HD 540 Reference

Yes, some flagships that cost 3 thousand dollars got really close to perfection of sound of those headphones that were made in eighties and cost 2 hundred dollars on ebay. I mean dynamic headphones - best headphones for anything but modern crap music. Those from eightees were lighter on bass and had less hefty sound, which disqualifies them in basshead eyes, but if you amplify them with expensive gear, they gain some of that dense body and recieve more bass.. and then almost nothing can touch their musicality. I am talking my HD540 reference 1 and HD250 linear 1 here. But man do they need expensive dac and amp! Without it they sound meh. With right gear they slay 3 thousand dollar flagship headphones with finger in their nose, and they cost only 200usd (plus 3 thousand dollar rig :). HD250 is best metal headphone EVER made, It is closedback. It is above Focal Stellia in any aspect of sound except density. It has brighter and clearer tonality, so again personal taste steps in the equasion whether you will like it. But once you hear metal on it.. and find out that it is less polite, extremely raw (with damping molitans removed), and comparably fast and as precise as berillium driver Stellia, you will (probably) not use Stellia for metal again. HD540 is good allrounder, softer, airier, refined, in my opinion better then HD600-660 etc. in both character and soundstage. Its main strength is how its sounstage is drawn, where it forms itself and how it disappears (echoes). Current headphones do not often draw soundstage in such pleasant way.. HD540 is openback. It has energetic but more polite sound with certain character, that can get irritating after while on some genres. But it may be related to dac - it simply needs better dac. I upgraded my cheap Fosi dac with Hypersonic opamp and it holds its ground now. Again slightly brighter sound profile, pretty natural, pleasant sound appearing in ideal soundstage size (pretty big). It is not suitable for all genres, but acoustic, classical or vocals or some jazz or some rock or some (only some - f.e. older Metallica) metal do sound very good on these. And movies rock! Anything atmospheric - which includes multichannel movie tracks sounds incredible on these. Last note - if you ever buy these headphones, buy them with original pads, not aftermarket "new" pads. Pads have very big part in their correct sound presentation. Choose them based on the look (state) of pads! And ask someone to build for you thick OCC copper balanced HD600 style cable. They share connectors with HD600. You need that balanced juice, trust me. You also need that additional body that OCC copper provides. Do not buy them for too warm rig though. Probably. Keep the sound pretty neutral. But who knows, maybe r2r or valves would sound fine. S17 is said to be warmer, and it is ok with mine, but it is right on edge of warmth that is bearable.

Sennheiser HD 540 Reference 600ohm. They aren't "complete" headphones at all. But things they can do, they do so beautifully. Space, air, resolution, timbre, softness.

Sennheiser’s HD500 series models used

The build quality feels so much better than the 5 series. It's a shame the HD550 didn't inherit the metal headband. I absolutely love the comfort and isolation with these. I use the 500BAM microphone for phone calls. Pretty good value as I got them brand new for $213 + $66 for the 500BAM.

I honestly really like the stock cable on the 620S and the 5 Series headphones. It's not a fancy braided cable, but it's smooth and the kinks loosen up fairly quickly. My only issue with the 620S' build is the glued-on headband cushion. Surely they could have come up with some other solution, like the velcro on the 490 Pro.

Sennheiser 500eries goes on sale or refurb often cheap. They lasted me about 15 years, hella comfy as they use a velvet cup instead of fake leather shite

Powered headphones will not last forever. If you want forever, you need passive repairable headphones with easy parts availability. That means Senn HD5 or 6 series. They aren’t my favorites, but if I could only have one set of cans and had to keep them forever. I’d get some HD600s.