A decade ago, I was working in a big tech office with plenty of headphone enthusiasts. Open-backed cans from like Sennheiser were the expensive gold standard. They sound fine, though since open-back headphones are just head mounted speakers that everyone around you can hear, not especially great for the office.

My $150 (at the time) VModa headphones sounded just as good to my ears, I preferred that they were tuned for more bass, and they had Bluetooth as an option when I just needed to hear things and wasn’t worried about quality. The Bluetooth battery gave out years ago, and I’ve had to replace the foam ear cups, but the headphones still work fine.

I’m sure they’re all much more expensive and worse quality now, but yes, generally audio equipment is overpriced to scam people because it’s harder to discern quality in audio. Cheaper headphones paired with a cheap headphone amplifier will sound better to most people than spending twice the combined amount on expensive headphones.