The best gear of the year, as picked by the editors of Home Entertainment.

The Sennheiser HD 800 is a stunningly beautiful, altogether modern headphone.

The precision quality of the metalwork and the Alcantara, suede-like, material-covered ear cushions leave no doubt: This is a very special design.

The 330-gram headphone perfectly distributed its weight on my head and ear pad pressure felt just right. The HD 800 is supremely comfortable.

What are you plugging your super headphones into? Please don't say a receiver. I'd strongly suggest a dedicated headphone amplifier.

HeadRoom isn't just a full-service online headphone store; it's also a manufacturer offering a range of headphone amplifiers. They have everything from compact portable models to state-of-the-art home units designed to produce the very best headphone sound, like this Ultra Desktop Amp.

The Denon AH-D7000 looks and feels like the Rolls Royce of headphones, withexquisite build quality and old-world craftsmanship.

The earcups’ gloss-lacquered, real mahogany wood looks magnificent, but it isn’t just for show. The wood is the same type used to craft fine guitars—and its internal carving enhances the headphone's tonal balance.

First impressions of the ATH-W5000 were definitely good, but it took a while before I really heard what makes these headphones special. The longer I listened the more I liked the sound. That bodes well for the ATH-W5000's long-term satisfaction.

The ATH-W5000 is, in the company of other uber headphones, a rather unassuming design. It doesn't ooze luxury.

But if you look closer...

Head Games

Headphones sound fundamentally different than speakers. The sound is, after all, all in your head; with speakers, it's in the room. And that's the problem.

Room acoustics, your position relative to the speakers and the room itself dramatically affect the sound you hear. Room reverberation, reflections and standing waves—not to mention ambient noise—all conspire to blur detail and obscure quiet sounds. With headphones there's nothing between you and the sound.

All ears!

Lucky me, I recently reviewed three of the world's very best headphones, the Audio Technica ATH-W5000, Denon AH-D7000 and Sennheiser HD 800 for Home Entertainment, due in the September issue.

But the advancement of high-end headphones doesn't stand still and now I've heard something even better: The WooAudio WES headphone amplifier and Stax SR-007 Mk2 headphone.

A mini survey of ear-bogglingly good headphones and headphone amplifiers

I'd like to let you in on a little secret: You can buy terrific headphones for next to nothing. That's not to say they all sound great, but a bigger budget definitely buys better build and sound quality.

For this roundup I've selected three contenders for the world's best headphone: the Denon AH-D5000, Grado Labs GS-1000, and the Ultrasone Edition 9, plus a pair of headphone amplifiers, Benchmark's DAC1 USB and Woo Audio's WA5-LE.

If you really want to hear every last bit of music on your favorite recordings, headphones have it all over loudspeakers. The reasons for headphones’ sonic superiority are easy to fathom. First and foremost, the vagaries of room acoustics that play havoc with speakers’ sound matter not a nit to headphones. With a headphone squirting sound directly into your ears, there is nothing between you and your music. That sort of intimacy is impossible to achieve with speakers.