PhoxHound
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2008
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Hey all! It's been quite a while since I've been on Head-Fi, but once again I'm looking to buy a pair of headphones. For a long time I've been using my beloved Bowers-Wilkins 686 desktop speakers for my main audio setup, but due to college-related moving I'll be without them for a significant period of time. Since I don't really have a very good pair of headphones, this seems to me to be an ideal time to invest in a pair. Right now I own a pair of Roland RH100 which by all appearances and information I've gathered are identical to the Sony MDR-7506. Basically they're fairly generic monitors. They sound decent, but the biggest issue I have with them is that no matter what I do to try and soften up the fit, the fit is very tight. I like to listen for a long time and it can be quite off-putting to actually get a headache from wearing them for several hours. On this note, listening fatigue is a related problem.
So comfort is a significant factor in what I'm looking for. As far as my own tastes in music, I listen to a fairly varied spectrum of music: primarily dance/drum and bass, but quite a bit of classical and jazz, as well as some rock. I'm not a serious audiophile, but I am a serious music listener and the quality of sound is just as important to me as comfort.
Budget range is a few hundred dollars; less than 300 would be ideal but 350 seems like a reasonable maximum. As far as amplification goes, I don't currently own an amp but I'm considering building one of the kits from http://www.bottlehead.com not only because they've gotten excellent reviews as amplifiers, but also for the electronics experience (I'm currently a computer science/engineering major so understanding of circuits is definitely important to me). Whether or not I have the amp, these headphones will spend most of their time at a desk, running from my M-Audio soundcard as a source. They may also spend some time unamped with an MP3 player.
For things I've already considered, I've looked at the Denon D2000, the Beyerdynamic DT770 or DT880, and the Ultrasone HFI 580 (I haven't looked into other Ultrasone models; how would they fare?).
That's about it; I don't really have a way to compare directly since I can't audition any of these headphones anywhere, so I'd like your opinions: which headphones deliver strong bass for electronic music while maintaining good performance in less bass-heavy genres and have a comfy fit for long listening?
So comfort is a significant factor in what I'm looking for. As far as my own tastes in music, I listen to a fairly varied spectrum of music: primarily dance/drum and bass, but quite a bit of classical and jazz, as well as some rock. I'm not a serious audiophile, but I am a serious music listener and the quality of sound is just as important to me as comfort.
Budget range is a few hundred dollars; less than 300 would be ideal but 350 seems like a reasonable maximum. As far as amplification goes, I don't currently own an amp but I'm considering building one of the kits from http://www.bottlehead.com not only because they've gotten excellent reviews as amplifiers, but also for the electronics experience (I'm currently a computer science/engineering major so understanding of circuits is definitely important to me). Whether or not I have the amp, these headphones will spend most of their time at a desk, running from my M-Audio soundcard as a source. They may also spend some time unamped with an MP3 player.
For things I've already considered, I've looked at the Denon D2000, the Beyerdynamic DT770 or DT880, and the Ultrasone HFI 580 (I haven't looked into other Ultrasone models; how would they fare?).
That's about it; I don't really have a way to compare directly since I can't audition any of these headphones anywhere, so I'd like your opinions: which headphones deliver strong bass for electronic music while maintaining good performance in less bass-heavy genres and have a comfy fit for long listening?