[Marximus]

I like the Philips Citiscape Uptowns in that price range.  I found them substantially more agreeable than the CAL!.  The CAL! were very warm and had kind of muddy, pulpy bass.

 

[dakanao]

Quote:

I like the Philips Citiscape Uptowns in that price range.  I found them substantially more agreeable than the CAL!.  The CAL! were very warm and had kind of muddy, pulpy bass.

Can you tell me what's better about the uptowns than the CAL!?

 

[zazex]

Quote:

I mean like Call of Duty commentaries on youtube, where people talk over Call of Duty gameplay with high quality mics, where vocals are very important. So if I understood correctly, the Creative Aurvana Live! isn't a very good headphone for my needs?

I'm not familiar with those - ultimately, though, their level of audio fidelity
should be a factor in which headphone you choose.

 

[dakanao]

Quote:

I'm not familiar with those - ultimately, though, their level of audio fidelity
should be a factor in which headphone you choose.

Do you know any better headphones than the CAL! other than those headphones you mentioned in the first page?

 

[zazex]

Quote:

Do you know any better headphones than the CAL! other than those headphones you mentioned in the first page?

Not at this price point.
 
The differences start becoming worthwhile as you move towards $150-200.
But, in terms of closed headphones, the choices remailn relatively limited.
 
If you want to stay with closed headphones, and stretch the budget into that range
you could look at KRK KNS 8400', Shure 840, Audio Technica 900x, Beyer DT 770,
and perhaps a couple of others.  I happen to think that the 8400's would do particularly
well with vocal material of the type you described.

 

[davidsh]

JVC makes some good budget solutions. So does Takstar. And maybe Somic too

 

[dakanao]

Quote:

Not at this price point.
 
The differences start becoming worthwhile as you move towards $150-200.
But, in terms of closed headphones, the choices remailn relatively limited.
 
If you want to stay with closed headphones, and stretch the budget into that range
you could look at KRK KNS 8400', Shure 840, Audio Technica 900x, Beyer DT 770,
and perhaps a couple of others.  I happen to think that the 8400's would do particularly
well with vocal material of the type you described.

So the voices of the CAL! aren't that good? But how is the instrument separation and clarity of the instruments?
BTW I tried the Shure 840 at the local headphones store. I don't like their sound signature, it sounds too much as if it's coming from a radio if you know what I mean. Also tried the Shure 440, I liked those a bit more, but not to the point that I want to but them. I listened to the Philips Citiscape uptown btw. While they had really good instrument separation and sound, vocals were too forward sounding.

 

[dakanao]

Bump.

 

[TekeRugburn]

any headphone will do fine with commentary.... any headphone that cant do decent in commentary is one really crappy headphone.  Hell, 1 dollar headphones from dollar tree better be decent at commentary.  If you can't hear the commentator in his videos; then he/she should re-edit the video.
 
CAL
ATH-M50 (used maybe)
Uptowns
t50rp's (100 if u can stretch your budget)
 
or go to for sale forum here and get something.

 

[dakanao]

Quote:

any headphone will do fine with commentary.... any headphone that cant do decent in commentary is one really crappy headphone.  Hell, 1 dollar headphones from dollar tree better be decent at commentary.  If you can't hear the commentator in his videos; then he/she should re-edit the video.
 
CAL
ATH-M50 (used maybe)
Uptowns
t50rp's (100 if u can stretch your budget)
 
or go to for sale forum here and get something.

I mean I want really good vocal quality, instrument separation and just high quality midrange, treble and tight deep bass. And they also need to sound natural and a bit on the neutral side.
The ATH-M50 and T50RP's are out of my budget, so which headphone would do better at the things I mentioned above: The CAL! or the Uptowns?

