Grado SR60i/SR80i Vs Creative Aurvana Live! Vs AKG K99

The Grado SR-80i or Creative Aurvana Live! will suit you nicely.  The Grados are on-ear headhones and some of us find them really uncomfortable.  The bass is also really rolled off on almost all Grado headphones.  See the graphs below regarding bass.

The Creative Aurvana Live surrounds the ear and lacks what the Grados do well...delivering treble.  The graphs shown below also show this.  Your musical tastes tend toward slightly bass heavy music so I would go with the Creative Aurvana Live headphones.  The Grado SR-80i are more geared for rock and metal which they tend to excel at.

If you see one drop down below $100 new I would pick up a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50's instead of either of the aforementioned headphones.  The AHT-M50 is a great headphone and used by many of us when we first dabbled into hi-fi.  I have provided my review of the Creative vs the ATH-M50 below.

Grado SR-80i Frequency Response Chart

Shows nice bump in the mid bass, hardly any really low bass, and some nice peaks in the treble

http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=353

Creative Aurvana Live Frequency Response Chart

Shows fairly flat response into the deep bass, flat response into the early treble, and roll off after 1.2kHz.  The CAL! is not a treble headphone.

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/CreativeAurvana.pdf

Review comparing the M50 and CAL!

http://www.head-fi.org/products/creative-aurvana-live-headphones/reviews/5751

It is a toss up between the CAL! and M50, but to me the CAL! has a little more life to it amped and is more portable.  The M50 is a great headphone and you cannot go wrong with it either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DUBS73P 

I listen to Dubstep, Hip Hop, Rap, Pop and D'n'b, I like detail and a decent amount of bass

 

Which of these do you think will suit me best? To start with they will be unamped but i will be getting a Fiio E7 soon too.

 

 

For your listening tastes, I'd take a pass on the Grado's.  And I really like my SR-60i's for the types of rock I listen to.  They are very polarizing headphones, with ardent supporters and others who don't like their bright sound.  The CAL's are more appropriate for you. 

Neither the CAL's nor the Grado's require an amp.  Never heard the CAL's on an amp though, so it might improve a bit.  Never heard those AKG's  at all, so will pass on evaluating them.

I sincerely doubt you'll ever see M50's drop down to $100 new.  So they really belong in a higher price category.  And If you're looking for a new headphone in the $100-120 range, you should take a long look at the Sony ZX700's. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kerry56 

For your listening tastes, I'd take a pass on the Grado's.  <<snip>>

 

 

 

 

I completely agree.  I have SR80i's, which I really enjoy, but wouldn't use them to listen to dubstep, they just don't have the 'oomph' in the lower end :)