Good day,
 
For years, I've listened to my music through 'okay' (~40$) in ear headphones, and my Creative Fatality gaming headset. The in ear's always broke rather quickly, and the gaming headset is finally giving up, so I feel like the time has come for me to invest, and get my first pair of over the ear headphones that are of some real quality. Now, as the above might illustrate, I know very little about headphones, and I am by no means an audiophile. This is making it very difficult for me to pick an item, as I don't really understand what I need. If headphones are being advertised as studio quality, are they already better than what I would need them to be? I'm certainly not trying to make a living off of them, but then again I suppose most people aren't and they might still buy these items, so I'm a bit confused there. I also play games on my PC quite regularly, so it would be nice if they were alright at gaming sound, but no need to be specialized in this. Maybe I should begin with some basics.
 
Budget - I'm willing to pay up to, say, $150, but if it is not needed to go up that high I'll gladly stay under it. What I mean by this is that I won't be in the studio making a living off of these things, nor am I so accustomed to great sound that I need top of the line products.
 
Source - I'll mostly be playing music from my desktop computer, which has an ASUS P5K motherboard. Quite old, and probably not that great. As for my music playing device for when travelling, this is a OnePlus One phone. It doesn't have a great audio chip (?) from what I've been told, so that might be good to keep in mind.
 
Isolation and such - I'll mostly be wearing them in doors in my room, and in public in trams and such. So it'd be nice for them to have decent isolation going both ways, I shouldn't bother others, and they shouldn't bother me.
 
Type of headphone - As stated above, I'm looking for over the ear, closed headphones. I'll be wearing them for hours on end probably, so they should be comfortable!
 
Music Preference - This is where things get a little complicated. I'm a person that changes music preference quite often, and as a result of this I listen to a ton of different things. I frequently listen to drum and bass and deep house. However, I also really like music like The XX (I don't know how to describe the type of music), and even some metal like Rise Against or underground Hip Hop (not so much anymore, though). Perhaps to give you more of an idea, here's some songs that I listen to semi regularly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlQfSqyfjqY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEcggRukZCs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRJ3t9znFs8
 
Location - A bit complicated, but convenient. I live in Switzerland, regularly visit the Netherlands and have friends that travel back and forth from the USA every month. So both European and American stores are fine. 
 
Now, I went through the http://www.head-fi.org/a/headphone-buying-guide guide, and I have to say that I'm not even sure what category I should be looking at. My instincts say entry level, or is someone who is as inexperienced as I am fine by going the budget route? In that guide I liked the description of the KRK KNS-6400's, but to be fair all of the others sound fine too.
 
If there's anything very important I left out, please tell me.

After doing some rather unguided research, I believe that headphones that would definitely be good enough (maybe too good already?) for my purposes would be the DT 770 80 Ohms, the Creative Aurvana Live, the ATH M50's and the KRK KNS-6400. I'd love some opinions on those with respect to my criteria, or other recommendations in general.

I can definitely say that the ATH-M50x should be a good bet in your budget. But, I think more importantly you should try it on and listen to some of your favourite tunes. It is neutral sounding , has very good isolation, tight bass and great SQ for the price. But IMO it is not good for long term listening because I found the Sony MDR-1R / newer MDR-1A to be more comfortable and soundstage and warmth is also very important to me. So I finally bought the MDR's instead of the M50x. 
 
What I have found in my very limited experience in the audio scene is that sound is relative to everyone's tastes. A purely analytical comparison between the MDR-1R and M50x would reveal that the M50x is better in almost every way, but still it fell short of the MDR-1R IMO. 
 
Create a short-list : Listen to as many as possible in that list and decide. Happy hunting 

verdict said:

After doing some rather unguided research, I believe that headphones that would definitely be good enough (maybe too good already?) for my purposes would be the DT 770 80 Ohms, the Creative Aurvana Live, the ATH M50's and the KRK KNS-6400. I'd love some opinions on those with respect to my criteria, or other recommendations in general.

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The Beyers are good, but they have quite a bit of bass and too bright for me in the treble(you might like that) and have a great soundstage which youd appreciate for gaming, they isolate both ways very good but aren't very portable. Super comfy

The CAL! has terrific imaging and very well balanced with also some bass boost but these don't isolate well at all, but they are my favorite sounding from this list. Super comfy

M50 don't have much of a soundstage, but they have a boosted bass and boosted treble but not as much as the beyerdynamics. They isolate decently, kinda bulky tho and not the most portable and comfort is ok, just ok. Clear sound and detailed, but not very musical I prefer the above two.

Never heard the KRK.

As for other options within your budget, try to get a used or on sale AKG K550(amazing sounstage, very neutral and comfy). Sony MDR-1R(well balanced and comfy, looks nice too). UE6000(probably the best bang for the buck in headphones at their current prices, highly recommend). If you'd like to save money and don't wanna use them on the go then the Superlux HD681 EVO is a tremendous bargain, it is semi open but it's great for gaming and bassy music. HD439 is also really good, and is portable with good soundstage.

Oh almost forgot, Takstar PRO80 can be had for quite cheap and it sounds better (to my ears) than the M50 and DT770.

omgladygaga said:

Oh almost forgot, Takstar PRO80 can be had for quite cheap and it sounds better (to my ears) than the M50 and DT770.

