Recommendations for Best headphones on the market (new and old) - Page 4

gotta say AKG 501's, quite simply an amazing headphone.

Sennheiser PX100 continues to be my preferred portable headphone. The PX100 is sort of like like a cheap, portable Grado SR225.

Full-size open cans: Sennheiser HD595 when low impedance is required or HD580 when it's not. Some say the HD595 is the Grado of the Sennheiser range. It is not. If you love Grado, you probably won't like the HD595 any more than any other Sennheiser product. It is really not much like a Grado at all, although I do agree the soundstage seems a bit closer than with other Senns, so in that aspect it is vaguely Grado-like. If you're after a really good all-rounder that is comfortable, non-fatiguing, and tolerant of a wide variety of consumer sources and headphone outputs, the 595 is a great way to go. But you gotta let it burn in. A lot.

FWIW, I've owned a variety of Senns, AKGs, and Grados.

AT W1000

Becoming more and more common with very few complaints.

DT880
~US$235 Jan Meier Audio

A direct competitor to the Sennhesiser HD600. Has nice, mostly even, midrange. Not possessing overly extended bass nor strident high end. Mostly neutral. Good dynamics and transients. Possesses very wide soundstage (some may say the soundstage is too wide). Great vocal reproduction. Has great dynamic headroom, hard to drive to distortion. Can be sibilant with sibilant recordings. Prefers neutral to warm sources and amps. Can be driven from CD player headphone jacks, but prefers a dedicated amp. Very easy to listen to for hours; non-fatiguing. Sounds uncompressed (dynamics), therefore one must be careful to not set the volume level too high as massive pressures can easily be acheived. Very clean sounding. Good positioning and detail. A very smooth sounding headphone, with very little smearing. Slight forward presentation. Excellent for just about all gendres of music.

Semi-closed design. Short 4' cord, although it comes with an extention cord. Comfortable; light; not too much lateral pressure. Comfortable headband. High impedance. Likes lots of clean power.

Having bought the HD600s w/ Corda HA2 at a time when DT880 comparisons started showing up I immediately had some doubts as to whether I had made the wrong choice. Currently my headphone system is given secondary status (so the best stuff goes to my main system). But I'm starting to really love the HD600s. It is simply amazing strings especially as noted. I give the HD600s a better source and I find there's a lot missing when I hook it up to a lesser source. I put in better interconnects and detail, transparancy, just about everything improves (dramatically).

This has led me to believe that te HD600 is more capable than the DT880s (right out of the box the DT880s might be slighty better-based on the reviews here) but since we're audiophiles we strive for the best and I just don't think the DT880s are capable of that right now or will be in the future. What I mean of course is the fact that the HD600 can be improved with cables. Headroom's XLR setup comes to mind.

But I'm happy to know that the headphones are capable or much more (and my HA2 for that matter). Interconnects, powercords, powerconditioning will clearly make a difference.

Right now I have this setup

HD600->HA2->Sony XE670->PS Audio UO

I use decent aftermarket powercords. I have settled on the XE670 (my 555ES is significantly better) and it's sacd playback is pretty good.

Anyhow the addition of the UO lowered the noice floor by quite a significant amount. I'm gonna be sad when I move it to my main system (can't afford more as of right now) along with my best interconnect. But all this has prompted me to seriously looking at getting the Cardas cables. The HD600s are really good and can be anyone's reference.

Re: Most commonly used 'Phones (sub $500)

Portable: Sony MDR-D77. Nothing comes close, people! Quick fawning over MDR-D22's! They're ****!

Home:
1. Stax Lamda, etc.
2. Sony MDR-CD3000

Studio: Sony MDR-V6/7506

Ultrasone HFI-650: These are very forward sounding headphones with amazing clarity and bass extension. They sound very neutral and transparent. Drums have amazing snap and punch to them, something I love to hear. The HFI-650 tends to be bright, though not overly so. Burn-in seems to have helped this, or maybe I've become more accustomed to the HFI-650's sound, but its still a bit harsh. Tight, deep bass and a forward soundstage mates these phones well with most Rock and Metal. Recommended for Electronica as well.

