Upgrade from Q701s

[Pickles von Brine]

I have been using a pair of Q701s for many years now (11-13 years now). They are getting long in the tooth - 2 sets of ear pads, a new band and I rewired them after the wires started breaking. I am looking for some new headphones. I LOVE the sound staging these guys provide and personally prefer open back vs closed back headphones. However, I am openminded toward that.

I use a Schiit Hel 2 for my DAC/Amp.

My budget is around $500-$600 USD.

Headphones I have considered - DT 1990 Pro, HD 660S2 or something around there.

[Cocococo]

With this kind of budget I'd completely disregard Beyerdynamic and sennheiser (unless you can find a pair of HD800S for $600) imo 660S2 just aren't worth the money Sennheiser wants for them, Beyer makes junk (seriously the more money you spend on Beyerdynamic the worse the headphones get)

 

The big one I'd look for is Focal Clear OG preferably, they're easily some of the best sounding headphones I've ever used. Hifiman Edition XS and possibly Ananda (if you can get a pair in budget) are very heavy hitters around 500usd but they do have competition. Focal Elear are great but just less great than OG Clear, Moondrop Venus are regarded as the best in this price but have been known to have reliability problems and are very heavy, I suppose Audeze LCD2's are decent for 600usd but honestly they don't hang out in todays market. The Aune AR5000 looks

VERY promising but are more of a 300-400usd player.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide on, Headphones at this budget are when you get into the crazy good stuff, OG Focal Clear are my favourite headphones ever made and I've gotten to play with some crazy equipment.

[Psittac]

I love my dt1990pro, they're almost as good as my Focal Elex

[Pickles von Brine]

1 hour ago, Cocococo said:

With this kind of budget I'd completely disregard Beyerdynamic and sennheiser (unless you can find a pair of HD800S for $600) imo 660S2 just aren't worth the money Sennheiser wants for them, Beyer makes junk (seriously the more money you spend on Beyerdynamic the worse the headphones get)

 

The big one I'd look for is Focal Clear OG preferably, they're easily some of the best sounding headphones I've ever used. Hifiman Edition XS and possibly Ananda (if you can get a pair in budget) are very heavy hitters around 500usd but they do have competition. Focal Elear are great but just less great than OG Clear, Moondrop Venus are regarded as the best in this price but have been known to have reliability problems and are very heavy, I suppose Audeze LCD2's are decent for 600usd but honestly they don't hang out in todays market. The Aune AR5000 looks

VERY promising but are more of a 300-400usd player.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide on, Headphones at this budget are when you get into the crazy good stuff, OG Focal Clear are my favourite headphones ever made and I've gotten to play with some crazy equipment.

The OG focals are way outside my budget. Same for several of the others you have mentioned. 500 dollars may be 6 if I am pushing it is all I am willing to go after. The others I am going to check out. Issue is planar magnetic headphones I find fatiguing after a while. I tried a few pairs at Audio46 in NYC for about 30 minutes. They started giving me an ear ache. 

[Pickles von Brine]

*delete*

[Pickles von Brine]

I ended up with a pair of XS'. I am really pleased with them.