Research time is almost up, time to get my first great set of cans.

Hello,

I've been reading the forums for a while now, looking over different reviews, and planning my first major headphone purchase. I own a pair of Senn HD280 Pro's that have held up for a couple years, but I had to take them to work for closed phone listening, and with a lot of overtime hours comes the decision to really step up into a great pair of headphones.


I've been looking at a large variety of phones, and was hoping the expert advice from everyone here could help finalize my decision.

I have a very wide variety of musical taste, I love bands like Sigur Rós (my favorite band), Mogwai, Radiohead, Boards of Canada, etc. I also listen to a very large amount of Classic Rock, AC/DC, Kiss, Iron Maiden, ZZ Top, Van Halen, you name it. I love modern stuff as well however, from Nine Inch Nails, TOOL, I even listen to some more poppy stuff like Fall Out Boy, A New Found Glory. Jimmy Buffet also can be a favorite at times, and I also love Classical pieces as well as great piano work. I toss some Hip-Hop/Rap in there some but most of my listening is from the former groups.

The source for most of my music comes from very high bitrate mp3 192-360 range, however I do have a lot of compact discs and uncompressed audio as well.

So Here are the cans I've been most seriously looking at.

Beyerdynamic DT-880 - They get very high marks and seem to tailor to a broad range of different music and currently are #1 in the running for my purchase. I'm also a bit rough on my equipment and have read from many different sources that they could "survive ww3" so that's a plus as well, although given the price I know I'll be spending, I'm sure to treat them nice.

Sennheiser HD-600 & HD-595 - I've owned multiple pairs of Senns, the most expensive being my current HD280 Pros which have served me well, but i have noticed that they sound a bit too flat at times, nonetheless I've enjoyed them and both of these have seemed to get good marks as well.

Grado SR 225 - I have not read a ton about these cans but Grado has a solid reputation for quality. As I have not read much about the Grado's I would also be open to suggestions on other Grado phones.

Other Phones Recommended based on my general tastes

I'm also looking to get a HeadRoom Micro Amp to power it, with the desktop module, but I'm open to many suggestions here as well.

This would all be hooked up to a Mac G5 or sometimes my PC w/ an Audigy 2 soundcard at other times.

I listen to music at a rather unhealthy loud volume, but i've been turning it down more and more recently but when I am working on something and need to work quickly, I tend to rock out to some hard classic rock at a much higher volume. =D

Sorry for such a long read, but I truly appreciate any time people lend to helping me with my decisions. I'm open to many suggestions from all you audiophiles out there, but would like to keep my budget around $800 tops. I could splurge though and keep it under $1000 but I'd like to keep it in the 500-800 range.

Thanks!

Wes

I've been looking at the DT990's now and one concern (that admittedly wouldn't sway my purchase in the end) was the visual asthetics of the 990s in comparison to the 880s. However it seems that many online vendors still display the older DT990s and the new models look good.

I was unaware that the price difference was so small between the two so now I've been researching the 990s.

How about the amp I'm looking at. Is that a fairly nice product for the price? Would I be over-killing with it? Also please forgive the noob-ish question, but what are the differences between the two different voltages offered, the 120 and the 220.

Thanks again guys!

Wes

cool, I will certainly check them both out. Portability isn't really much of a concern for me to be honest, the only reason id' look to having it more portable would be if i wanted to take it to work everyday, but I doubt highly i'd want to do that, probably more trouble than it's worth.

I'm looking at the Gilmore Lite right now, it's pretty sexy

Now the real question is.... who do I trust for ordering the headphones from? There's so many different suppliers online and I would hate to order a pair of 990s and find out they're last year's model, but I also don't want to saw my leg off for them.

The Gilmore Lite I understand is a direct order thing and I don't have much of an option in terms of where to purchase that.

Wes

I can't believe I missed out on such a great deal on those cans.

When they were very closely priced the 880s were easy to abandon for the 990s but since the new ones jumped up exponentially in price after the whole B&H thing, it's hard to spring for what people are asking.

Anyone know some great priced retailers for the new 05 990s?