New to full-size need advices

When you say you're going to use them at work, are you in a noisy environment, or where your music could disturb others if your headphones leaked sound?

I agree with dirkgently, what do you want out of them?

With headphones, you have the option of either getting:

open back, which let you listen to outside noise and others can hear what you're listening to as well. This option is great for home use from what I've heard, but I'm thinking the people recommending it don't have family members screaming at them to keep the noise down, or sleeping next to them.

You also have close back, which provide some if not all noise isolation. This means you will not be able to hear what someone in front of you is saying when you're cranking it loud. (I've tested this with a sennheiser hd 286 pro, which were great)

Then there is semi-close back which I have yet to witness myself.

I tried a set of shure srh940's which are close back, and they weren't as good as the cheaper sennheisers in my opinion. I went to guitar center and asked to try them out. I could still hear the salesman through the music, as well as the annoying kids playing with the synths nearby. I would remove the headphones from my ear, about 3 inches, and place them back on, and the noise isolation is not even there. Though, they were comfortable.

Then you have the two options of noise canceling, or noise isolation.

Noise Isolation uses the headphones as a noise dampener, kind of like a set of ear muffs at a gun range. They remove a lot of outside sound and let you listen to nothing but the music.

Noise canceling try to do the same thing, but use electronics to bounce frequencies away from what you're listening to. I tried these with a set of bose headphones at best buy. They do a good job in keeping out the sound, but the feeling you get when you have them on is like stepping into an airplane. The tonal frequency it uses is about right, and enough to make me almost lose balance when I closed my eyes to enjoy the music. It's a weird feeling, but it does keep the sound out.

There are other things to keep in mind, but these are a good way to narrow down what you're looking for, especially on a budget.

I'm currently looking into the AKG K701's. I keep hearing that the bass isn't as hard, and the fact that they're open back turn me off, but since it's for home, I'm highly considering it. You can find them online cheap, which is a good thing for me.

If that's the case, then you should take those particular Senns off the table.  Have you considered the Senn HD25-1s?  They're closed back and considered better for rock music.

Taking a look at the frequency response of the HD25-1s vs. the M50s and the AKG 271s, the Senns and the AT's are very similar in frequency response after you get out of the bass range, where the AT's have a distinct advantage; the AKG's have less low end, but otherwise a similar response except for a bit of a bump from about 200 Hz to 600 Hz.