Recommendations for my needs

Salutations Hifi community. I've been an outsider for a while, and I've finally bit the bullet and registered.

History to my recent obsession:

I've been doing a lot of research this past month on a good set of earphones, but keep coming to a fork in my road of decisions. This all started with a trip to New York, and after seeing everyone on the subway with Dr. Dre's beats headphones and how heavily they were advertised, I got the sensation of wanting a set of headphones too. I'm not the kind of guy that likes to buy name brands, but I do like some quality with my purchases, no matter how expensive. Although I am not rich, and do not like to waste money on crap, I find that the price tag doesn't automatically make it better.

The bland test run:

I listened to a set of beats that someone brought to my job and I just had to give it a try. I put on three songs, even though they aren't the best references, I wanted to use what I find myself listening to the most and what I want to do with them. I pulled out my phone and played a track from Bassnectar, a track from Smashing Pumpkins, and a track from Thom Yorke. Bassnectar has a very heavy bass hitting in all of their tracks so this is what I wanted it to try. The bass was solid, but from there it was all garbage. I couldn't hear any of the dynamic sounds that I was used to hearing on my home system, so I know that these headsets can produce bass, but that was about it. Smashing Pumpkins came out fine, but was still kind of bass heavy. I was wishing the highs could be a tad more higher, and the bass a bit more tighter, dare I say lighter. Thom Yorke... well I couldn't give my honest opinion about that track only because I was already adamant in my opinion that these headphones aren't for me.

What I want to do with my headset:

I'm looking to listen to my music at home with the least amount of issues with anyone around me. I would like to set them up to my Marantz SR5005 receiver and forget about the world around me from the comfort of my bed. I definitely do not want to bother my girl next to me as she watches TV at night or tries to sleep-in in the mornings. So I suppose I would like to have a closed back headset as my preference, though this is all my stance now and I may bend for open back.

What I am looking at:

I have fallen in love with the AKG Q701's. I love the way the black ones look (except for the lime green cord, but I know I can change it) I've been told that the Sennheiser brand is top notch, so I looked into the HD600 models and have seen good reviews as well. I just hate the way they look. I've look everywhere from Grado's to the Beyerdynamic product line and just cant find anything to set my mind off of the AKG's. I know I've said I didn't want close back headphones, but it's hard to change my mind once I'm headstrong into something I want. Yes, I do know of the Sennheiser HD800's, but c'mon, $1700? Really? I'm not "Oprah rich". 

Then, why wont I go for the AKG's?

I've read everywhere that the AKG K and Q701's lack in the bass department. Since I'm not all that eager to try on another set of Dre's beats, I guess it's a safe bet that I am not too concerned about the bass. The only other thing is cranking up the music and having my girlfriend listen to everything I'm enjoying.

What can HiFi recommend for me?

With what I have put down so far, do you think there might be a high end, say no more than $500 on a pair of great looking, and great sounding headphones? Is there a magical headphones that give the same range of the AKG's, but have some more *umph* with the bass? Can the bass be driven to sound better with a headphone amp? Will I need a headphone amp even though I believe my receiver can handle the job?

Worth mentioning:

I was considering getting the Bowers and Wilkins headphones so that all of my speakers matched. I do like the way these look as well and have heard pretty decent reviews, but I have also heard that they aren't the most comfortable headphones in the market, especially since they haven't been in the headphone business that long. [citation needed] Also the cables that come with them just seem so... flimsy, dare I say cheaply made or designed?

I used to own a set of Sony MDR-V700DJ cans and I was content that the sound I was listening to was for my ears alone, the swivel ear cups weren't bad either, and the cable was thick, coiled, and only went on one side of the set, but I did not enjoy the way they sat on my ears, or the pressure they created on my head, and the sound that I got from them wasn't anything too ecstatic. I did wish that I had more range with them. I took these with me when I was taking a midi composition class. I was very proud of my headphones at the time, until someone showed up with a cheaper headphone that felt better and sounded better as well. I couldn't even tell you where those headphones are now in four of my moves so far.

Still researching

I checked out my friends Sennheiser 280 pro headphones and they sounded good. I liked the fact that they tuned out everybody that was around me because they were closed back, but how much of a difference is closed back to open back? The people around me were still able to hear what I was listening to, giving me questionable looks when I was listening to Bjork or Pink Floyd. So me hoping that closed headphones would muff out what others hear from my end has gone out the door. Now I'm interested in open back headphones, but will I be able to get lost in a good open backed set? Will the sounds surrounding me come through and bleed through my music and make me lose my mood?

I just checked out the Denon D2000's and the Sennheiser HD 25 II's. I'm loving the look of the Denon's better, they seem a bit more sturdy and better built. I have yet to read a bad review yet. I'll look into this more through out the day. Thanks for your advice and recommendations! I'll update this post shortly.

Yeah, I heard the same thing about the BWs. I wish they fixed this issue before I made an investment.