Aye, I am that kid. I never could afford expensive headphones, that's why I went into reviews. After everything, I'm still sticking with the K7XX, which is the cheapest of the bunch.
 
Though I didn't think $1500 was considered mid-fi; I thought it was even summit-fi. Mid territory is somewhere near $600-700, or so I thought.
 
If you do have a chance take a listen to the HE1000. Together with it's amp, it's miles ahead of everything else I've heard (shaming the HD800 and LCD models too). 
 
I have the same problem as you do, except for IEM's/CIEM's. Very, vrey much overpriced, IMO, I don't even know why people spend $1600 on customs when after everything they... still sound like an IEM.

Awesome Bruce, thanks for the review! Seems like pricing is getting out of hand these days :/
 
OT but the Pono can drive the HD600? Dayum :O  thats a lot of power!

@RedJohn456  Its got a lot of power, especially in balanced configuration...drives the VE Zen with ease...