Purchase advice for headphone noobs

Q: How do I go about buying my first decent pair of headphones?

A: you can enjoy music at any price. Just follow Veni's 3 Laws of price-performance personal audio-lation!

Veni's First Law: set a budget and stick to it. This rule is the Prime Directive.

Veni's Second Law: if you are on a budget, remember the rule headphones > amp > dac >> cable. This will give you a sense of the relative importance of components. If your budget is $100, you will get more bang for your buck spending the $100 on a pair of headphones that you can drive off your phone or computer than spending $30 on headphones and $70 on an amp.

Also, if all your music is poor quality (eg 64k mp3, or ripped off youtube) then it doesn't matter how good your headphones are, it will still sound terrible. So upgrade your music files as much as you can when you get good headphones.

Veni's Third Law: Do your research. There are price-performance champs at almost every price point. Know what they are, avoid hype, and be an informed consumer.

Veni's Bonus Law (Buy Three, Get One free! Law): Look for sales / deals. Audiophile products are usually marked up to an insane degree. If you are patient, there will always be a deal on the stuff you want sooner or later.