Just got my D2000's.. extremely unimpressed, what should I do now?

You need a quality DAC and amp,if not,at least a decent soundcard.Plugging them into onboard audio is like pulling a wagon with a rocket.

Definitely the source. I played mine on my smartphone, and on my mp3 player, and it's night and day. Some sources just don't have adequate power. Don't really need an amp for the D2000s though.

You didn't do your homework about the Denons isolation. It's been mentioned MANy times that although it is a closed design, it leaks almost as much as an open can.

The DT770 pro 80 has very boomy bass itself. I highly doubt the Denon D2000 is WORSE in that regard.

The M50 has a lower amount of bass, but still very satisfying. And they isolate well, are comfortable after stretching the headband, and work well without an amp. I know it gets over recommended, but that's because they are solid. Haters gonna hate, but the M50s are great. They however, have a small soundstage.

Amping well helps, though it sounds like you don't want to lay down anymore cash. Give them a little while. These are some solid cans, but they'll need a little burn-in and your ears will need to adjust to their sound signature. These can be easily be bested, but I enjoyed the year I had them. Great with electronica.

 

If you have something like a current generation iPhone or iPod, even that will get near the maximum potential of the Denons.  The main factor is you need a clean source.  I'm not sure how your current source is in comparison.

 

You could be like my basshead friend and listen EXTREMELY loud too.  Saying you expected the headphones to rattle and that your sister could hear literally every detail of a song to me implies that you just might be like that.  The Denons do leak a lot, but it shouldn't be to the point of hearing every single detail of a song across a room unless you listen at deafening levels.

 

First invest in a clean amp/dac-- an entry level fiio will be all you'd need.  If not, then you can move to a different headphone.

 

M50 has either more or less quantitative bass than the Denon depending on version.  Blue box will have more quantitive bass and white box less supposedly.  Even the blue box version-- which has more bass, still has a less impactful bass, so I wouldn't expect anything silly like making your headphones rattle because of it.  I'm not quite sure why you'd want your headphones to rattle in the first place.

Blue/white box M50s are very similar. The difference in bass is over exaggerated.

Well if that's the case, then even the white-boxed M50 might have more bass quantity than the D2000.  

 

 

Any of the Fios with a combination dac/amp should do the job.  As long as you line-out from the computer and completely bypass the computer's own internal amp/dac.

 

They usually have hardware bass boosters too if you're wanting your pads to vibrate.  Songs with very low bass will make the Denons vibrate a whole lot with a bass boost applied, but you might get a headache the next day!

Nah, the blue box still has a little more bass, but it's just slight. The D2000 supposedly has more bass than the D7000, and I know for sure that the D7000 has more sub bass than the M50s, but less mid bass.

No if I remember correctly the E5 is just an amp.  You want an amp/dac like the E7.  If it's an amp/dac and you can line-out to it, you'll never need a soundcard in the future.  (unless of course you want special features like dolby headphone and play computer fps games)

The only Fiios that will make a soundcard obsolete is the D3 (great), D5 (eww), E7 (obsolete now with the E10 and E17 out now), E10, and E17/Alpen. The D3 is optical/coaxial only, and doesn't have an internal amp, but it does have better SQ as a DAC than the E7.