Phil's Superpower of Enthusiasm

Headphones, goldens, whiskey, and wine.

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Lawyer, unabashed nerd and geek. Purveyor and pusher of excellent sci-fi/fantasy, good food, and repartee. He/him. Dog dad/servant to @Goldendenali.

I’m experimenting with Amazon Affiliate status in an attempt to defray some of the costs of headphone reviews; Amazon links may be affiliate links (depending on whether or not I’ve figured out how to use them correctly). Please feel free to buy elsewhere; this is just one way to recoup the costs of this hobby.

  • Sennheiser HD 480 Pro

    [ORIGINAL MSRP $399. Currently available at MSRP new from Amazon in July 2026. Purchased new from Amazon in April 2026.]

    [Tl;dr: The Sennheiser HD 480 Pro is, hands down, one of the best new products I’ve tried in the last few years. It’s Sennheiser Pro’s newest offering, a closed-back (i.e. noise-isolating) version of 2025’s truly excellent HD 490 Pro. Despite not generally being a fan of most closed backs, I find it very hard to come up with anything about this product that I would change if given the ability to do so. If you’re in the market for a closed back headphone and can stomach the semi-premium price, there’s nothing on the market that competes particularly well against it.

    What an exciting time we live in, with multiple good, reasonably tuned new closed backs in a single year!]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 9 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 8 out of 10 Denalis

    Bass1MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit2
    Sennheiser HD 480 Pro5A3B3A3BB3
    (more…)

  • The HEDDphone D1: a Modern Giant-Killer?

    [ORIGINAL MSRP $799. Currently available intermittently from a number of online retailers for MSRP,1 or for $699 (open box) from Headphones.com. Purchased lightly used from r/AVExchange for $600 in April 2026.]

    [Tl;dr: The HEDDphone D1 are a really excellent pair of headphones, both in terms of being fun to listen to and in terms of their technical performance. They made a whole lot of best of 2025 lists, and they’re definitely worthy of all of their accolades; they’re probably my new favorite midrange performance on a headphone, particularly for human vocals.

    There are a couple of little quirks with them that may affect long-term use (in particular, the design of the cups means that on cold days my ears are occasionally brushing cold metal in a way that’s not particularly pleasant), but it’s not enough to dissaude me from wholeheartedly endorsing and recommending the D1 to people on the market for a great open-back headphone. They’re so good, in fact, that they’re going to displace a couple of my long-term mainstays for their primary use cases.

    Most people probably shouldn’t spend this much on headphones, but if you’re a person for whom it’s a reasonable choice, I commend the D1 to your attention, particularly if the Meze aesthetic and design is not for you.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 9 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 7 out of 10 Denalis

    Bass2MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit3
    HEDDphone D14B4A4C3C
    3A, mids    		C
    (more…)

  • The Meze Strada: a Strange and Wonderous Thing

    [ORIGINAL MSRP $799. Currently available from Amazon for $799. Purchased from a local retailer at a substantial discount.1]

    [Tl;dr: The Meze Strada are a very interesting headphone. Like a lot of Mezes, they were designed to stand out; to zig where most manufacturers are zagging, and I think that they hit their mark. Whether that mark is for you … well, these aren’t a headphone I’d recommend to very many people.

    Also like most Mezes, they’re incredibly well-designed and built and remarkably comfortable, and particularly if you’re willing to spend some time and energy learning how to EQ them for your own head, they can be a pretty remarkable headphone to listen to. I really enjoy them, and they’re going to be a great change of pace for me in a world of mostly either similar sounding, or bad sounding, closed back headphones. I appreciate Meze taking risks, and I think this one turned out splendidly (at least for my purposes!).]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 5 out of 10 Denalis2

    Cost-sensitive: 3 out of 10 Denalis

    Bass3MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit4
    Meze Strada4B2C3A4BB/A
    (more…)

  • The Meze 109, Redux: Still the best Headphone Under $1,000?

    [ORIGINAL MSRP $799. Currently widely available from most hifi sources, including from Amazon for MSRP in June 2026. Purchased new from Amazon in January 2025.]

    [Tl;dr: The Meze 109 Pro are my favorite headphone under $1,000, and have been since I first tried them out a year and a half ago. Warm, buttery magic. Great bass, really good midrange (including vocals), and lively but not fatiguing treble on my head. The single most comfortable headphones I own, and beautiful and well-built to boot. If you listen to headphones a lot and can afford the price tag, I recommend them to you wholeheartedly. Also easy enough to drive that they work really well with almost anything, including from a cheap dongle or any devices that still have audio jacks.

    Meze really knocked it out of the park with these, and so far they’re holding up well against even a lot of more expensive options.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 10 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 9 out of 10 Denalis1

    Bass2MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit3
    Meze 109 Pro4B4B4A4BA
    (more…)

  • Sennheiser HD 505 Review: Meh.

    [ORIGINAL MSRP $279.95. Currently available from Amazon for $189.95 in May 2026.]

    [Tl;dr: The Sennheiser HD 505 is not a bad headphone, but it’s definitely not my cup of tea. The bass is really solid (if a little muddy at times), the mids are … weird and inconsistent, and the treble is fine but not exceptional. Pretty comfortable, though, and well designed/manufactured. In 2019, I’d probably have recommended these. In 2026, there are a lot of great open backs on the market at similar (or lower) price points, and even Sennheiser itself makes a couple of headphones that are substantially better for $10-30 more.

