. This is not a good candidate for boosting the bass with EQ if that's what you're planning on doing. But if you just want a headphone that has the full bass extension and is also fairly neutral for the rest of its response, the FiiO FT1 Pro is a great choice. But I think there's also some HiFiMan headphones in this price range that are also worth considering. And so maybe Cameron, if you want to talk about that.

(Cameron Oatley)
Yeah, Hifiman's got some pretty killer value options at all sorts of different price ranges. And I think under $500, the Edition XS is probably one that's got to be mentioned. It's got that, as you mentioned, flat linear bass extension. Overall, it's tuned pretty close to neutral, though with a little bit of a brighter tilt in the treble, the upper regions particularly. That does help it to sound a little bit more detailed, a little bit more technical. And it's one of the reasons that I think a lot of people do like a lot of the sound signatures on Hifiman headphones, because many of them do. lean a little bit brighter in that way. One thing that actually was mentioned off-camera was that it's got slightly higher harmonic distortion in the ear gain region, but then Griff countered that, well, people are going to be cutting that region more than they're going to be boosting, so actually that's probably not much of an issue. And subjectively I wouldn't say that the level there causes any kind of problem yeah the region people are going to be cutting in is right around like three to five kilohertz and that's usually where i think that headphone has a little bit much for people so i think it's more likely people cut in that region than boost yeah people might want to take that down a little bit i actually didn't find that i really needed to i mean i probably would if i had the choice but it wasn't uh wasn't problematic or anything it's just an all-round solid headphone it seems to be a little bit more technical sounding than a lot of the options around this price because it is a bit brighter, but it just does a lot of the subjective stuff as well pretty decently.

(Andrew Park)
Yeah, I think previously I would have had the Sundara in that range, but I think the Edition XS is now less expensive than the Sundara, and it also has a little bit more cup swivel as well, so it's more comfortable.

(Cameron Oatley)
It's definitely more comfortable. I didn't get on with the Sundara anywhere near as much. I also just liked the sound of the Edition XS more than the Sundara. So if it's now cheaper than the Sundara, it's just a better option, in my opinion.

(Griffin Silver)
On the topic of something that I think most people probably won't need to EQ at all, we have the Sennheiser HD 550, which right now is retailing at $350. I believe when it first came out, it was retailing for a little bit lower than that. So I don't really know what the pricing of this headphone is going to be when you're watching this. But regardless, it is a kind of right down the middle neutral headphone, very much in the spirit of its predecessors, the HD 600 and 650, but with a little bit different of a treble profile. So for people who maybe find the HD 600 and 650 a little bit too dark in the mid-treble, or maybe even a little bit too bright in the uppermost treble, the HD 550 was a little bit more in line with what my ear expects, at least in those regions. While it's not necessarily the most premium feeling headphone, I do think in this price range, maximizing sound quality is what people are really interested in. And for that, I think the HD 550 is a totally respectable choice. But I've already mentioned what I think a lot of people would call the value kings of headphones in general which uh i'll throw that to Andrew to talk about this.

(Andrew Park)
Yeah so this is going to be the Sennheiser HD 600 650 and of course the 6xx if you live in north america which is exceptional value because i think it's around 220 regularly um and they're fairly they're all fairly similar with one another i wouldn't say this is as neutral overall as the hd 550 but They are all within that ballpark. I think the 650 and 6XX are just a little bit on the warmer side. The HD600 is a bit more on the neutral side. But they both have, or all of them have, a little bit of that sort of flair in the low mid section, giving it a hint of warmth. And then there's a little bit of sort of lushness and sweetness throughout the rest of the response. These are headphones that are exceptional for their overall tonal balance between bass, mids, and treble. They sound extremely natural. The timbre for vocals in particular is up. extremely well regarded. You guys know about these headphones and that's for a reason. They are legends and they still perform exceptionally well. The one area where I think people are maybe not quite as keen on them is they don't do the spaciousness effect quite as well as some of the other headphones. But I think if you just want something that is still exceptional value in the sub-whatever price category, you can't talk about this. subject at all without mentioning the hd 600 and 650. it is the default headphone that has been for a while i think 

(Griffin Silver)
Yeah but andrew what if i'm a gamer and i hate wires

(Andrew Park)
Then you should feel shame no there are actually some really good gaming headset options out there uh these days and they're getting better and better this is where i would actually say most of the innovation is happening in over your headphones that the headset market has just gotten so much more competitive. But I feel that it is still being led by the Odyssey Maxwell. That's still the best one. And it also represents exceptional value. Like a lot of people have this misconception that wireless headphones are going to sound worse than wired headphones. And sometimes that is true, but it's not because they're wireless, right? And the Maxwell kind of demonstrates this. So the Maxwell is better tuned than the vast majority of wired. passive close back headphones. And I'm talking about even ones that are in the like, you know, multi thousand dollar range. Even if it didn't have the rest of the features, even if it wasn't wireless, even if it was just the sound quality, it's incredible value for just that alone. It's a little bit on the heavy side. I think that's really the only downside with this headphone. But otherwise, this is just incredible value. And I can't recommend it highly enough.

