HD 660S

If you have studio monitors? Tbh…. I prefer my ATH-m50x over my 660s & dt770. Dt770 also had the misfortune of worsening tinnitus from the harsh high end.

hd660s. I love both its strength as well as its weaknesses, making it my favourite pair of gears

shp9500, makes me value good mids over boosted bass. Now I'm happy with both my hd660s and hd620s. I also got a few pair of iems which are great, but never actually use anymore. Still wondering if I should sell them lol

full sized. I pick my hd660s and even my hd620s over my ier m9 anytime

mine is the hd660s1. Never feel like upgrading. Honestly loves them more compared to my ier m9

hd550 is a fairly affordable and safe pick imo. If you don't mind eq the 560s is another good set. If you love vocals get something from the hd6-line. HD660S2 can be found anywhere near $400 these days

I see you've already said the Arya Organics are out of your budget, but I thought I'd chime in with my two cents anyways. A little bit of context, I also mostly listen to metal and rock of varying sorts. Ranging from Muse or Twenty-one pilots to Avenged Sevenfold to Paleface Swiss, but I'll sometimes venture into some pop, alt rock and rap too, as well as some soundtracks, mostly Hans Zimmer and some video game OSTs. I recently decided to be financially irresponsible and buy the Arya Organics as my first step into the world of planars. I had previously been using HD660S, DT 770 PRO X and my daily driver DT 1990 pro. And all I can say is wow. Just wow, they truly do sound incredible. I know some people can be quite sensitive to the Beyer's treble but that never really bothered me at all, and apparently some find the Organics too bright but that also doesn't bother me at all. In fact I think I quite prefer that. The bass on them is also very impressive for being an open back. The speed and clarity while still sounding exciting and fun is great. Although I love my 660S, they always felt quite flat and dull, and never had that slam and thump in the low end, but that's not the case for the Organics. It's the same reason the DT1990 became my daily driver since that was a more well rounded headphone imo. I haven't put any EQ on and don't really feel the need to. They truly are an endgame headphone and has quickly become my new daily driver cans. So although the Organics might be outside your budget (and rightly so lol) I'd still have a close look at the Arya lineup as they all seem like solid choices and should be somewhat similar, just pick one that falls within budget.

My favorite are the AKG K371 they sound heavenly and feel like a dream. I use them exclusively because I practice for many hours and they are the only headphones that do not hurt to have on all day. I have had to replace the cups already on mine and they did loose accuracy with the aftermarket replacements but still feel heavenly on your ears. They are not for mixing as they have that JBL curve to them but man they make everything sound sweet. And the comfort is hands down the very best. I am using open back headphones for headphone mixes the Sennheiser HD660S they don't feel as nice as the AKG and start to hurt my head after a few hours. A set of headphones that feel nice are way better IMO than a set that are super accurate, but squeeze your head and hurt. Mixing by headphones is not something you should do anyway. Use monitors for that. I recommend closed back headphones for vocal recording as open back will bleed into a condenser. Doesn't matter what you use for direct to the board (DI) recording. You just need to hear what you are doing.

Primarily build quality and qc. They also just pump out new versions of their headphones every few months and devalue the one you bought. Take the Arya / Stealth for example: the adjustment mechanism permanetly scratches the headband when you use it. Now maybe you use it once and you don't care, but that is such a poor design. They are also generally poorly tuned. They have a following because they give off the vibe of good value to sound quality but honestly they don't have better sound quality than a standard HD600 / 660s or any audiophile headphone at the "budget" level. Back to the tuning aspect, they have elevated treble that give off the perception of additional detail but it's simply just distortion / peaky behavior. That doesn't mean it's wrong to like it, but it can be fatiguing. The Hifiman brand has a dedicated following so you'll see downvotes because people get sensitive about their purchases. That's OK. No headphone is perfect so people can even be critical of my suggestion and I wouldn't downvote them. But objectively the XO is superior to every headphone Hifiman makes up to their 8k headphone. It has a modern design, isn't super demanding from an amp. Build quality is also leagues better than anything Hifiman makes. Look on the open box / used market and you can probably get a decent deal.

Awesome! This just might be my Dreams setup! I have the momentum 4 right now but i would love to upgrade to the HDB630 didt you have a momentum 4 before this? And at home i am rocking the sennheiser hd660s but i was looking into the D1!

try to find refurbished sennheiser hd660s, i got mine refurb for $300 from the sennheiser outlet, and they are amazing, great for mixing, great for games