What headphones do I want

I can't recommend much, but several questions to ask which would help someone who can help you in answering your questions.

 

Firstly, do you have a preference towards listening to music bright re: treble? Or do you prefer a nice bass beat or do you prefer something neutral? Might be useful to state what music you usually lean towards listening when at home.

 

Secondly, are you looking for IEMs (in ear monitors) or headphones (closed or open where open will leak sound out)?

 

I'm guessing that your budget is fairly open so I'll leave it up to the guys who have more experience, but with a good headphone setup at the price range you are looking at, you can and will probably have to factor in a good dac and amp; unless your current sound system already takes care of that.

 

Also, what is the source of your music coming out of i.e. CD player, hi-res music, etc.

 

Just throwing in the general basic questions here; I can't answer your question at the end of the day as your budget seems to be way out of my league

 

That being said, you can still get a very nice set up costing way less too, but if the budget is 'the sky is the limit', then why restrict yourself?

Geez.... before other people rip you apart for this post, let me tell you some stuff. First, the best headphones are useless without a good source (a CD player, or digital to analog converter, or record player). You can't just play crappy mp3s from your computer sound card, they will sound terrible with top-end headphones. All your music should be lossless computer files (FLAC encoded), records, or CDs. You will also want a good digital to analog converter (DAC) to get the best sound quality from those files. You can get DACs that connect to your computer through USB, and CD players have a DAC built in. You can spend anywhere from 100 to 50,000 on these source components, so obvioiusly a little research is in order here. Second, all full-size high end headphones require amplification. You will need to purchase a seperate headphone amp. The good ones range from 300 to 2000 dollars, and you need to match amps to headphones carefully. If you buy an electrostatic headphone, you will need a special amp, and the best ones cost over 4000 dollars.

 

All that probably seems like a lot of work to you, since your first post on this forum is "pick the best headphone for me," you probably don't like doing research. But this hobby rewards research and punishes ignorance. Trust me, you don't want the best headphones in the word, even if you can afford them. You can't just plug them into an ipod - they require lots of carefully chosen associated equipment. Most of them are out of production - you cannot buy them at a store. If you really want to know about this stuff, start reading in the full-size headphones forum. If not, just buy an Audio-Technica ATH-M50 for $100 and be done with it.

lol you just 'ripped him apart'

 

Agreed, I think the OP has a new Head-Fi orifice....

 

Nah, just trying to get the point across that it's not a simple hobby. Most of us try a lot of headphones before we find the sound we like, so I would advise trying many headphones below $1000 before buying the "ultimate" set. We have a forum on this site where we buy and sell used headphones, so you can almost always sell for what you paid. Here's a list of the most popular headphones in the 200-500 price range. Different people will give you different recommendations. The best idea is to read as much as you can and try to find a store where you can audition them. You can use the "search" function on this forum to find more information.

 

Audio Technica: W5000, W1000X, AD2000

Beyerdynamic:  DT770, DT880, DT990

Denon:             D2000, D5000

Grado:             SR-225, SR-325, RS-1

Sennheiser:     HD-600, HD-650

AKG:              K-701

Sony:             MDR-SA5000

Ultrasone:       PRO-750, PRO-900

 

You will need an amp to get good sound from most of these headphones. The good news is there are more cheap amps than ever these days, and you can find something below 500 that will work fine. If you don't want to bother with all of that, you can look in the portable headphones forum for IEMs, the little headphones that go in your ears. They work just fine from an ipod. And you can take them with you wherever you go.

 

Sounds good to me! 20K can buy pretty much the best headphone setups in the world. I'll start with one:

 

Source: Any high end USB DAC (Lavry DA11 for example), too many to choose from, I can't list them all

Amp: Kevin Gilmore DIY T2 (you gotta ask somebody to build this for you though, because it's a DIY project) or Headamp Blue Hawaii SE (but it has a loooooooooong wait time to buy one)

Phones: STAX SR-007 Omega Mk. 1 or Mk. 2

I'm going to try and post my answers in bold, so take it from there; makes it easier for me to answer in that sense; and I'm listening to flogging molly now just to get a sense of what you go for ; bear in mind that I also have limited experience here, but I'll help the best I can as well assuming I can. Obviously I wish I had a whole world of money to splash the cash and experience everything to give better advice to others, but I'm still a student
 

Perfect Wave Transport & Dac(PWT & PWD) with the just released Bridge, OR, if it's still available on agon, Nova Physics Memory Player.

Headamp GS-X.

Sony R-10(one is for sale on this forum) or LCD-2(waiting list already.)

A simple no fuss setup.

Edited by digger945 - 6/28/10 at 10:49am

Pfff with that budget, don't bother with mainstream AKG, Sennheiser, Beyer etc. dynamic headphones.

 

Electrostatic is the way to go: buy a Stax system, consisting of the SR-007(Mk.2) and pair it with a good amp, such as the SRM-727II that Stax recommends as a companion amp.

This is the website of Stax: http://www.stax.co.jp/Export/ExportProducts.html

 

My advice is based on the following assumptions: you want an awesome system, don't mind buying new, don't want the hassle of hunting down rare/discontinued/second-hand headphones or amps, don't want to wait months before your custom built amp is ready and you already have a good source (CD player or DAC).

 

It would be a simple, top-of-the-line system that you can buy new and enjoy for years without having to wait for it. It's probably the best system that's in production.

Costs vary depending on the country you live in, but (new) it would cost around 5k USD I guess. Second-hand it would be cheaper of course, but it can take a while to hunt down a set.

You guys are making this more difficult than it needs to be.

Here are two different roads to take:

1. It sounds like you want to rock. OK, there's one headphone that rocks more than anything, the Grado RS-1. Or maybe it's the RS-1i now. No matter, this is *the* seminal rock headphone. I know Grado has the GS-1000 and PS-1000 now, but the RS-1 used to be the top of the line and it still rocks harder than anything I've heard. And I've heard a lot of headphones. They're $700. And you want one. Believe me, you want one.

Now, you need to power the RS-1. The best option is a good solid state amp. There are several out there. A couple of good commercial, easily obtainable models are the Headamp GS-1 ($900) and the Eddie Current EC/SS ($400). I'd be happy with either. There are others out there, but these are really good and will power the RS-1 just fine.

2. You still want the RS-1. But if you want to listen to other genres, stuff like classical, jazz and acoustic music, you'll want something other than the RS-1. My favorite all-around headphone is the Sennheiser HD-800. It can rock, but not as well as the RS-1. But it does an excellent job of covering everything else.

However, the HD-800 doesn't sound its best on solid state. One of the finest tube amps on the market now (or at any time) is the Eddie Current Zana Deux. I've had one for about 30 months and still love it to pieces. They run about $2,200 now. The HD-800 and RS-1 sound incredible out of it. This total package will come in under $5,000, so you'd be under budget.

I'm sure some will come in with criticisms, but go look at the reviews. This stuff is pretty well regarded and ought to make you stop caring whether you get to crank up your speakers or not.

I dunno, this whole "Grados for rock music!" thing is really overblown, imho.  I still very much dislike the RS1s, even for rock.  Not to mention that designing a whole system around the RS1s may be a bad move if the OP doesnt enjoy them for all other genres, since despite the fact that the intent of this rig would be to listen to rock, it is a huge investment that will undoubtedly later want to be used for other music as well. 

 

Id second the HD800 suggestion

x 3 on the HD800