Hi, I'm still kinda new to this audiophile thing, but I'm actively nurturing the addiction.
It began with a pair of ATH-ES7, which I LOVED. L-O-V-E-D. I loved those phones more than any human being should love an inanimate object. I liked the vibrancy, the deep (but not overwhelming) bass, and the balance. I listen to a lot of rock (mostly 90s stuff, from Collective Soul to Tool to Eve 6) so a lot of heavy guitar and bass guitar. There's usually a lot of electronica influences in my music (like Nine Inch Nails and Mindless Self Indulgence, but also less rock-influenced things like Metric and Massive Attack), which is usually the stuff I listen more closely to, and (perhaps because of the vibrancy) sounded the best on the ES7. Sadly, my ES7 broke, and after giving them a viking burial, I had to find a replacement.
The replacement pair are Sennheiser HD-203, which are nice, but aren't very open in my opinion, and leave a little bit desired on bass. (I bought them in a financial pinch and a desperate need to not use the Skullcandys I had from high school--which I'd handed down to my husband.) They're certainly a great backup pair, but I'm a little tired of using my backup pair as my only pair.
My mother decided to get me a new pair of phones for my birthday this year (knowing how much I loved my ES7's). I tried to steer her toward digging up a pair of ES7's on the internet, but she ultimately wound up going to Guitar Center and (I presume) asked a sales clerk what were the best pair of headphones. Thank god she remembered a few brand names I'd listed off to her, and she bought me a pair of Sennheiser HD-380 pro. I mean, good job to the sales clerk for selling my mom a good pair of phones, because they're definitely quite fab. But they don't replace my ES7's in vibrancy. I gave them a quick listen (obviously pre-burned in), and they're not terribly different from my HD203's save for a much more open soundstage (probably even more open than what I remember from my ES7's), better isolation, and much better bass. It's a significant difference--but I'm thinking the difference between 203 and 380 is $150, and I don't know if that's a $150 difference in quality.
The question now is: should I give them a chance? They're very comfortable (something my ES7's didn't have), but they're very neutral in sound. They're crystal clear, actually, which I like for acoustic guitar, but there's something missing with more electronic, processed music. I'm open to the idea of having several pairs of headphones (much to my husband's dismay), but I don't know if I want my most expensive headphones to be ones I'm not in love with. They're a gift, so they don't cost me anything, but my mother gave me the receipt in case I didn't like them--so I could theoretically return them and get two headphones out of the deal (a super awesome pair and maybe a decent pair). What would you do in my shoes? Would you return them to get something else? (Is there anything else out there that I might be able to get to replace my ES7's?) If you had $200 to spend on headphones, how would you spend it?
Also, nobody tell my mother I'm considering trading them in. She's already the best mom in the world for dropping $200 on headphones (plus a 2-year warranty!) just to make me happy--she doesn't have to understand my fickle tastes.
