I'm looking for closed over the ear portable headphones that will be comfortable for long periods of time. But my ears are larger than average and my right ear is slightly larger than my left.
My previous pair was a Sony MDR-7506. It didn't fit entirely around my ears but it was light and didn't clamp too hard. I could wear it for most of a weekend but I'd be plenty sore by the end. I would like something which would be a step up.
I've tried everything I could find for sale in the Boston area. In no particular order:
- The Sennheiser Momentum M2 was too small.
- The Blue Mo-Fi was tiny.
- The Bowers & Wilkins P7 was too small.
- The PSG M4U1 was too small.
- The Master & Dynamic MH-40 was narrow.
- The PSB M4U 1 was too small.
- The NAD VISO HP50 was not deep enough. My right ear touched the driver cover.
- The V Moda M-100 with the standard earpads was too small.
- The Oppo PM-3 left side was OK but my right ear touched the pad around most of the circumference.
- The Bang & Olufsen H6 fit over the left ear but touched the pad on the right.
- The AKG K545 left side was OK but my right ear touched the top and bottom.
- The Denon Music Maniac AH-D600 went over my ears but I could not get it to be comfortable. I'm not sure why.
- The Beyerdynamic Custom STUDIO had no isolation as far as I could hear.
My ideal headset would be reasonably portable, preferably with a removable cord. It would have good passive isolation. Lighter weight is better than heavier. Rugged is also important - The 7506 survived many years of abuse. And it would be comfortable enough that I could wear it all day.
As far as sound, I'm not looking for lots of lows or highs. I think I want a detailed (analytic?) midrange. This might be a result of my spending lots of time with the MDR-7506 or it might be my tendency to plug what I'm wearing into everything from a portable MP3 player to a home stereo to a shortwave ham radio station. For music I listen to various stuff, from a cappella Balkan to Vivaldi. I'm not into heavy metal or playing at high volumes.
I just sent the PM-3 back to Oppo after listening for a couple hours. They sounded wonderful but my right ear was already getting painful.
Auditioning headphones isn't a lot of fun for me (heresy on this forum, I know). My goal is to find a suitable pair of headphones and then to go back to listening to stuff. Right now all I have are a couple communications headsets and a Lightspeed Zulu.2, none of which are really suitable for music listening.
What headphones should I order to try next?