Thanks again everyone for the replies.

After careful consideration I have decided the following:

I'll keep the HD280s for now and continue to burn them in every night when I go to bed. While I do that I'll buy a revo sound card to replace my SBlive! value. I have about another 3 weeks of the 30 day period to return the HD280, in that time, I'll continue to use them daily. If the soundcard+burn-in dont do the trick, ill look for a cheap pair of Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pros to couple with the new revo.

Some quick questions/points:

Does anyone know offhand if the revo has outputs for both my kipisch 4.1 and HD280s? In other words does it have a dedicated output just for headphones. It doesn't appear to from the pictures of it I've seen. If it doesn't I'll have to continue using the headphone jack from my klipisch 4.1

Jasper994:
I wanted Grados more than anything, the the combination of zero isolation and massive sound leakage just wasn't possible im my small dorm with my annoying roomate.

Thanks all-

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Nakor,
A few things:

My HD-280 sounded bad until I reached 100hr +. I used some serious bass to finally break them in after owning them for a year. (Techmaster PEB) If that scares you might try Enya's CD Watermark. It might make you feel safer about your drivers.

I like them, but they are not musical like you said. Try them with Power DVD so you can use Dolby Headphone. It makes these unmusical phones more musical. Don't fiddle with the expansion settings in the audio menu. Leave all settings off except for Dolby Headphone. The downside is that you have to use this player for playing all of your cd's and mp3's. Horrible interface for music.

I think that your choice of Beyerdynamic DT-770 is right on. You may just want to go strait to them so you don't have to do all this fooling around with the HD-280. I plan on getting the DT-770 as well, but since you are a student I assume that you will only want one good headset.
-hottyson

Skip the 280's and go for the DT770's, they have a good, unique sound that is a lot of fun.

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The Revo has 4 stereo minijack outputs which can be used interchangeably, so you could plug your klipsch into the front and rear outputs , then use the rear surroung output for your headphones.

I'll give you my advice, although it won't be popular. Return or sell the HD280 and get a better headphone.

A lot of people put a lot of energy into making these headphones sound good... some people appear to succeed, some don't. Personally I can think of a lot of things I'd rather put my time and energy into. Work a few extra hours, spend more and get one of the higher end Beyers or a pair of Etys or something if you've gotta have good sounding cans with isolation.

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He already has the 280's it can't hurt to run them for a few more days and see what he thinks at the end. If he doesn't... oh well, they're not for everyone.

with the kx drivers you can route audio to both the front and rear jacks, and run one to the promedias if you like.


If you were getting hiss out of the promedias, chances are your computer volume is too low. I recommend setting to very high (try the maximum, as well as maxing the other volume sliders for wav or cd audio) then try headphone listening again. Unless you have some noisy power they should sound as clean as can be.


A word of caution though: If you dislike the way your headphones sound, don't run out and buy a new amp or soundcard (at least not first thing). different headphones will give you the biggest change in sound (aside from eq, heh), and given the frequency response of your soundcard and promedias, you should be able to find a pairing to make you happy at least for a little while.

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I wouldn't consider sticking a pair of headphones in a drawer with some music playing alot of work. I'd say as long as you have them, you may as well give them a proper chance.

Also, I'm not sure why noone's mentioned the Ultrasone 650 Trackmaster as an alternative -- quite popular with people who want a closed phone but find the 280 to be too analytical.