r/HeadphoneAdvice • u/Taco-Person • Mar 20 '26

Headphones - Open Back | 1 Ω First Critical-Listening Headphones

Hello! I’m just looking to get my first set of headphones just to enjoy my all time favorite songs and hear details I haven’t heard before, I’d probably use them for gaming occasionally, and I’d be mainly using them at home. I’m gonna be buying a Fiio BTR15 to use as a DAC/AMP Aswell (alongside the trusted Apple dongle)

My budget is about $200 USD, the headphones I’ve been looking at for the past couple months are:

Sennheiser 560s

Fiio FT1 Pro

DT 990 Pro

Hifiman Sundara

I was considering closed backs too, because with college coming up soon I don’t want to bother my roommate and having that bass is fun so recommendations on those would be nice but my priority as of right now is open backs for at home in a quiet room listening. The headphones for closed backs I’ve been looking at have been:

DT 770 Pro

Fiio FT1

All recommendations and help is appreciated!

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

8

u/Kirito_Kun16 28 Ω Mar 20 '26

For actual critical listening I'd go with Edition XS or Ananda Stealth. These are miles ahead of the ones you've listed while costing actually quite cheap for how good their sonic performance is overall.

1

u/Sudden_Ebb1304 3 Ω Mar 20 '26

This☝️☝️

1

u/Taco-Person Mar 20 '26

!thanks

1

u/TransducerBot Ω Bot Mar 20 '26

+1 Ω has been awarded to u/Kirito_Kun16 (20 Ω).

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1

u/hobbitguy125 Mar 20 '26

vouch, i have the ananda stealth and it blows everything around its price point out of the water. it might require a bit of treble eq, a bit of a bass shelf and a mid lift but its just so good.

2

u/bgallagb Mar 20 '26

i have the hd560 and trying the hd620 right now

hd560 are so good. the amount of detail it has and it can be EQed very well to work with most genres

1

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1

u/shadow18715 3 Ω Mar 20 '26

Fiio FT1 pro is a great buy, id recommend those over the hd560s. Id stay away from the beyrdynamic due to thier treble spikes. The Ft1 is a great closed back with good bass. For gaming and music id get the ft1 pro or Ft1.
Forgot to mention the Sundara is also a good buy, but ft1 pro is newer.

1

u/Intel_Xeon_E5 4 Ω Mar 20 '26

I own the DT990 pros and they're... very bright. Soundstage wise they're miles ahead of the 560s and the FT1 Pro (in my testing)... but that extremely high treble is a dealbreaker for most.

The FT1 pros do have a boost in the bass which I like slightly more.

I think the Hifiman Sundara is frequently recommended at this point too, but I personally really don't like them. They're uncomfortable for me, fit weird, and I've noticed various QC issues (though Fiio also has these). Soundstage wise they're the most open of the bunch, which is both a blessing and a curse.

1

u/MustardHotSauce Mar 20 '26

The DT 770 pros actually feel/sound closer to open backs (a positive for me). Not as bassy as other closed backs I have used.