The AKG550s are very good for this, very sensitive and although 35ohm cans, can be driven very acceptably by mobile devices and my macbook's h/phone output. I usually use them driven from a headphone amp though* They have very flat and extended bass, cracking dynamics and a very slightly toplit presentation that I find useful for clarity in the presence region at low levels or when listening for diy source/amp development (stethoscope-like)Yes I get that, but the whole point of headphone listening for me is for when there is other stuff going on at home - or I don't want to disturb others.
As a Harbeth M30.1 owner whose owned a lot of headphones over the years, these would be my thoughts:
- What exact flavour of frequency response the headphones have compared to your speakers is not as important as a lot of people assume - within reason - it's such a different experience listening to the music in the room Vs in the head that a slightly different response is not that jarring.
- Distortion will matter to you. You can't go from the clean smooth sound of Harbeths to anything remotely grainy and not have it sound awful.
- My personal favourite low-distortion home listening headphones have been the Stax SR-303 (new model is 307) with the basic amp and 507 leather pads attached (makes a huge difference). I had them for years happily and regret selling them. If you liked Stax before, stick with Stax - they are still the best IMO.
- There are a lot of good low distortion headphones out there now though - Audeze and Hifiman are both strong contenders... but Planar Magnetics are heavy - in my opinion too heavy for comfortable, relaxed listening.
- You could go a totally different way and look at IEMs - the IEM market has never been better. My person pair right now are the Sennheiser IE800 which sound wonderful. Going from the IE800 on a commute to the M30.1s at home causing no jarring, even though the IE800 are a bit more V-shaped and the Harbeths a bit more neutral. But there are a tonne of good options... not everyone will agree that IEMs are comfortable enough for relaxed listening though.
you could try out also the Grado Statement series. I have an older GS1000 model and I'm quite happy. Sennheiser HD800 and similar do certainly use better drivers but at the end of the day... One point to check is the sound isolation. If you want to listen to music etc while someone else is doing something else / producing any noise, a closed design will give you more satisfaction. Most high-end hi-fi designs are nevertheless open or semi-open designs !