It seems that headphones are very much back in fashion and it made me stop and reflect on what I have experienced. I share this only to see how others have arrived at their choices for high end listening today.
As a teenager in the 1970’s I spent my hard earned few pounds on a pair of Koss closed back headphones in Lasky’s, very suitable for late night listening to my growing collection of C90 cassette tapes. Then came a Sony walkman (1979) with a huge step up in quality, a Walkman Pro (1987) and and over years of travelling portable CD players (1990’s), Mini Disc players (1995 ish, and very underated) and inevitably iPod’s (2001 onwards). With these portable devices the headphones were part of the package, and quality was pretty good in general.
I always used headphones for discreet listening so as not to annoy others, especially when travelling which I did a lot of, and to be frank I have been astonished at how good the latest generation of in ear headphones can be. I have used the full range of Apple and some Sony (dodgy bluetooth connectivity) and they are fine but not really high end.
About 10 years ago, after complaints from my kids about my music I purchased some Sennheiser HD800 open backed headphones plus a Naim headphone amp and hoped to enjoy more private listening. The Sennheisser headphones are fantastic, but not private! The radiate high frequency fizz to anybody else in the room and that rather defeated the purpose of having them, as by choice I would rather listen on speakers! So they are used from time to time, but rarely for extended listening.
More recently I find myself with several places to listen and have a number of systems to use. Th HD800 remain with my main system (details in my profile) and I have headphones in two other Naim set up’s one with a Uniti Atom the other with a Uniti Star. Due to the sound leakage issue I have elected for closed back headphones, with the Star Focal Elegia and with the Atom Mezze Audio 99 classics.
There is no doubt that if you spend more you get big step up in quality of sound, and both the Star and Atom can reveal this difference easily, however the law of diminshing marginal returns applies here. I tried Focal Stellia and Clear Mg before electing for the Elegia, partly because as an obsolete model they are avaialble at a very good price just now. For the Atom I auditioned a range of £200-500 models and elected for the Mezze.
So what have I concluded?
For me close back is the only option at home as with headphones I want to listen privately. Whilst I have high end headphones in the HD 800 I could have saved quite a bit of money by not buying them as they really annoy people in the same or adjacent rooms! Sound is fab though!
There are some incredibly good headphones out there and not all at prices to break the bank. I am not a huge fan of Focal products as a rule but the Elegia are very well made, comfortable and a very enjoyable listen and, whilst the Stelia and Clear Mg were better the differences were pretty fine: all three could do with a longer standard cable though! I auditioned others, too many to record and as prices rose so the differences became smaller and harder to justify.
The Mezze get used quite a bit being in an apartment. They were inexpensive (£150ish) and do not have the same quality feel as the Focal, but if I am honest they do the job very well and I have no complaints. That said I will probably buy something better.
And for travel? Apple Airpods do a great job, brilliant packaging, almost comfortable, good sound if not high end and discreet.
Let us all know about your journey.
). I auditioned the 800S…hmmmmmm….resistance was futile 
……and they’re sounding pretty d@mn fine as I type, playing Three Colours Dark on the lounge system - RPi3B+/IQAudio DAC HAT/Moode Audio streamer into NAHA2/NAPSC2.