BudgetAudiophile

While this is all very true I would say that it's not all complete nonsense. A decent pair of speakers will still be an upgrade from your televisions built in audio. And some decent headphones will still sound nicer than something at the dollar store.

But you really don't need to spend a lot before you run straight into diminishing returns. A lot of it is also just plain subjective - some people like to hear more bass, some want more clarity. I never went full audiophile but I've tried enough to know that I personally can't tell the difference between a $100 and $200 pair of headphones, so I'm just gonna get the cheaper ones.

edit: Also avoid that cup attachment design in the bottom picture, whoever decided it was a good idea to attach the cups to the headband by a tiny thin plastic nib that's going to break in a strong breeze can suck eggs. Beyerdynamic do it a lot and I hate them for it.

Soundstage is a very real, easily verified things that can be heard in a headphone. A regular cone driver versus planar magnetics will show how wildly different soundstage can be. It's hard to be specific because I'm not an audiophile and don't claim to be one but I did get a pair of planar magnetic headphones from a sale long ago and it changed my entire appreciation for listening.

Music that's played in a studio sounds way different from music played on a laptop. You can hear where in the room the instruments are in relation to one another. A laptop puts all the sounds on the same level, there is no depth to the tones and it sounds flat, as it everyone is sitting on the edge of the stage and playing at the same distance from the same spot. It's artificial and makes some genres hard to listen to because there is so much variation between artists and songs. Studio songs feel more expensive and big.

Headphones that cost more than 300 are not adding anything appreciable but the jump from 50 to 150 is enormous.

My standard is to test with very specific songs that have hard to hear nuances in them. If I can't hear those, the gear sucks. If I can, I'm happy. Don't care about anything else sound wise, and I have been able to ball on a budget while still maintaining that standard.

As you said, it's my ears that are the bottleneck, so I go with what works in that regard. There are shitty headphones that can't let me hear what I'm capable of hearing though.

I recently upgraded from sony xm2 headphones to Sennheiser Momentum 4s (and on the way tested Momentum 4 and Bose QC45 side by side). There was tangible difference between the three, and Sennheiser was clearly way better than the two. Having said that, I have bad tinnitus, so any audiophile headphones are wasted one me. But even with the tinnitus, the Momentum 4 is a pleasure to listen to in short bursts

I bought this refurbished for $89, and it's awesome! Most comfortable headphones I've used.

is there a dac you recommend in the similar sweet spot of 'you could spend a lot more but you probably won't hear it' ?