new user seeking headphone advice

Either Denon D2000 or ultrasone are good for trance from what I have read.

FLAC is the best quality as it is lossless and the worst I listen to is 320kb/s mp3.

A reasonably cheap card with a headphone amp would be either xonar dx £40 or xonar stx £120.

Heya,

I suggest you get a simple, inexpensive, Xonar DG soundcard, only $30, comes with all the power you need for most headphones (it is a DAC and AMP and will do what you need for very cheap). Leave most of your budget for the actual headphone, and get the most headphone you can buy for your budget.

As for a headphone, I'm leaning towards suggesting the Fischer Audio FA-011 (open air, classy, wood back, bassy, comfortable, excellent for all genres and great for trance) at $138 shipped (comes from Russia, so shipping is $20 flat). Another headphone would be a used, or PRO version, of a BeyerDynamic DT990 (250ohm or less), here's a used DT990 250ohm for cheap. Also, look into this Ultrasone 2500. And another to check out, is this gold version of the Grado SR325i. Another headphone to check out is the Shure SRH750 DJ, nice and bassy. And of course there is the Ultrasone HFI 580. But let's also include mention of the Sony XB500 (most bass) and XB700 (bassy, but smoother upper range). Also you can look into a Denon D1100.

That should get you started.

Very best,

As for sound cards, you can get the Fiio E7 (it's a USB and DAC in one) or the Hifiman HM-101. Look for Kiteki's review on the HM-101. There are a crapton of reviews of the FiiO E7 on the forums, I'm gonna be writing one soon. 

There're a hell of a lot of threads following this idea, which will have a lot more suggestions etc...
Trance is pretty popular so it would be worth searching around...

All i'd say have you got any other considerations? Eg. Need isolation, portability etc? Are you only listening at home?

The difference between D2000 and HP700 - The HP is a DJ headphone so there is more isolation, greater portability (also look abit more flashy for DJ's). The D2000 in my opinion is a home listening headphone (although i don't doubt some people wear them out), i've only heard them briefly (comparing to my D7000s) but comparing the HP700 to the D7000 seemed a lot more rewarding.

I'd say the HPs midrange is a little more prominent which I think you'd with trance but it's worth looking around more, i personally love the ultrasone series with trance (an opinion may here share) but at the same time i love trance through my RS-1s aswell which is rarely recommended... So what i guess i'm saying is advice is great but nothing beats listening and comparing yourself.      

You can connect it to your PC via usb, and to your mp3 player via line out or the headphone out jack.

Connecting through the headphone jack isn't advisable. 
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by OZSA 

thank you very much for the replies, its alot of possibilities now, I guess you need tons of luck with your first buy, coz there are hundreds of "good" ones :D

a question about this Fiio E7, can you connect that to any mp3 player and listen to it, or its only going with PCs ?

Personally I have found the Denon D2000 to be GREAT for trance music.... They are also pretty good all rounder for other genres as well....

I would reccomend a Xonar DG and a pair of Denon D2000... You wont regret it!

If you just want to listen to trance and don't want too much outside noise a 'closed' headphone wouldn't be a bad idea... I know a lot of people are going to go down the open sound produces higher fidelity but with trance instrument separation, sound stage etc... shouldn't really factor massively, if you want a trance 'club effect anyway' which quite a few do (minus muffled bloated bass anyway).

Personally i'd say don't go crazy with amps etc if you're keeping within a relatively low budget just check high sensitivity, low impedance. New Fiio DAP might be worth waiting for, otherwise a decent sound card can be picked up cheap as chips!

The most popularly recommended clean headphone with a lot of bass impact is the PRO900 which i'm in the process of buying... For the second time.

Worth looking into Ultrasones, beyers, dennon... forget it just try everything you can and trust people who are experienced and have tried the headphones they're recommended, don't get sucked into crazes... It wastes thousands of pounds... I know personally :-p.