Looking For Best Headphones

Best place to learn about headphones is head-fi.com

I think the main thing to figure out is what headphones do not give you fatigue. Then how much to spend to on those non-fatiguing headphones. I hated my prior Senn 600 headphones because of fatigue with my Benchmark DAC3 HGC preamp/DAC.

I now have 2 headphone amps, a $3000 one and a $500 one. For headphone ONLY use the Topping A90 at $500 is highly recommended by me and is very close to the $3K Benchmark HPA4.. It is a neutral sounding amp. It goes great with my $3K Meze Empy, a warmish sounding headphone. I have not heard the $300 Meze 99 Classic but from what I have read on Head-Fi it supposed to be similar in sound to the Empy.

Your choice of amp will also figure in on the fatigue factor. I had a $2K headphone amp that gave me fatigue and it was replaced by the amazing Topping A90 for 1/4 the cost.

I am looking at the RAAL SR1a as a second headphone. It is supposed to be unlike any other headphone in that they are closer to sounding like speakers. This headphone cannot be driven by regular headphone amps. There are 2 specific headphone amps that can drive them, 1 by Schitt and the other by RAAL.

RAAL also provides a INTERFACE TO AMPLIFIER box that can be used  to hook up a 2 channel amp to use as the headphone amp. I got interested in this headphone because of this 2 channel amp support and also the fact that the SR1a was designed using the Benchmark AHB2. I own 2 of these amps and it could be an ideal match. The USA distributer (or owner) is local to me so I will try for a demo after COVID. Low priority though.

My dealer told me that the Hifiman Susvara and Meze Empy are the 2 he owns and have some similarities. I own the Meze and love it with the WyWire Platinum XLR (much better than stock). 

The RAAL SR1a are the best headphones and one of the best speakers I have heard. In fact, after the RAAL SR1a I no longer enjoy my Meze Empy so put them up for sale yesterday. I used to love the Empy.

The RAAL is not cheap but I feel it is as good as a GREAT 2 channel system.