    In the end, I’m largely indifferent to the HD 505. They’re not an awful deal at their current $190, but they’re not something I’d choose to listen to and these will be moving on rather than staying in the collection. You can do better, and deserve better.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 4 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 5 out of 10 Denalis (at $190; maybe a 3 out of 10 Denalis at MSRP)

    Bass1MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit2
    Sennheiser HD 5053C4B4C4CC
    (more…)

  • The Meze 99 Classics v2; a Worthy Evolution of the OG Classic

    [ORIGINAL MSRP $349. Currently available directly from Meze for $349 and $349 new from Amazon in May of 2026. Purchased lightly used from r/AVExchange for $175 in April 2026.]

    [Tl;dr: The Meze 99 Classics v2 is a really well-designed and well-tuned closed back. Though it’s not quite my cup of tea, I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone in the market for a comfortable closed back with moderately elevated bass but who doesn’t want the kind of muddy bass cannons that a lot of the consumer-focused headphone manufacturers (*cough* Sony *cough*) lean towards. Even for a person with my general preferences, you could spend a lot more money to do a lot worse than the 99 Classics v2 in the closed back market. They’re just a little late to the party; in the last year, we’ve gone from a world in which I only recommended one closed back under $500 without serious reservations to one where I can think of at least four I really like, with or without EQ.

    The 99 Classics v2 is one of only a handful of headphones that I recommend at their MSRP; it’s a pretty reasonable price for a pretty dang good headphone, and I’m just a little sad that Drop.com isn’t around anymore to release a dark colorway at half the price in a year or two.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 7 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 7 out of 10 Denalis

    Bass1MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit2
    Meze 99 Classics v24B3C3C3BC
    (more…)

  • Hifiman Edition XV: The New Standard in Budget Headphones?

    [ORIGINAL MSRP $399. Currently available from Hifiman (though don’t buy from them) for $379 (open box), and $399 new from Amazon in May 2026. Purchased lightly used from r/AVExchange for $300 in February 2026.]

    [Tl;dr: The Hifiman Edition XV are a great new edition to the $400 open back headphone market, joining the Meze 105 AER and Sennheiser HD 490 Pro. Not a lot of headphones under $500 cleanly beat my beloved HD 6XX, and these do. It has all of the things I liked about the old Edition XS (bass extension, soundstage, build) and none of the things I did not (primarily the treble). It’s pretty rare for me to endorse a new headphone at their MSRP, but … $399 is a really reasonable price for what you get with the Edition XV. If you’re in the market for a planar magnetic (particularly if you’re a little treble sensitive) and don’t find the price tag daunting, I recommend them wholeheartedly to you.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 9 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 9 out of 10 Denalis

    Bass1MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit2
    Hifiman Edition XV4B3C3A4BB
    (more…)

  • Sennheiser HD 550 Review: Best Alternative to HD 6XX?

    [ORIGINAL MSRP $349.95. Currently available from Amazon at MSRP, but was as low as $199.95 as recently as a few weeks ago. I paid $249.95 (in Amazon gift cards) in March 2026.]

    [Tl;dr: The Sennheiser HD 550 are a good pair of open back headphones for anyone in the market for an HD 6XX but who can’t find one at a decent price. Really good, well-tuned with balanced sound, with good comfort and build quality and avoiding a lot of the pitfalls of their little sibling the HD 560S. I wouldn’t run out and buy these at MSRP unless you are in urgent need of headphones, but if you can catch them on sale around $200-250 they’re a good value choice in a market full of good sub-$300 options.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 6 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 7 out of 10 Denalis (at MSRP)

    Bass1MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit2
    Sennheiser HD 5503B3B4C4CC
    (more…)

  • HyperX Cloud IIIS Review: One of the Best Budget Gaming Headsets?

    [ORIGINAL MSRP $179.99. Currently available on Amazon for $149.99 in May 2026. Purchased new on the TikTok shop sale for $110 + tax in February 2026.]

    [Tl;dr: The HyperX Cloud IIIS are an impressively competent headphone, period, let alone gaming headset. I’m a pretty big fan and they’ve displaced basically all of my other options for FPS PC gaming. I do wish they were compatible with Xboxes, and the inclusion of a ten-band slider-based EQ instead of parametric EQ feels like a real miss in 2025/2026, but overall I’m very pleased with the performance of this headphone. They’re not what I’m going to ever grab for music, but they’re good enough sounding out of the box to be perfectly fine for even games with good music. And if you can find them around $100, they’re a pretty remarkable value.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 6 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 8 out of 10 Denalis

    Bass1MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit2
    HyperX Cloud IIIS4B3C4C4CB+
    (more…)

  • The ZMF Aeolus: Luxury Sound at a (Dangerously Reasonable!) Luxury Price

    [ORIGINAL MSRP $1,199 for stock models when available. Purchased B-Stock/Demo from ZMF for $899.99 in ZMFtober 2025.]

    [Tl;dr: The Sapele wood ZMF Aeolus is both a beautiful piece of art and a very interesting headphone to listen to. The warm tuning isn’t for everyone, and will be polarizing to purists chasing a neutral tune (which this so is not). I didn’t like this headphone very much at first, but after a couple of hours my brain adjusted and it’s a really, really fun listen. There’s a little residual funkiness even after brain burn-in but it’s addressable via EQ, and the placement of instruments in space and the size of the soundstage is really exceptional. They’re … a very expensive pair of headphones at MSRP (and I shudder to think what they’ll run you in the upcoming ZMF custom shop), but if you can get a pair used or on b-stock like I did they’re a fun addition.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 7 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 5 out of 10 Denalis

    Bass1MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit2
    Aeolus4A3C2B4BB
    (more…)