I recently bought a pair of HD 280s that I'm in the process of returning. The two biggest problems I had with them were weak bass and sensitivity to even the slightest movements. For a couple years I've been using a pair of PX 100s for all my headphone needs and I absolutely love them. Comparing these two headphones side-by-side with the opening of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 I really felt the HD 280s didn't have enough bass to make the full orchestra chords sound really rich. The other problem I had was watching a full movie I found that even the most minimal movements (like breathing and heart beats) caused annoying extraneous noise and normal repositioning in my chair caused so much extra noise I would miss entire portions of dialogue.
My priorities for a replacement are, in order:
1. Sound quality: It seems the PX-100s have quite a bit more bass than average and I don't necessarily want a pair that has exactly that same balance, but the HD 280s just didn't have enough. I was wowed though by the detail the HD 280s exposed that I'd never heard before (individual voices in a capella music, the action of piano keys, etc.) and certainly don't want to sacrifice in that department.
2. Comfort: Surprisingly I found the HD 280s relatively comfortable, I didn't have a problem wearing them for entire movies. I suspect however, that there are much more comfortable headphones out there that would make me forget wearing them entirely for marathon usage session (6+ hours).
3. Noise attenuation: Some level of external noise attenuation would be a lovely bonus, but certainly not a requirement. My guess is that the problem I had with the sensitivity of the HD 280s to movement is a product of their ability to block external noise and I would rather be able to move around without distraction even at the expense of noise attenuation.
And these are the headphones I'm primarily considering at the moment, though I am open to any and all reasonable suggestions:
D1001
ATH-A700
ATH-M50
HD 555
My priorities for a replacement are, in order:
1. Sound quality: It seems the PX-100s have quite a bit more bass than average and I don't necessarily want a pair that has exactly that same balance, but the HD 280s just didn't have enough. I was wowed though by the detail the HD 280s exposed that I'd never heard before (individual voices in a capella music, the action of piano keys, etc.) and certainly don't want to sacrifice in that department.
2. Comfort: Surprisingly I found the HD 280s relatively comfortable, I didn't have a problem wearing them for entire movies. I suspect however, that there are much more comfortable headphones out there that would make me forget wearing them entirely for marathon usage session (6+ hours).
3. Noise attenuation: Some level of external noise attenuation would be a lovely bonus, but certainly not a requirement. My guess is that the problem I had with the sensitivity of the HD 280s to movement is a product of their ability to block external noise and I would rather be able to move around without distraction even at the expense of noise attenuation.
And these are the headphones I'm primarily considering at the moment, though I am open to any and all reasonable suggestions:
D1001
ATH-A700
ATH-M50
HD 555
