Headphone no cost limit.

STAX SR-009 with the right driver amp (usually tube or FET/Tube hybrid).

I use an old Stax SRM T1S driver amp, with NOS RCA clear top tubes.

STAX R&D uses a similar driver amp Today.

The driver amp makes a big difference, and only a few are real good.

Acceptable new driver amps are $2150 (STAX SRM 007TII) and up, to over $5000. Look at the Head-Fi website for more info.

SR-009’s are $4500 in the USA, and about $3500 direct from Japan.

Here’s a link to a site that covers headphones.

http://www.innerfidelity.com/frontpage

Click on the "Wall of Fame" link to see what the editor thinks of various headphones.

Best headphone?
Open or closed?
Dynamic, magnetic planar, or electrostatic?
Interface single-ended or balanced?
Power requirements, player type?

There’s a lot of variables to picking a headphone. It is also a growing hifi sector that has been bringing a lot of new technology to market.

Good luck in your search.

Best of them all , current in production.

Head-FI is the largest and best headphone site.
Biggest forum. Thousands of posts. Many reviews. World views from many experts.

Forget innerfidelity. It is one person’s opinion. He tries to measure and fails.

Like any ’BEST" post, YMMV, and IMO.

Read and think.

There are many choices at different price levels. I gave mine.

Best of them all, current in production, no cost limit.
Then put these on your list.

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/sennheiser-orpheus/

tis49

The author is a marketer for Sennheiser.  Speaker Boxx and radiohead music ?????

Read the followup comments on the Wired article.

The new Sennheiser-Orpheus is nonsense, and a ripoff IMO! I do not see the $55,000 cost in them!

It is not even true analog! What’s a D/A converter doing in the system?

There is a lot of negative comments on Head-FI forums about these.

Don, all I said was add it to his list. With anything this expensive, some will love it and some think it is absurd, so you and anyone else are certainly entitled to your opinion. Just as this reviewer thinks it is the best he has ever heard.

http://www.headfonia.com/review-the-week-my-life-changed-sennheiser-orpheus/

"It is not even true analog! What’s a D/A converter doing in the system?"

Looks like the D/A converter allows inputs for digital signals to its amplifier eliminating the need for an external D/A when using a digital source. What's the problem?

I hate these "what’s best" posts. Nobody has heard everything. It comes down to personal taste, and there really is no "best"!

Ok to be fair here are more opinions. FYI, you and I will never hear them! They are an unobtainable, very limited run IMO! They are for show only.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/786512/sennheiser-orpheus-successor-the-sennheiser-he1060-hev1060-first-loo...

What does Sennheiser know about D/A design that others don’t?

There are much better external D/A converters to be had, IMO. It should have been left out.

I'm not a headphone aficionado however I was taken by , couldn't hardly believe it , a Chinese manufacturered preamp headphone combo by Ag Audio the HE -9 model ,.I think if I remember this is one of their flagship models . I made note of the model and later found on their site an impressive mission statement ,..It ain't Chinese junk ,.....Anyway this was paired with Audeze headphones ,their top model ? Source were Esoteric player, model ? and a Accuphase T1000 tuner ,.Very , Very impressive..

thank you all