HifiMan HE-6 headphones

This $1,200 headphone produces a shockingly vivid sound -- other headphones sound downright cloudy by comparison. Yes, the HE-6s are expensive and are extremely fussy about headphone amplifiers, but you can't get your Ferrari tuned at the corner gas station. I've heard most of the world's very best headphones -- Sennheiser's HD 800s and their legendary Orpheus, the Audeze LCD 2s ($995) and LCD-3s ($1,945), the Stax SR-007s ($2,600), SR-009s ($5,200) -- and Hifiman's flagship HE-6 headphones are up there with the very best. They're also significantly less expensive than most of those other contenders.