I don't think price is particularly influential in sound quality, and research backs that up. If I were you I'd just focus on measurements....smooth frequency responses, deep bass extension or ability to EQ up the bass without distortion creeping up (so looking at distortion measurements). I'd correlate that former stuff with reports on "soundstage" of the headphone to get a picture of how the whole headphone would be. I'd choose on that basis and only consider headphones up to your max personal allowable limit. I'd also determine size dimensions of the headphone earcups to make sure your ears can fit inside, and read up on any notes people make re fitting/(comfort) issues. I'd lump that all together and audition some headphones from that shortlist, but don't let price be your guide at any point, just use price for setting a maximum acceptable limit, but otherwise forget about that until you are auditioning your shortlist of headphones, as I suppose at that point you would weigh in price into the equation....because all things being equal if you find two headphones are just as preferable as the other, then I guess you'd choose the cheapest of the two headphones. That has been my approach for almost all of my headphone purchases, combined with the fact that I wanted some "best" examples of most of the different types of over ear headphone: closed back / open back / planar / dynamic.
Interesting points thank you