[Music Alchemist]

Definitely. They should also stay portable, isolate the outside noise both ways and sound same as clear

 
All other things being equal, open headphones are superior to closed ones. The best headphones for serious home listening are not portable. Maybe you meant "ideally" they should be that way, as opposed to reality.

 

[Greenears]

Change subject to:
Which is superior, tubes or transistors?

 
No! Don't change the subject!  I want to stay on the intersection between Gazprom, Petro China and Portuguese Sausage.
 
There should be a new internet rule about how long a thread can go before Gazprom and Petro China are mentioned in the same post.

 

[prot]

No! Don't change the subject!  I want to stay on the intersection between Gazprom, Petro China and Portuguese Sausage.

There should be a new internet rule about how long a thread can go before Gazprom and Petro China are mentioned in the same post.

You just cant forget the bank of china

 

[prot]

All other things being equal, open headphones are superior to closed ones. The best headphones for serious home listening are not portable. Maybe you meant "ideally" they should be that way, as opposed to reality.

I thought "they should" was a pretty clear sign of future tense, wishful thinking

 

[Music Alchemist]

I thought "they should" was a pretty clear sign of future tense, wishful thinking

 
Nope, it can mean present or future tense. Your statement could also be interpreted by some readers as your recommendation for what is the best thing to buy currently, so it's important to word things clearly.

 

[prot]

Nope, it can mean present or future tense. Your statement could also be interpreted by some readers as your recommendation for what is the best thing to buy currently, so it's important to word things clearly.

Possible. But anyone who interpreted my msg like that prolly has bigger issues

 

[Music Alchemist]

Possible. But anyone who interpreted my msg like that prolly has bigger issues

 
Just looking out for the newcomers to Head-Fi who blindly buy things based on vague posts.

 
But how ironic: the headphones I'm listening to right now on my desktop system are closed studio monitor headphones that are also very portable and can be used with any device.

 

[mulder01]

I think I should rename this thread to "stuff"

 

[Chris J]

I think I should rename this thread to "stuff"

How about 20 odd pages of B.S?

 

[mulder01]

Also a good suggestion.  Maybe I should make a poll so people can vote

 

[Chris J]

You should!

 

[prot]

Just looking out for the newcomers to Head-Fi who blindly buy things based on vague posts. :tongue_smile:

But how ironic: the headphones I'm listening to right now on my desktop system are closed studio monitor headphones that are also very portable and can be used with any device.

Nowadays using philips fidelio L2. Semiclosed. You still hear pretty much every env noise but they do no leak sound as much as a typical open design. Perfect for office.
The sound signature similar to senn 650. light, portable and for ~$200 I dont know any cans with a better price/perf ratio.

@mulder
Time to sell your abyss and buy some real L2 stuff

 

[jrbdmb]

   
There is no objective system because headphones are very subjective.  I find them even more subjective than speakers, which are pretty subjective to start with. 
 
One thread you can find on head-fi is about measured "neutral" sounding phones.  The idea is to use some kind of curve (several are proposed) and measure to that.  Then you use equalization to make it sound good, because too flat/neutral generally doesn't sound great.  But there is no generally accepted answer - all the proponents of this seem to agree this idea is in its infancy.
 
FWIW I'm looking at several Beyerdynamic closed options in the $200-300 range to drive directly from smartphone and high end laptop.  They sound good and reasonably neautral/balanced to me, to the extent that closed phones can.  But I haven't bought it yet.  I've heard many others all over the map including $1800 Audeze.  Some are ruled out for weight or comfort, it's not all just sound quality.

 
Sorry to be going OT (a bit) - but I've been wondering for a while why a "neutral" headphone is often considered a bad thing.  I'll often read that certain brands or models are good for specific kinds of music, or that many will avoid neutral sounding headphones because they are boring.  But wouldn't the theoretically perfect headphone be the one that produces 20 Hz - 20KHz ruler flat and therefor reproduce the music as the artist and the recording engineers intended? 
 
I get that no headphones can be perfectly neutral, so you have to select from imperfect headphones, and certain imperfections may work better with one type of music than another.  But sometimes it seems that listeners are seeking out headphones that artificially color the music (esp. bass) and dismissing a neutral sound.  Is that really the current state of the industry, or am I missing something?
 
Edit - BTW, I am also looking at getting a desktop amp to drive my HD 598s.  Do I really need an amp at all for moderate listening levels (instead of my iPhone 6)?  Do I get a O2, Magni, Asgard, Matrix-M, or start looking at tube amps / balanced designs?  The mind boggles ...

 

[bigshot]

I have Senn HD-590s and amping doesn't improve them at all. They work fine unamped.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Sorry to be going OT (a bit) - but I've been wondering for a while why a "neutral" headphone is often considered a bad thing.  I'll often read that certain brands or models are good for specific kinds of music, or that many will avoid neutral sounding headphones because they are boring.  But wouldn't the theoretically perfect headphone be the one that produces 20 Hz - 20KHz ruler flat and therefor reproduce the music as the artist and the recording engineers intended? 
 
I get that no headphones can be perfectly neutral, so you have to select from imperfect headphones, and certain imperfections may work better with one type of music than another.  But sometimes it seems that listeners are seeking out headphones that artificially color the music (esp. bass) and dismissing a neutral sound.  Is that really the current state of the industry, or am I missing something?
 
Edit - BTW, I am also looking at getting a desktop amp to drive my HD 598s.  Do I really need an amp at all for moderate listening levels (instead of my iPhone 6)?  Do I get a O2, Magni, Asgard, Matrix-M, or start looking at tube amps / balanced designs?  The mind boggles ...

 
Many headphones thought of as neutral aren't anywhere close to neutral -- that's the problem. You need to look at the measurements. My friend edited some headphone measurements with measurements for what a flat-tuned speaker system would sound like to us. You can see how closely various headphones follow the HRTF curve. (It can't be literally flat because you have to compensate for human hearing and also for how speakers and headphones differ.)
 

Spoiler: Check these out.

AKG K 701 (sample B)

Audeze LCD-2 (serial number 5325928, no Fazor)


Audeze LCD-3 Rev 2 (serial number 2613375, no Fazor)


Audeze LCD-X (serial number 7454971)


Beyerdynamic T1 (serial number 3964)


HiFiMAN HE-6


HiFiMAN HE-500


HiFiMAN HE-560


JPS Labs Abyss AB1266


Koss ESP950 (second sample)


OPPO PM-2 (stock earpads)


Sennheiser HD650


Sennheiser HD800


STAX SR-007 MKI (serial number SZ1-1023)


STAX SR-009 (serial number SZ92251)


STAX SR-207 (serial number SB-2217)


STAX SR-507 (serial number SE1-1049)


Focal Spirit Professional

 
It's easier to EQ a relatively neutral headphone to be even closer to neutral than it is to do so for a headphone that is very far from neutral.
 
Here are some resources about equalizing headphones:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial
http://www.head-fi.org/t/615417/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-advanced-tutorial-in-progress
 
Most headphones don't need an amp.
 

  I have Senn HD-590s and amping doesn't improve them at all. They work fine unamped.

 
I mentioned to you in the past that I owned an HD 590 for awhile as well. Mine sounded extremely muffled, like I was listening to music from outside a building. (It was the same with and without an amp.) It was confusing, because all the reviews talked about how it sounds bright, detailed, exciting, and so on. Yours don't sound muffled, do they?