FYI the T50RP with ZMF pads (or any thick pads) sounds awful, unlike with the stock super thin pads. The headphone needs EXTENSIVE modification to sound good with thick pads.
I don't know if I'd agree with Audeze being the best (I think you could debate it vs Mr Speakers for days), but I do agree that the Massdrop audiophile community seems to circle around a few brands which IMO has a lot less to do with their technical merit and more about their affordability.
You're right, and Vneal is obviously one of them since he called Fostex (a respected brand since the 1970s and one not only limited to headphones) an off brand when in reality Audeze is the off brand (extremely niche and only dates back to 2008).
And I bet Vneal has barely owned any products from either brand. Meanwhile I've owned their best headphone, the LCD-4, and it loses handily to the ZMF Ori which is a modded Fostex T50RP MKIII. Despite the enormous price difference between the two. I love Audeze's customer support but man do their headphones sound bad purely due to horrendous treble performance.
Oh god. If we could get a modernization of the he-400 like was done with the HE-350 recently, I would be ALL over it.
The HE-400i sounds nothing like the amazing sound signature of the HE-400. The HE-400 is an absolute joy to listen to, but is UNCOMFORTABLE and ugly. If we could have the HE-400 "driver" in the modern body of the 400i, I would be in for 2.
hifiman will sell you the headband array for the he-400i separately. Do some self-modding and viola! ;-) too bad I won't put cans that weigh over 320 grams on my head anymore.
I'd way rather see the mk3's as well, they fixed a lot of the problems that people had to mod with the mk2's.. its why mr.speakers no longer even makes mad dogs bcuz the mk3's are good enough he doesn't have to! Please people vote the mk3's if you aren't interested in custom modding them =)