Hello,
This is my first post here so forgive me if I appear to be a noob.
My music taste is primarily Electro, EDM, Chillout, House, Vocal trance and a bit Symphonic Metal and Classical music.(Some of my favorites are Infected Mushrooms, Moonbeam, Enigma, Emancipator, Eluveitie..) My first real headphone is Beyer DT990 Pro and I really loved it until recently one of its drivers died....
 
I went to the shop and I found that the discontinued Sony SA5000 was really amazing, however, the price is a little too steep for me ( around 500$).
My budget is around 200$ and i will use it with my cowon j3. I did some researches on headphones that have that crisp and clear sound and exceptional mid-high range and powerful but controlled bass and upfront vocal presentation so I refined down to these:
 
Shure SRH940
Grado SR325i
AKG K271 MK II
Ultrasone Pro 900
 

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Can you give me some advices on these? I really really appreciate it. 
Thank you.

 My first real headphone is Beyer DT990 Pro and I really loved it until recently one of its drivers died....

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HOW ?   .. thats one real bad-ass headphone .. built to withstand volcano outbreaks! 

I like treble tilted headphones unfortunately I've not heard any of the above except the SRH-940 and out of an HUD-MX1, is some of the best treble and flat response I've heard .. the re-272 iem being very close 

I've heard the first three on your list and I wouldn't characterize their bass as powerful at all- if anything they are all relatively bass-shy and K271 has no bass whatsoever.  They do have nice mids, and K271 has just-right treble, SRH940 has very slightly emphasized treble but the 325 has far excessive treble imo.  Be careful, treble emphasis can really ruin a headphone.  In your shoes I'd get an open headphone- they always sound better than closed headphones in the same price range- and look for a phone that doesn't emphasize bass & treble too much.  Phones you may consider are ones more like K240, DT880- but I haven't had extensive experience with those, check out AKG and Beyer threads.

Quote:

ayaflo said:

 
HOW ? 

 .. thats one real bad-ass headphone .. built to withstand volcano outbreaks! 

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Oh well, it just died suddenly, along with my desktop-onboard sound card, power shock they said, it has nothing to do with physical built. It might be bad luck, my house got robbed in that time too...(

Quote:

stupidbabe said:

 
Oh well, it just died suddenly, along with my desktop-onboard sound card, power shock they said, it has nothing to do with physical built. It might be bad luck, my house got robbed in that time too...(

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Bad luck, man. 

I still fancy the SA5000, so if you have one for sale, please also pm me

Quote:

stupidbabe said:

I still fancy the SA5000, so if you have one for sale, please also pm me

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I have not heard them yet, but they are on their way to me .. should be here within 2 days or 3 ..recabled with 7N OCC copper too 

Quote:

ayaflo said:

 
I have not heard them yet, but they are on their way to me .. should be here within 2 days or 3 ..recabled with 7N OCC copper too 

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R u trying to make me jealous???... Oh well u did it.. Congrats on your purchase

R u trying to make me jealous???... Oh well u did it.. Congrats on your purchase

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I took a lot of time trying to get one in good condition but finally I got one

Quote:

stupidbabe said:

Hello,
This is my first post here so forgive me if I appear to be a noob.
My music taste is primarily Electro, EDM, Chillout, House, Vocal trance and a bit Symphonic Metal and Classical music.(Some of my favorites are Infected Mushrooms, Moonbeam, Enigma, Emancipator, Eluveitie..) My first real headphone is Beyer DT990 Pro and I really loved it until recently one of its drivers died....
 
I went to the shop and I found that the discontinued Sony SA5000 was really amazing, however, the price is a little too steep for me ( around 500$).
My budget is around 200$ and i will use it with my cowon j3. I did some researches on headphones that have that crisp and clear sound and exceptional mid-high range and powerful but controlled bass and upfront vocal presentation so I refined down to these:
 
Shure SRH940
Grado SR325i
AKG K271 MK II
Ultrasone Pro 900
 

[size=1.7em]  [/size]

Can you give me some advices on these? I really really appreciate it. 
Thank you.

Click to expand...

 
Heya,
 
Here's some quick notes, based on you coming from the DT990 which is a very bright and quite bassy headphone:
 
SRH940 - It will be bright too, but you'll notice a massive loss in mid-bass and less volumous sub-bass, with an increase in mids and overall detail.
SR325i - It will be about as bright, if not brighter, mids a little better, bass quite a bit less overall.
K271 MKII - It will sound a lot more polite, less bright, less bass, better mids though.
PRO900 - It will be a little brighter, and more bassy in the mid bass, with less mids.

Kind of a wide range of headphones and characteristics.
 
Coming from the DT990, I wonder if you actually want to have a treble-emphasized headphone with bass, or if you're looking for something with less bass.
 
If you want something slightly bright with good warm neutral sound and the ability to go low with bass but not have emphasized or over-powered bass, you could look at the Beyer DT880 or Hifiman HE-300 in your price range.

I think in your price range though, if you stick to closed back, and if you want to be able to get some good crunchy bass, maybe look into the Beyer DT770, Ultrasone HFI 780, and/or Sennheiser HD380 PRO.
 
Veyr best,

Thank you so much for the insight. I prefer open back and treble-emphasized headphones with bass and it must have speed. I specifically don't like muddy sound or recessed mids, high should be smooth without sibilance and the headphone should be easy to drive from my cowon j3.
 
The thing i found lacking in pro 880 is they r too neutral and distant for my taste..( i want a fun can with character ). I did some researches and found that the mad dogs fostex and sony mdr-1r might do the job. Can you show me which direction to go now?