Let's talk about headphones. Top 3?

@bipestuff   sounds like we had similar experiences with headphones for travel.  I don’t travel much now but I still have my Bose and Bathys but I only use when flying.  The Bathys are the ones I travel with now because they sound the best.  

If you get past their fact that they are unprepossessing, elephantine, power ravenous headphones with substandard accessories (headband, ear pads, and wire), the HiFiMan HE6SE V2 is one of the most balanced, neutral, true to timbre headphones at a bargain at price of usually under $500.  They compete with phones more than three times their cost.  Give them 4-6 Watts into 50 Ohms and they will sing sweetly, dynamically, and linearly from sub-bass through treble.  You were probably going to spend on a good aftermarket cable anyway, but here it’s a must.  The supplied cable is an embarrassment.  You should replace or modify the headband to provide cranial support for Dumbo.  I purchased an aftermarket zip on memory foam padded headband cover on Amazon which provides the needed weight distribution and I can listen for hours now with no hotspot developing.  Replace the ear pads with Dekoni and buy aftermarket grills that do not restrict the back wave to open up the sound.  Imaging is dense and dimensional but staging is not as wide as some of the other top phones today.  If you have the patience to modify as I stated, and can deal with the Dumbo esthetics, weight, and  ravenous power diet, you will revel in still one of the most balanced and neutral phones.  My favorite attributes are the excellent bass, sub-bass,  detailed but sweet midrange and highs, timbre, and natural dynamics.  

I use headphones for travel so I have tried most of the wireless noise canceling cans.  My favorite overall are Focal Bathys.  Using the internal DAC it sounds the best.  My Bose Quiet Comfort have the best noise canceling but don’t sound as good.  Two pair are enough for me since I don’t fly that often now.  

One of the issues with headphones I found (see my first post) was that you don't know you don't have enough power (current) until you do. Then you realize their potential. I have owned at least a dozen head amps... and I spent a lot of time looking for high powered amps since I had a couple pair that needed high power. Then I finally got a tremendously powerful, natural sounding tube amp (Woo WA5) and experienced a huge jump in performance of all my top level (and not top level) headphones... finally realizing their capability.  

I have had great success with the RAAL Requisite SR1A headphones.  It is the only headphone which I can use for many hours at a time because it does not touch my ears.  Normal headphones cause my ears to get hot after an hour or so.  This does not happen with the SR1A.

It also images better than many headphones since you are basically listening to "ear field speakers" with a single ribbon driver hanging beside each ear.  The experience is similar to being on the stage among the performers as the performance is in front and to the sides of your head.  I have never felt like the music originated in my head as many headphones present.

The sound is so pure, detailed, and enveloping that I prefer it to any speakers which I have owned and heard costing up to $30k.  It is so good that I am seriously considering selling my speakers which retail for $19k and only using the SR1A's.  I drive them with my speaker amp which with the impedance matching box sounds better to me sounds better than the $7k tube headphone amp which I recently sold.

I also use REL Carbon Special subs which blend very well with these phones since they are essentially near field speakers.  I have been using the SR1A's for over 3 years and am still astounded at how wonderful the RAAL Requisite SR1A's sound every time that I listen.

There is a used pair for sale under $2k.