 

[TekeRugburn]

Quote:

I mean I want really good vocal quality, instrument separation and just high quality midrange, treble and tight deep bass. And they also need to sound natural and a bit on the neutral side.
The ATH-M50 and T50RP's are out of my budget, so which headphone would do better at the things I mentioned above: The CAL! or the Uptowns?

 
man.... you're asking a lot out headphones at a price point of 80 bucks.  All these things you're asking for is subjective.  There isn't a definitive scale for these things.  I seriously don't think you'd be disappointed in either one.  Some people like cal's, some people like uptowns.... Within a price range there aren't many headphones that outdo all other headphones in that range in ALL categories.  For example
 

	Headphone A	Headphone B
Highs	Winner
Mids		Winner
Lows	Winner
Soundstage		Winner

 
Either one of those will suit your needs; they're not crap headphones but don't expect top tier performance out of 80 dollar cans.  

 

[zazex]

After all the q & a, and good information, in this thread,
I still recommend the Sony MDR V6.
 
Otherwise go with the CAL.
 
 
You'll be able to hear what you need to with either;
this is not (generally) a lifetime investment nor a
long term commitment.  Next year there will be
new models to attract your serious attention and interest.

 

[PredatorZ]

Grado's ? I'm guessing the SR-60i and SR-80's leak to much, as all open headphones do. These are excellent sounding cans, I would give them a try and see how they suit you. If all you are doing is gaming and and watching utube videos, your source material is very low quality, so most anything would do ok. None of that would be recorded on studio quality mikes. And like a lot of posters have mentioned, $ 80 is only going to get you entry level performance, and with what ever headphone you choose, there will be tradeoffs in sound quality to hit those price points. Grado's have a lot of bang for the buck, if you want to listen to good quality music, meaning well recorded. It's all personal taste, and with a budget the choices are pretty slim. I hope you find something that suits your needs. Get out and demo some headphones if you can. Advice only goes so far, actually hearing them is the final test, no two sets of ears are the same. Good luck in your journey !

 

[Marximus]

Between those two, the Uptowns are far superior in all those areas you mentioned, IMO.

 

[dakanao]

Quote:

 
man.... you're asking a lot out headphones at a price point of 80 bucks.  All these things you're asking for is subjective.  There isn't a definitive scale for these things.  I seriously don't think you'd be disappointed in either one.  Some people like cal's, some people like uptowns.... Within a price range there aren't many headphones that outdo all other headphones in that range in ALL categories.  For example
 

	Headphone A	Headphone B
Highs	Winner
Mids		Winner
Lows	Winner
Soundstage		Winner

 
Either one of those will suit your needs; they're not crap headphones but don't expect top tier performance out of 80 dollar cans.  

Alright thanks for your input man. Do you know if the CAL!'s are more on the neutral side sounding? Because that's what I prefer.
Quote:

After all the q & a, and good information, in this thread,
I still recommend the Sony MDR V6.
 
Otherwise go with the CAL.
 
 
You'll be able to hear what you need to with either;
this is not (generally) a lifetime investment nor a
long term commitment.  Next year there will be
new models to attract your serious attention and interest.

Do you know how the instrument separation and clarity is on the CAL!?
Quote:

Grado's ? I'm guessing the SR-60i and SR-80's leak to much, as all open headphones do. These are excellent sounding cans, I would give them a try and see how they suit you. If all you are doing is gaming and and watching utube videos, your source material is very low quality, so most anything would do ok. None of that would be recorded on studio quality mikes. And like a lot of posters have mentioned, $ 80 is only going to get you entry level performance, and with what ever headphone you choose, there will be tradeoffs in sound quality to hit those price points. Grado's have a lot of bang for the buck, if you want to listen to good quality music, meaning well recorded. It's all personal taste, and with a budget the choices are pretty slim. I hope you find something that suits your needs. Get out and demo some headphones if you can. Advice only goes so far, actually hearing them is the final test, no two sets of ears are the same. Good luck in your journey !

No Grado's sorry. They leak too much.
Quote:

Between those two, the Uptowns are far superior in all those areas you mentioned, IMO.

I forgot to mention I tried out the Uptowns yesterday at our big headphones store. Everything sounded ok, except the vocals. The vocals were too forward and a bit dull imo.