I have never spent over $100 on headphones. $50 is usually enough. I have plenty of things to geek out on in life, audio quality is not one of them. Seems like many many many tech people are like me.
Audiophile products are always a scam. People who talk about owning them are not to be trusted.
Well, I wouldn't say always. But there is no need to spend a thousand dollars on headphone 'gear'. There is also no need for a dedicated DAC unless your source is audibly noisy. MacBook pros for instance have perfectly good audio circuitry capable of driving normal impedance headphones to ear damaging volume w/o distortion. If you want to buy a DAC and amp for your 32ohm headphones that's cool, but you're just buying an exceptionally expensive volume control.