I hate to do this since I know you must get this a lot of the time but I've come to the point where I just need advice.
Recently my Senn HD202's broke and having browsed this site I'm now bereft in a sea of options, none of which seem to cry out "buy me" with one redeeming feature that drags them above the rest.
Before I start I would like to state that I have no preference between the larger closed cans and smaller IEM headphones - I've been looking at both.
Usage patterns: Mostly for travel - I get the train to university daily so closed or isolating headphones are a must - I don't want to share my music with the world and the world doesn't want to share my music (if this wasn't the case I would have got the Koss porta-pros or similar).
Music styles: I listen to everything from one man and a guitar strumming through to red hot chili peppers, Pink Floyd, Cat Power and new electronica - both house style and newer fluid d'n'b style music.
Things I have looked at and budget: Budget is around £70 but I would be willing to go a little higher if it was worth it. All my previous headphones have been very cheap and broken relatively easy leaving me somewhat wary of spending a large amount of money on something that might break quite quickly (also I'm a student - large expenditures make my wallet very sad). I got linked to a recent buyers guide for price/performance and had been looking at things like the SRH 440, KNS-6400, RE-0, spider realvoice (almost impossible to get in the uk seemingly) and more recently at the IEM models such as the SE215's and the newer things from DUNU such as the Ares and Hephaestus (some of these seem very attractive in terms of value for money - some reviews place them as not great sound quality though).
Equipment: I use an ipod touch (most recent gen) without a portable amp (a sin around here!). I don't generally play with EQ settings either so I take things as they come, poor quality or not.
A lot of the reviews have been quite lairy with some of the IEM models about microphonics and clothing rustle - having not had a decent pair of IEM's ever I can't comment on how annoying this would be, but that and build quality have caused me to shy away from the RE-0 and similar models.
A final point: I'm very new to all this, while I understand the concept and intentions behind comments such as "Neutral" and "warm" sounding I can't say I've ever used anything that would qualify for these terms so have no personal experience of them.
To anyone who does take the time to read this and help, thank you. I know how annoying it must be to get these a lot and I would imagine in this place you do.