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Wow, so many options. Thanks for the extensive post! I really like most of the things about the Beyers, except how they look. An opinion for sure, but the grey doesn't appeal to me. Not a major issue for sure though.
 
You mention that the CAL! are your favorite sounding from the list. Would that be the 1 or the 2? Both of them seem to be significantly cheaper than anything else on the list, so are they really just such a fantastic bang for buck?
 
About the others, the AKG K550 would indeed only fit my budget as a second hand headphone. I'm not sure how I feel about that actually.
 
To be fair, almost every one of them seems great on paper. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find a store where I can actually listen to them myself, as some of these are rather hard to come by where I am, so that is a little annoying. Luxury problems...
 
On the topic of the Takstar, it is indeed very cheap on Ebay. Can't find a lot of info about it though.

verdict said:

Wow, so many options. Thanks for the extensive post! I really like most of the things about the Beyers, except how they look. An opinion for sure, but the grey doesn't appeal to me. Not a major issue for sure though.

You mention that the CAL! are your favorite sounding from the list. Would that be the 1 or the 2? Both of them seem to be significantly cheaper than anything else on the list, so are they really just such a fantastic bang for buck?

About the others, the AKG K550 would indeed only fit my budget as a second hand headphone. I'm not sure how I feel about that actually.

To be fair, almost every one of them seems great on paper. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find a store where I can actually listen to them myself, as some of these are rather hard to come by where I am, so that is a little annoying. Luxury problems...

On the topic of the Takstar, it is indeed very cheap on Ebay. Can't find a lot of info about it though.

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The CAL1 it's very affordable, it's one of those headphones that you buy as a beginner and then when you try to upgrade you realize that you just downgraded lol. Isolation isn't great tho keep that in mind.

Yeah look up the takstars I've had mine for a couple years and still good as new, so durability is a definite plus

If you can get out and find some places to listen to some headphones, that would help. Then you'd be able to better tell everyone what you like/don't like about specific models.

So I've followed up on your recommendations and went out hunting for places to listen to the headphones. This wasn't with much success, except that I found a guy living on my campus that had both the DT770's and the M50x. He let me listen to both of them, and to be fair they both sounded great. However, the DT770's sounded a bit more.. energetic? That is definitely not a term when it comes to music, but the sounds just sounded more alive, and I enjoyed it more. The M50x was a bit less vibrant. Plus I preferred the bass on the 770's.
 
However, having a look up close also told me that the 770's were not gonna be portable enough for my needs. The cable is pretty huge.. So I'd say I would like to look for something that has a similar profile (?) to the 770's, but that is a bit more portable. Would the CAL!s be a good alternative? (I've been told the CAL1's are better than the CAL2, for my preferences?) Those Takstar Pro 80 still look nice too, but I'm having some trouble finding extensive info and comparisons. I was also told about the Denon AH-D1100, but such a heavy focus on bass might be a bit too much?

Yeah. The DT770s are definitely not my choice for portable headphones.

For headphones with a good bit of bass that are much more portable, look into the Logitech UE6000.

cel4145 said:

Yeah. The DT770s are definitely not my choice for portable headphones.

For headphones with a good bit of bass that are much more portable, look into the Logitech UE6000.

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Hm, the list just keeps growing doesn't it. This is a whole lot more difficult than upgrading the hardware in your PC! Those Logitech ones seem good too. I don't own any apple products so that's a bonus I won't benefit from, but they seem to offer quite a bit more too. From what I know I don't really need active noise cancelling, though.

Most head-fiers find that the UE6000 sound best without the AC engaged. No need to even put batteries in them.

verdict said:

  After doing some rather unguided research, I believe that headphones that would definitely be good enough (maybe too good already?) for my purposes would be the DT 770 80 Ohms, the Creative Aurvana Live, the ATH M50's and the KRK KNS-6400. I'd love some opinions on those with respect to my criteria, or other recommendations in general.

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http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/KRKKNS6400.pdf
The krk seems like a partly basslight and bright monitoring can.

cel4145 said:

Most head-fiers find that the UE6000 sound best without the AC engaged. No need to even put batteries in them.

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Hm, I see. I just feel like maybe they are a bit too feature packed for my needs? As in, am I not paying extra for things I could just leave out? The headphone splitter, the apple product stuff, and the noice canceling. Then again, I suppose this might have been true when it first came out, but the price drops could actually negate this.

verdict said:

Hm, I see. I just feel like maybe they are a bit too feature packed for my needs? As in, am I not paying extra for things I could just leave out? The headphone splitter, the apple product stuff, and the noice canceling. Then again, I suppose this might have been true when it first came out, but the price drops could actually negate this.

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Yes. You can find crappy sounding headphones at that price that don't have all those features.

The UE6000 are popularly recommended on Head-Fi because of their sound quality. Who cares if they have extra features that you don't need if they sound better than alternatives? And they happen to be a very portable over ear headphone because they fold up nicely in a small size and fit in the pouch that comes with them.

Read this review: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/surprisingly-good-logitec-ue6000-and-ue9000