The HFI-650 is easily driven though benefits from an amp (what doesn't? ). The rather warm paddings, weight, and overall fit of this headphone leaves room for improvement. They can be rather uncomfortable at night, causing me to reach for the HD580. Can be a bit fatiguing. Breaks in listening every couple hours will give your ears a breather. The cord is microphonic, which is annoying while listening at night or with quiet music. Isolation is very good. You can listen to whatever you please and no one will be any the wiser. The HFI-650 seems to keep more sound in than it does out, though, and might not be sufficient for travel by train or plane.

update #1: I've just gotten my first "real" source - a Sony SCD-CE775 SACD player - and have been listening out of the headphone jack the last couple days. So far, I can say that a source makes a world of a difference. The brightness of these headphones is really tamed and the sound is just all around better and more full sounding, so that it makes the sound of my PCDP just seems gutless. More impressions to follow when I get an IC and can hook up my amp.

On a side note, I love these headphones for Rock still, although I don't think that they're really ideal for electronica anymore. The beat and energy just isn't there like it is with my Portapros. Sad but true.

update #2: About that electronica comment, I must've been feeling remarkably basshead-ish that day when I remarked that Portapros were better than HFI-650's for electronica. Portapros and even KSC-35's make my head hurt with their bass combined with electronica, and they tend to cover up a lot of the details. My ultimate electronica headphone still awaits, but for the record, I do like the HFI-650 for electronica.

Jesus I feel like LTUCCI...er.... I also still need to get that mini-RCA adapter to use my amp with them and my SCD-CE775. In a sense then, yes, my sig is lying, but it makes me both look and feel better

how do the senn. hd 280's pro's compare to the grado sr 80's? i just wnat some good phones for listening to video games... and i need the isolation value... and also where is a good, trustworthy place to buy grado's and especially the hd 280's? online? i'm just using the jack in my t.v. and can i get the hd 280's at a virgin megastore? how much? (please answer this...)

Love my Sony MDR-V7 and Aiwa HP-D9 sonic detail duo...

These two should be neck in neck with the high-end Eggos! It'll take something pretty high-end to beat these two to death...

Next up to bat, Sony MDR-E484 and Aiwa HP-D8 bass twins...

Can you tell me about the V7? I won one a few weeks ago from a guy in Germany on e-bay, but he wouldn't sell it to me! How does it dfiffer from the V6?

Haha Mike... you always quote me before I edit my posts... LOL!

I couldn't get a hold of a pair of V6 even for demo-ing... a store locally sells MDR-7506s but those snobs wouldn't let me try them out either (maybe I need some bling bling on me next time)

The V7 looks pretty much the same as the V6, except for a groove going across at the back of its cans... The V7 has 50mm sapphire evapourated drivers while the V6 has 40mm mylar drivers... The V7's freq. response range is 5-30,000Hz while the V6 is 10-22,000Hz... V7 has straight cord with gold plug, V6 has curled up cord with nickel plug... V7 cannot be folded up like the V6... The V7 is technically and physically identical to the MDR-CD900ST... There should be minimal difference between the V7 and V6 in terms of sound as some older head-fi threads pointed out... might wanna do a thread dig on this one...

"The V7 is technically and physically identical to the MDR-CD900ST..." You're certain about this?

Yes I'm certain... there is a slight difference tho... the back of the MDR-V7 cans have a groove going across just above the "Digital" label while the MDR-CD900ST is just plain flat like the MDR-V6... The CD900ST also needs to be modified by the dealer in terms of the plug, while the V7 has a gold screw-on type... So okay my statement was a bit wrong... LOL! But the technical specifications between the V7 and CD900ST are the same... I checked out Audiocube for the CD900ST specs and the V7 from the service manual at Sony Parts...

By the way, there is also a MDR-CD900CBS... I didn't know that until I bought the replacement hanger for my V7 and it had this written on the package also...

I will put in a vote for the AKG K1000. This phone driven by a really good power amp (i.e. power amp for speakers) sounds unbelievable. I tried it with a conrad-johnson CAV-50, which is a 45 watt per channel 8 ohm tube amplifier. Hands down the best headphone setup I have ever heard (as well as almost everyone else at the SoCal meet).