First post on Head-Fi!
I've been lurking here for over a week, feverishly reading threads and trying to pick out my first set of closed, over-the-ear cans. I currently use some iBud knock-offs (when I can't blast the speakers), so as you can imagine I'm really excited to jump into the audophile headphones world.
[OT: For anyone reading who may want to PM me some advice, my listening choices are: 60% rock, 10% punk, 10% classical, 10% jazz, 5% hip-hop, 5% female vocals. Although with better headphones, I may start listening to more jazz and vocals. Metal and country are the only things I do not really care for. I need headphones that sound good with no DAC, powered by iPod 5th generation or Macbook Pro. I don't mind if I'll have to re-rip parts of my library to higher bitrate. Cans must be full-size, over the ear, and closed. Willing to sacrifice sound quality for comfort (I'm moving up from iBuds, so they'll still sound great; and I need to wear them for long periods of time).]
I've really enjoyed all the time people have put into these forums to help newcomers like me trying to get a grasp of what's what, but I tell you there is a dark side: I arrived a week ago with 99% certainty I should be buying the HD380s, but now I'm completely paralyzed by choice.
I've gone through most of the usual suspects: Shure SRH440, Shure SRH8840, Sennheiser HD280, Sennheiser HD380, KRK KNS-6400, KRK KNS-8400, AT ATH-M50, Sony ZX700, Creative Aurvana Live!, etc....
For someone who a week ago was only vaguely familiar that cans come in open and closed formats, that it's a lot of info and options to process and narrow down.
The worst part is I have no Guitar Center nearby to demo any of these. So I'm shopping blind for comfortable, closed cans. (I've narrowed it down to: ZX700 ($115), HD380 ($120), or CAL!($60). Everything else is outside my budget).
TL;DR:
Country: Poland
Would love: Sony ZX700 or CAL! (in that order)
Thanks Asr for the giveaway, and thanks HeadFi community for all the info!