One of the things I wish more “seasoned” headfi fans would embrace in helping out newcomers to the hobby is that there is no best. Different fit, sound profile and style considerations are only part of what makes a best for you headset. Your personal taste and hearing ability play huge roles as well. It’s like saying what is the best wine? There isn’t a single answer, just a vast array of opinions, biases and preferences.

So I’ll follow that by listing a few I think everyone should get to try out before picking one of them as their ‘best’.

I like the style and feel of the Meze 99s. They are inexpensive for what they are and for quite a few of my friends they are as high-end as they will ever want. So you should bring them into the mix to set your own bar on whether or not doubling or tripling the cost is worth it to you.

Tried the Focal Eligia. Because they are currently more then half off. So you can feel like you are getting a $1000 headphone for $400. Personally I’m not sure they sound 2x better than the $200 Meze 99s. But your experience will be different and you may find them massively better to your ears.

The Focal Radiance, currently closing out around $900, so they reasonably represent the next price tier. I personally find these much more pleasurable then the Elegia. Even though the original prices were similar and they are both made by Focal. I think this proves personal taste plays a huge role. Or that the Elegias were never good value for money. Your call.

Finally of the closed backs I also own the original Audeze XC. While I love the sound of these, the weight and clamping becomes headache inducing after 90 minutes or so. So while they may have the best sound to my ears, other factors make them very much not “the best headphone” for me. Were they lighter or designed differently they would be my favorite/best. But again they represent another big $500 or more price increase over the Radiance. Note I demoed the Stellia and Radiance at the same time. The price step function wasn’t worth it to me. Though someday I’d love to try the Stellia beryllium drivers in the Radiance frame.

So far the Radiance hit the sweet spot more then any other closed backs I own. Soon I’ll pass along my 99 classics and Elegia so I can spend more time trying out these other three.

All of these three are likely great. One may possibly trump my Radiance, in which case I’ll move on because I found a new personal best:

• DCA Ether C (maybe over the more popular Noire)
• The old school Denon D9200
• a set of the always popular Sony Z1R.

Finally, I encourage newcomers to really explore the world of full size wireless headphones. The new Bathys or B&W could short circuit your search for DACs and Amps and make you super happy. After all, best could just as easily be “simplest” to many people.