How much "better" is a $1000 headphone than a $300 one?

[Saracen]

Before anyone leaps in the with obvious answer to the title question, let me clarify.

Having watched the latest Noise Floor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzwI4e31PTk) about whether more expensive = worse, let alone ‘not necessarily better’, I’m aware of long-standing opinions on price v quality, and that it is not always (and indeed often not) an assumption that greater price implies greater quality.

A higher price MIGHT imply more expensive components being used, but that doesn’t automatically mean better sound. Better materials ought to mean better comfort, and/or durability over the longer term, but does it?

All that is NOT what I’m getting at here.

Let me put it this way. Suppose YOU, dear reader, had $1000 to spend, or you had $300 to spend. For whatever product you, personally, would pick at each price point, how much, if any, better would you expect it to be.

I’m trying to eliminate the fact that, for anyone reading this, what sounds best to your ears is very possibly not what sounds best to mine. Anyone regularly watching reviews (and live streams) on this site, can’t miss the fact that different reviews (say, Resolve and Listener) often do not agree on how good, or bad, a given headphone is. Our actual perceptions are affected by many factors.

But for an individual to spend $1000 on a headphone rather than $300 clearly suggests they’re getting something they value that is worth the difference, or nobody would … unless they just want bragging rights to an expensive ‘whatever’, and I am not interested in that.

So, I’m suggesting if someone said to you, you can have any pair of $300 headphones, OR any pair of $1000 headphones, bought for you, how much difference, if any, would you expect between those pairs of YOUR top pick, at each price point?

Note : by $300, I mean “up to”, and including nominally above, so if you choice happened to be $320, pick that. Similarly for $1000.

Second, I don’t really care what price points you pick, so if you want o choose between $750 and $4000, go for it. Similarly if it’s $100 and $300. But whatever price points you pick, they MUST be price points you would personally consider, even if the money used was your own.

So you COULD afford, and justify to yourself, either price PROVIDED the difference is big enough. For some people, $1000 on a headphone is stupidly expensive, but for others, $5000 is doable. A lot depends on personal finances and again, that’s not what I’m asking.

What I’m getting at is, for your personal tastes and preferences, how much (if any) difference is there between two significantly different but viable price points, and is it sound quality, or ‘other’ things you’re basing it on. I’m assuming, though, that your choice at both price points requires adequate comfort, durability, etc, or you wouldn’t have picked that pair at all.

My apologies for the length of this, but I’m trying to make it clear what I’m on about, as well as what I’m not talking about.

If you got this far … well done. And thanks.

[Luke]

@Saracen

would you expect it to be

@Saracen

for your personal tastes and preferences, how much (if any) difference is there between two significantly different but viable price points

Not sure if you’re asking theoretically what I’d expect, or from experience if there’s a noticeable difference between headphones at different price points.

If i were to spend 10x as much I’d expect a huge quality jump. From experience however, I spent anywhere from $80-1500 and I think $300-500 is a sweet spot for quality vs price.

I really enjoyed the expensive electrostatics at the $4000 range, for me that’s the only true upgrade and jump in quality, none of the headphones between $500-3000 are categorically better than the $300-500 range imo

Add in personalized EQ to the mix and my daily drivers are $80, $100, and $170.

[Nuance]

You can get the HD 6XX or 600 for $300ish, and at that point the point of diminishing returns is in full swing. Based on my experience, I’ve not heard anything better in every way than either of those headphones in the $1000 tier, so I’d say I’d only get another 15-20% increase in sound quality max by moving price tiers; probably lower to be honest. It’s fully subjective, so YMMV.

BTW, this is assuming PEQ is not an option.

[generic]

I executed a comparison very much like you seek several years ago. In my Focal Utopia review, I included a table describing the characteristics of the Sennheiser HD 600 (around $300 to $400), Focal Elex (then $700, now <$500), Focal Clear (then $1,500 now around $800), and the Focal Utopia ($4K+). I included the closed Dan Clark AEON Flow because I had it.

You do get more technical performance at each price tier, but @Nuance is correct. After $300 it’s mostly playing in the margins. Still, if forced to choose I’d go with the Clear over the HD 600 any day of the week. The HD 600 is too vulnerable to scratchy treble artifacts on many amps, while the Clear is cleaner and more forgiving.

I’ve demoed the Utopia a dozen times and very much want to tolerate its treble, but I cannot. I’ve demoed the $6K Susvara, but find it as bland and boring as white bread with a topping of mashed potatoes. No salt. To this point I’ve stayed with my HD 800 S, as a technical step above the Clear and below the Utopia – both in price and performance.