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Help a overwhelmed newbie with a purchase.

post #1 of 3
1/26/12 at 7:04pm
Thread Starter 

I stumbled across your forum tonight and decided to join. Looks like you guys have your forums on point and I just need some help with making a purchase decision. I'm in desperate need of a good set of headphones for home with some portability. My price range is $150 - $350. I don't want to spend a lot of money if I don't need to but am willing to if it will get me what I want. I've put a small list below on the things I know I want. I hope you guys can point me in the right direction and give me some hands on reviews of the products. I haven't had a chance to look over the site yet but do see there is a lot of info and that is why I'm reaching out. I'm a bit overwhelmed. Thanks for any help you guys can give.

 

Music taste is broad but my favorite genres are R&B, Rap and Jazz. So I need a set that can handle that extreme between Rap and Jazz.

 

Must have:

Quality (2 kids 7 and 4) I'm sure you guys understand. lol

Have a big head so they have to fit.

Removable Cord

Will be using cell phone, ipods, laptop or home receiver to listen to music. Will not use an amp for now so I think battery power is a must for the sound quality I want.

 

P.S. I live in the Atlanta Metro area and don't know of a good place to test any suggestions. If you guys know of a place, that would help.


Edited by allmusic - 1/26/12 at 7:06pm
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post #2 of 3
1/26/12 at 7:20pm

You don't need battery-powered headphones if you don't intend on using an amp. You need headphones with lower impedance.

 

I'll throw 2 recommendations out there, which I believe work well with the music you like: The Denon d2000 and the Ultrasone Pro 900. They both have a bass boost, which really brings the music forward, and very nice highs. Both have excellent speed and soundstages. They are very, very accurate, so poor recordings will sound particularly nasty. 

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post #3 of 3
1/26/12 at 7:28pm
Look for a pair of quality studio cans. Something that has a relatively linear frequency response and is built like a tank. Since most headphones used in the studio aren't really used for their linearity and sound quality as such, and since most closed headphones aren't as good as open ones, don't really set your sights too high. Still, you can get something quite good. My Beyerdynamic DT770 is built like a tank, but out of the more modern up-to-date stuff I'd pick the Audio-Technica ATH-M50. It measures quite well and seems to be pretty linear save for a small bump in the frequency extremes.

The Sennheiser HD595/598 is quite good if you're ok with open headphones. The 50 ohm impedance versions (I think most sold are 50) are easy enough to drive by portable devices.

Alternatively, if you don't care about any of the criteria that you listed and want something as utterly impractical and wonderful sounding as possible, trawl ebay for a pair of Stax Lambdas.
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