If you’re looking for a good balance of quality vs price, look no farther than the Audio Technica ATH-M40x.

I use these nearly every day in my capacity as a audio engineer. I’ve got two sets: one for home, and one to carry with me to work. Easily found for $99, they sound great and can be run on almost anything. Most of the time I listen through an Apollo Twin from Universal Audio, which is a high-end portable recording interface costing around $900, but they sound great even through a Macbook Pro’s headphone output.

If you feel like stepping up in a price a little, the ATH-M50x is a superb choice as well.

For an external interface to listen through, consider something like the Audient iD4 or a Focusrite Scarlett Solo. While these aren’t quite up to the level of the Apollo (which also contains built-in DSP chips for running audio effects only a professional or serious audio mixing hobbyist would need), they are much more affordable: $199 and $99 respectively. Either will get you great sound quality for headphones, as well as the ability to record if you need it and to connect to external powered speakers.

So the cheapest route here is the M40’s and the Focusrite. That will set you back about $200 altogether for both headphones and interface. Audient with the M50’s would go up to a maximum of $350, or feel free to mix and match to get a total price somewhere in between. Either way, you’re looking at some serious sound quality here.

I highly recommend buying on Sweetwater for anything audio related. The customer service is superb (be ready for them to call you to confirm the order, and then again later to ask if you are satisfied with what you got!) and you get free shipping along with it.