It’s worth it if you’ll use one feature every day that cheaper pairs do badly. The two big ones are strong noise cancelling for flights and trains, and clear microphones for calls in noisy rooms. Flagships like the Sony WH-1000XM4 and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones lead on both.
If you mostly listen at home, at a desk or on quiet walks, a $60 to $100 pair with decent noise cancelling covers you, and the difference in sound is small next to the difference in price. Older flagships get cheaper once a newer model arrives, so check last year’s model before you pay full price for this year’s. I’d pay for the feature I use daily and skip the rest.
