I&#x27;m not an audiophile (as I understand the perjorative, anyway) but I have spent a long time (20+ years) wearing headphones professionally. Yes, often at a desk, but also in the field or in a theater monitoring recording or playback.<p>What I look for is simple: comfort, durability, isolation (in both directions), neutrality. In that order.<p>Comfort - I swear by circumaural designs. Some people apparently don&#x27;t have a problem with pads resting on the pinna, but I find this painful after an hour or two. Isolation is also worse with supra-aural designs.<p>Durability - most headphones break quickly. The cables are usually the first to go, around the strain relief on either end. I&#x27;ve had some pairs that used a 1&#x2F;8&quot; minijack on one of the earpieces, making the cable replaceable - until the jack failed and couldn&#x27;t be replaced without breaking open the earpiece. Good headphones will survive any reasonable drop; really good ones will survive being drop-kicked.<p>Isolation - if you can&#x27;t hear the signal over environmental noise, why bother monitoring? If you&#x27;re recording or working in a theatrical environment, you don&#x27;t want your headset audio leaking out either. In an office setting, nobody wants to hear your music, no matter how awesoem your jams are. Closed-ear designs are the way to go.<p>Neutrality - Relatively flat frequency response. But this is way down the list of priorities for me. A great sounding set of headphones that breaks after 2 months, or is uncomfortable to wear, or doesn&#x27;t block the sound of your workstation&#x27;s fans is not a great set of headphones.<p>tl;dr - Beyerdynamic DT250 is my headset of choice. My current pair is almost 15 years old and the only thing that&#x27;s failed on them is the pleather on the headband, which has fallen off its fabric backing. Still on the original earpads and cable, and they&#x27;re as good as the day I bought them. Stay away from consumer brands and models; like fast-fashion clothes, they are not built to last.<p>(This is also why you should buy your cookware from a restaurant supply store, not williams-sonoma.)