ATH M50 vs ATH EWS9A vsSENN 280pro vs gradosr80/allisandro ms1

Grados and Alessandros provide nearly no isolation and leak very high amounts of sound, even on low volumes.

Can't help you beyond that.

If you listen at low volumes - you may get away with it.

I have a work colleague who uses his Grado 225i day in, day out. I never hear anything

coming from his corner.

Occasionally, I drag my 325i into work and all chaos breaks loose - turn that down!

AT-ESW9 ~ Doesn't get a heap of exposure on here, beware of fakes as these pop up online from time to time. 

                  Nice woodied finish. Some say the SQ is not as nice as the M50.

At-M50 ~    I have these, and they're a superb all rounder. They don't do anything wrong but they don't excel

                 at anything either. Treble, bass, separation, soundstage - it's all ok but nothing special. Built like

                 a tank and will take any abuse you throw at it.

Sennheiser 280 Pro - Listened to these recently and I thought they had a nice, clear sound. Not too bassy, less

                               so than the M50. Beware of breakage on either side of the left or right hinge. I've seen two

                               fail in this manner.

Open cans have a natural touch to it, however if you are into more bass, closed would be for you. If you haven't tried any open cans, I urge you to try them out. Talking from experience, they are not fit for outdoor use.

M50 is almost a safe bet for more general use. Slightly bassy, but not on the extreme side. M50 could improve a fair bit from amp. But among closed phone, this is on the ugly side with Senn 280. Seriously I know sound is important, but if you can get a similar (beyond actually) SQ with  a much better looking phone, why not?

SQ I think ESW9 better than M50, but the sound signature would be more unique, and may not be acceptable by everyone. Could be bias since I'm a ESW9 owner, but my friend and I who audited both phones feels the same.

No experience with 280.

Grado signature is very personal - its either like or hate for "right on your face". I was okay for the sound signature, but comfort was the biggest issue for me. Probably doesn't fit Asian head very well I guess. I find it fatiguing for long session listening.

ESW9. Very warm with a "tube touch", like 6moon has reviewed. It as good bass quality, as well as quantity, due to its longer sound decay. As you can see this will not be the most accurate phone for its sound signature, however it smooths out harsh recording rather well for me. Sometimes when I have harsh recordings from 1950s, the 702 brought out all the high *piss* sounds and I would reach out for my ESW9 to smooth things a bit.

If you are looking at ESW9, I would say to trying these - there are in similar price range here, with different offerings

1. DT1350 - new phone, exciting technology, and is the most analytical and probably accurate of the 3. Bass head will not like this. Great for orchestra music at times. I didn't manage to test them with amp, but my impression is that this would need the most serious amping among 3
2. Senn HD25-II - This has more base punch, and more exciting to listen to, probably I think you will like this the best base on the genre you listen to. Adidas version looks cool too! Needs amp, but bearable without 1.
3. ESW9 - This phone has a very sweet sound, generally most forgiving phone of the 3, but may be slow to your taste. Driving straight out of ipad, I think this would be THE phone. Un-amped, perhaps this gives best sound.

If I only use phone for portable, I think DT1350 / ESW9, or DT1350 / HS25-II would make great pairings - you can grap either phone depending on your mood.

Terrible English...

Using the ms1i in public is like having speakers on in a room while people talking, can be cool but not great when you want to just listen to music. When I study in a quite liberty, I find if i put the headphones on the table and turn up the volume just to the point where i hear very faint leakage then put them on my head there is no complaints from the people around me. And at this volume the sound is more then loud enough for studying.

I agree with OneSec, the HD25 are good for the genres you listed and good for other reasons he listed. They isolate very well and have no sound leakage even at loud volumes. Only thing is they arent ideal for tv or movies. If you have a good sound card in your laptop they will run very nicely don't think you have to have an amp with H25 but do improve a bit from one.

If you want jack of all, master of none id say get SRH840. I find them to be more isolating of external sounds then the M50 but not as good as HD25, it does comes close... about 80%. The SRH840 is a bit more engaging then M50 with over all better mids. The M50 does sound a bit bigger vs the SRH840, but when i do listen to the M50 i often ask my self "why am i sitting so far back?" I think with the SRH840 you get the feel people are playing in front of you and some more people are playing behind the guy that is playing in front of you and also around you.