[Fastnbulbous]

I've been listening to a lot of metal on my Denon AH-D2000 with Meier Audio Corda Cantate.2, and have no complaints. My tastes veer towards recent doom that's fairly bass saturated stoner like Electric Wizard and Conan and some power metal and sludge that definitely do not have pristine production values, but sound great to my ears!

 

[swspiers]

I'm sure the Denons are great, but I myself opted for planars.  Metal comes in a lot of forms, and for me what I listen for are solid mids on the guitar, articulate bass and something that can keep up with the drums.

 

[KneelJung]

I'm going to throw one more can into the mix for you, and that's the Fostex T50RP. Grado's are a great choice too, I love mine, and I enjoyed the pair of Magnums that were loaned to me as well. I've also spent some time with a d2000 and the T50 is a much better headphone. The Denon is more comfortable (not by much) and perhaps looks better, but sound quality wise a modded T50 (a little DIY damping) is a superior headphone IMO.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

I'm going to throw one more can into the mix for you, and that's the Fostex T50RP. Grado's are a great choice too, I love mine, and I enjoyed the pair of Magnums that were loaned to me as well. I've also spent some time with a d2000 and the T50 is a much better headphone. The Denon is more comfortable (not by much) and perhaps looks better, but sound quality wise a modded T50 (a little DIY damping) is a superior headphone IMO.

I have two pairs of the T50RP, and frankly, it's one of the weirdest headphones unmodded I've ever heard. It's got very little bass response that is appreciable. It can hit low notes, but ever so quietly. The mids are basically everything on the headphone. The treble is weird, distant, and cold. I'm quite amazed to see how this headphone got quite the following that it did, other than knowing it's an affordable entry level planar magnetic which gave it a bit of novelty, otherwise, probably never would have been looked at. Modded, it seems to scale to all kinds of heights, which is why I own more than one, for later, I plan on doing Thunderpants. But for now, it's just not worth listening to. I guess if you don't care about bass at all and just want mids in your ears and nothing else, this headphone will do. Both my pairs of Denons are far superior to both my pairs of T50RP's to me. I get it, when modded it's [insert something positive], but unmodded, which should be fully disclosed if you're talking about modded, and how it's modded as it matters immensely, this headphone is not great out of the box and requires modification to even be considered in the same class as a Denon.
 

 
Very best,
 

 

[KneelJung]

Just to clarify MalVaeuX I believe a modded pair of T50's sound better than the Denon d2000. Personally I didnt like the d2000. My upgrade path was SR60 > SR225 > d2000 > MS2I > HF2. I still have the HF2, the SR60 was woodied, and I bought another 225 and woodied it. So I have 3 Grado's and a modded T50. I've had 2 T50's as well, one that's been modded by me, and a Smeggy inspired pair of Thunderpants built by Martin of Martin Custom Audio. I absolutely agree that right out of the box the T50's dont measure up to the d2000. My problem with the d2000 was I thought it was too polite, too laid back, with recessed mids. Conversely a properly dampened T50 resolves the things about the d2000 I didnt like. I listen to a lot of guitar driven rock, SRV, Joe Bonamassa, that sort of stuff. It's not metal, but Grado's are killer for that stuff. So my recommendation to Horsethiefs query is based on my experience with the above phones. I understand a lot of people love the d2000, I found it sort of boring though, just my 2 cents.

 

[Horsethief]

AH-D5000s arrived today.  Freaking Amazon, knocks it out of the park again.  Two day shipping somehow arrives next day, wasn't expecting these till Tuesday.
 
Pre-break in impression:  I'm very pleased.  The low end fill I was missing with the K702s is immediately present.  While not providing the same clinical nature as the 702s, these bad boys already sound great on my favorite tunes.  Can't wait for these to be broken in properly.
 
In fact, they already sound much better on my Icon HD (amp/DAC) then directly out of my HP-4.  The HP-4 has four jacks so I had to compare them to the 702s side by side.
 
Thanks to everyone, especially MalVeauX.  You've steered me in a good direction.  Think I'll take that extra cash and apply it towards a Lyr/Bifrost before I start looking at planars again.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

AH-D5000s arrived today.  Freaking Amazon, knocks it out of the park again.  Two day shipping somehow arrives next day, wasn't expecting these till Tuesday.
 
Pre-break in impression:  I'm very pleased.  The low end fill I was missing with the K702s is immediately present.  While not providing the same clinical nature as the 702s, these bad boys already sound great on my favorite tunes.  Can't wait for these to be broken in properly.
 
In fact, they already sound much better on my Icon HD (amp/DAC) then directly out of my HP-4.  The HP-4 has four jacks so I had to compare them to the 702s side by side.
 
Thanks to everyone, especially MalVeauX.  You've steered me in a good direction.  Think I'll take that extra cash and apply it towards a Lyr/Bifrost before I start looking at planars again.

Nice,
 
And the Schiit setup with the D5000 is definitely good. However, I'll suggest that it's big time over-kill for the D5000 (and most headphones for that matter). But this has a lot more to do with the quality of your music.
 
Anyhow, I can definitely say it's a good combo if you see it in your horizon. I use it myself.
 

 
Very best,