(Griffin Silver)
So I'm going to go a little bit off book with this one. And I'm going to talk about headphones that are. Maybe not the most neutral, safest recommendations out there, but ones that I think have interesting colorations that they do well. And my two picks for this are going to be the Sony MDR-MV1 and the Focal Elex, which come in at $400 and $500 respectively. so the mdr mv1 is what i would say is my favorite implementation of a v-shaped sound signature in over your headphones period for one it the mid-range is totally natural like it's on the warm tilted side because it's kind of just like a linear slope from the bass all the way up to the ear gain and it's quite a steep slope but it sounds coherent the bass itself is definitely boosted and definitely well extended but it integrates really cleanly with the mids in a way that I really enjoy and the treble while having some spice to it boosts in a region that works really well for me and I think lends a lot of excitement and kind of fun to the headphone. But my other choice for something that's similarly fun but for a different reason is the Focal LX which kind of splits the difference between the MV1 and the more neutral options in that it has some colorations but I think it's still probably closer to what most people would call neutral. It has a well-extended bass, it has a little bit of a coloration in the one kilohertz band that brings forward the kind of snappiness and kind of decay of a lot of things like drums, but also pianos, so it's just an overall kind of more nimble and more kind of slammy feeling experience overall. So both of those are kind of my picks for things that are vivid and fun, but I think still have a case for versatility and some type of neutrality I guess.

(Andrew Park)
The mv1 is really good for gamers as well like for that sort of v-shaped style because it's also a very lightweight headphone 

(Cameron Oatley)
i'm just going to give a quick plus one to the Focal Elex as well i think actually the lx might be my favorite focal besides the utopia line that extra kind of 80 to 100 hertz region just having that elevated a bit just makes things sound super punchy uh it's just a really good fun headphone to listen to whilst not being so colored as to be odd it's as griff said still pretty neutral but just it's got some quirks that just have you smiling a little bit

(Andrew Park)
I have one more headphone in this price range, which is the Moondrop Para 2, and I actually did a review of it recently. And it's a headphone that I was actually fairly critical of in that review for its sort of default sound signature and some of the things to do with, you know, the headband structure and all that. But the driver in that headphone is so incredible that it's kind of all about its potential with you know pad swaps and what else you can do with it and so there are certain acoustic properties to that driver which we don't need to get into in this video because it's very nerdy but go and watch that video if you're curious to find out more about that but essentially you can it's kind of like a swiss army enough in terms of what it can do and it's the kind of headphone where even in stock configuration it does also work very well with certain genres the reason why i'm saying this is good value is because this is half the price of what the Cosmo is and the Cosmo it's better than the Para 2 but it's only slightly better like it's very minimally better and they're very similar otherwise and I need to actually look into the Para 1 and see if this if these same driver traits are true about that one because it is apparently quite similar to the Para 2 when the same pads are being used and it's less expensive. So this is a line of headphones that I feel deserves more attention than it got when it first released, and that's in part because the default sound signature was maybe a little bit on the lean side, but Again, the drivers in here are exceptional. They perform very well. I mean, along all metrics that we would evaluate drivers by, it's crazy that you can get this kind of performance at around $500. I was able to get it to sound similar or better than multi-thousand dollar headphones. So this one should be higher up, I think, on people's radar.

(Griffin Silver)
I think that does it for headphones. Are there any pieces of like source gear we should be talking about?

(Cameron Oatley)
I am the DAC man, so I will talk about a DAC for a minute. This. is the JDS Element 4. And I, again, I'm going to cheat because this is slightly above $500 now. I think it's $549. It got a price increase recently, unfortunately. But this, this is powerful enough to drive just about any headphone besides the really ridiculous stuff. It's got about 4 watts of power. Objectively, super clean. And again, this is a combo DAC and amp, so you don't need to buy separate pieces of gear to actually run your headphones completely. It's got built-in digital volume control, separate gain ranges, and a really, really nice EQ app. Seriously, the EQ configurator on this, which is done via a web panel, so you can do it on any device that you plug into, you don't need to download any particular software or anything, is so much nicer than the vast majority of other options I've tried, including some dedicated tools meant just for EQing. As a platform, this is the kind of thing which you can just buy and then not need to upgrade either. ever or unless you for some reason wanted to spend significantly more money this is my favorite under a thousand uh and it's about $549 so JDS element 4 is something which i can happily recommend to anyone to drive just about any headphone and it looks great whilst doing it and this is basically where value stops and we can talk about headphones that are under a thousand dollars that are good or over a thousand dollars that are good headphones there are many good headphones but it's hard to really think of them as good value

(Andrew Park)
This is something that we actually got to in the live stream that we were doing, talking about this, where as soon as you start talking about headphones, you know, like the Cosmo that's around $1,000, even though it's good, there are headphones like the Para 2 that are half the price that are just about as good or almost as good. So it becomes difficult to reference those higher priced ones as good value. I think the exception here would maybe be the Arya Stealth. I don't know, Cameron, what do you think?

