New Headphones

ever heard of soundcard or audio chip? the chip is part of the dac section. the dac is digital to analog convertor, your files on your iphone are digital, the dac converts them into analog. then it goes to the amp, the amp drives whatever playback device you have, speakers, headphones, earphones... and yes you probably want an amp to drive your headphones especially if you want to get into hifi. i dont have that much experience with sennheiser and no experience with grado, so the headphone suggestion, i will leave to someone else to answer. for cheap amps, maybe look into fiio. good luck with finding whatever you want  

p.s. theres a deal going on amazon, sennheiser hd598, 200 bucks and also gives you a 30 bucks giftcard  

well my beyerdynamic dt990 fits into this price range but sometimes it can sound a little too harsh and the bass may be too overemphasized for some people. otherwise the clarity is nice, some people claim they have a big soundstage (i dont really hear it, probably because of my genre of music). and do you need it to be portable and be used in public? if portable and being used in public are a necessity then forget the beyerdynamic dt990. its an open headphone and will not isolate outside noise and will leak out sound. also if possible, if you have CDs, rip CDs in lossless (apple lossless if you are using itunes) and not in mp3. that will cause more space but is better on sound quality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by erincamera 

Oh I see. Yeah a big soundstage would be nice. And no it would not have to be portable. I have a PX 200ii for that. Thanks for the recommendation!
 

no problem and later when you get an amp, if you indeed get the beyerdynamic dt990, you probably want to pair it up with a tube amp to make it less harsh. this is what im looking to do in the future.

also forgot to add, there are different versions of the dt990. mine is the beyerdynamic dt990 pro 250ohm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by erincamera 

Ah, for sure. Thanks! And just to be clear, the DAC is already in my mp3, and all I need to get is an amp, correct?
 

ok so files are stored in your iphone 4 (hopefully not mp3 but in apple lossless format for sound quality), then it goes to the dac and then amp of your iphone 4 and then to whatever playback device. for amps, after you get it, you will have to get a lineout cable that connects from the iphone 4 to the amp, so it bypasses the internal iphone amp and uses the external amp. the iphone dac should be decent for now though you can bypass the iphone's dac as well by getting the fostex hpp1 (dac/amp in 1 unit), cypher labs algorithm solos (dac only, you will need an external amp besides the solos), the upcoming centrance m8 (dac/amp in 1 unit), go dap x (dac/amp in 1 unit, i heard you can also customize the go dap x's amp section), sony pha1 (dac/amp in 1 unit). those are all portable or as least transportable, and also pretty pricy. there is the cheaper hrt istreamer if you want to bypass the iphone dac but it wont be portable. for home use, its probably better to use a comp for music because idevices only have so many choices to choose from. so back to your situation now, i would say, stick with your iphone dac, get a cheap amp from fiio or something, and then get the headphone you end up picking. if you want later, you can consider one of those dac/amps if you want high quality music for portable use with your iphone. sorry if this is still too confusing, i tried to explain as best as i could and provide information that you may want to know. im willing to explain further if you want more details or clarifications.

Quote:

Originally Posted by erincamera 

Ah okay I got it now xD thanks a lot! you've really helped me

no problem, happy picking and listening  make sure to post what you finally get over here and your impression of them, im interested in what you finally pick

m50, dont have it but people say it has a u shape sound signature, meaning boosted bass and treble, recessed mids.

dt990, people say it has the same signature but to my ears, the treble im not really sure if its that much boosted (never really tested the treble before, more like i just listen and if i pick up anything, i would put it down as my impression) but the bass is definitely boosted, and sometimes is competing with the mid (where the vocals are). also never took notes of the treble being boosted or not, i do find the headphone harsh sometimes, so if you listen to songs with a lot of treble and upper mid, you may want to watch out.

sr80i, no experience with grado

srh750dj, dont have it but people say its a basshead headphone, has a lot of bass and the headphone breaks easily because its made of cheap plastic.

so do some research on them and pick, take your time. dont want to waste your money!