You can't just say that and not provide the album's name

Too late for me :(

It's easy to get caught up in. I find value in some different tech or approaches, like trying planar magnetic or open vs closed. But most of that can be found at reasonable prices.

If people want accurate sound reproduction, a decent set of monitor style headphones are their best bet. My favorite headphones are my audio technica studio monitors. They weren't expensive but they give great sound reproduction which is what I'm interested in.

All the super expensive stuff is a combination of specific tuning, fancy materials and tech, or an appealing design coupled with heavy marketing and fomo exploitation.

So for anyone looking for general advice from someone that was almost sucked into audiophile land...

Quality matters for sure, but not up to the level some audiophiles say. Biggest feature that someone getting into better audio would observe is open vs closed back. It changes the soundstage noticeably. After that, decide if you prefer flat tuning (accurate to original recording) or something different. I actually really enjoy bass boosted for certain EDM but I don't like that for much else so I don't own any bass boosted headphones anymore.

Fitment is a whole other topic. I'm just talking about over ear headphones here.

Good news is, since you aren't breaking the bank, you can get a new pair if you don't like what you get and decide something else suites you better.

Edit: good source quality matters too.

It's sort of off beat too, I feel ya.

Beyerdynamic or Audio Technica are my companies of choice and of course they sell super high end expensive stuff but also their $100-$200 bracket is still amazingly good (like the DT-990 Pro).
I'd rather invest that money once than buy new headphones every year.

You don't need $500. You can get good audio for half of that. Probably less. Definitely less if you ship second hand

Hifiman Edition XS have had some pretty crazy price cuts, but quality control is weak. For IEMs, the CrinEar Daybreak and Truthear Pure are insanely good. If you like Harman, the Truthear Blue 2 are also great, though the treble can be sibilant for some.

Used them for years, now they have a crackle if volumes too loud. Will probably get another pair once it's too hot to wear full over ear outside. They really are perfect for me.

Can confirm. Some sets are so clear and "correct" they make recordings like that sound worse.

Honestly for headphones this is the case. There's absolute crap low to mid segment. But there is really really good stuff mid segment. The main quality factor for headphones to me is how comfortable they feel for you, physically, on your ears. Supergood sound but bad feel = very unpleasant.

I can only imagine that you're assuming that to be the case, or your hearing is damaged worse that mine - because I can't imagine anyone that has heard decent audio reproduction saying that. And I'm not being some audiophile snob - you can get decent reproduction from a $10 DAC and $20 IEMs if you do a bit of research before buying.

You can pry my tube amp from my cold, dead hands.