Your recommendations for cost-effective and musical sounding headphones?

By audiophile standards $700 is not much. I really like Grado RS-1. Grado 225e are 'poor man's' RS-1 - very good.

Yeah, this classic Grado sound is very appealing. But I don't use Grado cartridge with my turntable, need something more neutral.

I could say that common sense standard is not to spend less than needed. The difference between Grado 225e and RS-1 is big even when just listening to youtube without external dac/amp. $500 is next to nothing these days. But for most people spending more than $100 would be madness or at least weirdness. Or even more than $50.