No, I have not heard the HD 201's.  However, the Sennheiser HD-202's were the headphones that got me into this.  I really liked their bassy/slammy sound for metal.  I'd say the HD-439's post tape mod are pretty close to the HD-202's in sound.  The biggest difference being that the 439 has a bit...

I did the tape mod on them(initially I liked them anyway.)  The tape mod made them better.  Lots more bass.  Yet didn't affect the overall sound.  The tape mod encompasses removing a piece of tape from three holes on the back of the drivers.  After doing this, I feel it propelled them higher...

Here's my budget rig.     Sennheiser HD 439's -- 40.00 Sony NWZ-E374 8gb -- 40.00   80 dollars of musical joy.   I love the 8 gigs of space only.  Forces me to be selective with what i want to listen to at any given time.  

For me.  It's Mr. Bungle's Self-titled.  Awesome album yet on the same end one of the more bizarre ones a person could pick up.  Any of their discography is weird really.  Yet so creative and awesome.       Another would be Acid Bath's When the Kite String Pops.  On the cover is John Wayne...

I have a pair of RP-HTX7's.  They have a generally fun sound.  The bass doesn't go the deepest and the treble doesn't sparkle as well as it could.  But they are fun headphones for their price.

I know right? The 780s were like stabbing pencils in my ears. Now I didn't exactly have a tube amp to run them through. Just couldn't take them.

For me it was the Ultrasone HFI-780.  I tried and tried and tried to like these.  But ultimately I ended up hating them.  The harshness of the metallic-sounding treble just kills me.  You know its bad when I turned to my SR-60's for a smoother sound.

If you really want to get adventurous: Mahler Symphonies 1 and 2 also 10. Shostakovich Symphonies 8 and 5 Brahms Symphony 1(Surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet). I'm a huge fan of Tchaikovsky's sixth.  If want to try out some different conductors and how they interpret Tchaikovsky give...

Mortification's Scrolls of the Megilloth if you ever are jonesin' for some old school christian death(life?) metal.

Good read there.  It is indeed a good set.  I just bought the Living Stereo set and am loving that one myself also.

I just got the RCA Living Stereo set.  I agree with you, the recordings are amazing.  

Thank you sir.  That clears that up quite nicely.  

This might be a ridiculous question, but why do so many of these powered speaker/monitors have the volume and controls on the back?  I've been looking at pairs of these for a long time and the one deal killer for me is that I have to reach to the back to adjust the volume.  I know the 3-monitors...

That is the next one I believe I'll be getting as I love the living stereo discs. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I just recently picked this up as a birthday present to myself.  As we speak I am piping Verdi's Requiem through my stereo.  The sound is fantastic!!!!  It worked out to 2.40 per cd.  I am definitely going to be picking up more of these huge box sets soon.         This is definitely a...