(Cameron Oatley)
Arya Stealth, I have a particular uh affinity for just because that is the headphone that really got me into things i i start i actually jumped in at the deep end with a pair of hd 800s and i really liked them i had those for a year or two and then i was looking for an upgrade i got the Hifiman Arya the original one though i later got the stealth and that that was the point where i really really started enjoying headphones and it is still an absolutely fantastic headphone it used to be i think 1300 or so And now it's, was it 549? How much are they now? Yeah, that's insane. $549 for those is absolutely fantastic. I agree with the statement that above $1,000 value kind of stops making sense. Let's just put it that way. But the Arya Stealth are just, they're such great sounding headphones in so many different ways. And for $549. that is uh what i have recommended to several people that are wanting to get slightly better setups uh and again something like this will run them without issue they are a little bit tricky to drive you're not going to be able to run them on an apple dongle or something they're just super comfortable they look great generally neutrality they do a great job of there they don't have any particular serious colorations i don't think the overall treble response i think fits my head really well and for you guys you guys have tried them as well do you have any sort of particular things to call out that don't sit well with you guys 

(Griffin Silver)
Yeah so i hate this headphone um i it hits all of my particular pain points around like four kilohertz nine kilohertz and 11 kilohertz but even knowing that the value proposition is seriously compelling and for me it's actually not so much because of the stock sound profile it's because it's the cheapest Hifiman in that kind of egg shape with the very open kind of spacious presentation that has the good headband like the edition xs which was earlier on this list i don't really like that headband i need to use like a capra strap or something to make it more comfortable but the aria stealth at 550 is the least expensive of those kind of oval-shaped designs that has a really comfortable overall design for me. In many ways, it's kind of the safest one of any of them. Even though I definitely don't like the stock sound profile, I absolutely co-sign it as probably where value in headphones kind of stops.

(Andrew Park)
Yeah, and this is why it's so important to consider preference, even when you're thinking about what is good value here, because within all of these choices, there are so many different kinds of sound signatures that you know, one of us might like and the other one would dislike, right? And the Stealth is a good example of that. I think I personally fall somewhere in the middle here. Like, I can see why people would like the Aria Stealth, but I can also understand why, you know, it's for someone who doesn't like as much treble, why it would be particularly fatiguing, right? Is there anything else value-oriented in this that we can think of right now? Like, again, not best headphones overall, not our picks, but the things that we think represent great value.

(Griffin Silver)
Yeah, I'm going to actually do a real quick plug at the end for something that I think we might have missed at the beginning, which is Andrew's going to hate me for this, but the Koss on-ear design, Koss KSC-75 and Koss Porta Pro, which are, I think, in the ballpark of $25 to $50, the KSC-75 being a little bit brighter, the Porta Pro being a very dark, warm headphone. Yes, they have their issues. The on-ear design isn't going to be for everybody. but I think in terms of what they get right it's something that a lot of other headphones in that price range don't get right which is a pretty solid mid-range presentation that feels pretty coherent whether it's the bright tilt or the warm tilt and what's great about them is you can you know swap pads on them for very cheap and alter the sound in small ways or you could put a headband on the KAC 75 make it a little bit warmer yeah I just think those are really inexpensive headphones that people do love a lot, myself included. I'm a pretty big Porta Pro fan, and I think they deserve a place on any list about value.

(Cameron Oatley)
I think they have to be mentioned. I totally agree. I would say that I do think that there are a lot of better sounding IEMs available at this kind of price range now. I don't think they are the sound quality value choice that they used to be. But what I will say is that there are also a lot of people that just don't get along with IEMs. They don't like the feeling of it. They don't like having something in their ear. And so for those people that either, well, neither want to use in-ear monitors and don't want to have full-size over-ear headphones, a Porta Pro is a pretty portable and good sounding option with many fewer compromises than most other options around that price point that fit into the on-ear category. I think we put the world to rights and obviously everything that we said in this video is 100% factually true and accurate and no one could possibly disagree with it. Just ignore the fact that we don't even agree with each other. That doesn't matter. I'm just kidding, obviously. There's a lot of great products in all of these price categories and around these price categories for various different reasons. But if you are not sure where to look and you're wanting something that's going to help you enjoy your music and leave you smiling without spending too much money, you should also have a look at headphones.com for some of these purchases, because then if it turns out that it's not your thing, you could just send it back within 365 days. I'm Golden Sound. That's Resolve. That's Listener. Hopefully this was helpful, and we will see you next time.