[monoxyde1234]

will buy phones thru amazon, was finally going to buy myself some hfi-780 then suddenly i came across a few threads, confused me, and these are what i have come up with again.

ultrasone hfi 780 - bassy and fun cans
hfi 680 - if 780 is a bit too bassy and tame a little of its highs
senn hd25-1 ii - a more portable dont care if ugly great isolating cans
ath esw9a - i was expecting these within the 300$ range but saw this under 240$ on amazon.

so i listen to some radioheads, coldplay, postal service to kings of leon, klaxons, the editors to bloc party, architecture in helsinki

and some occational country and jazz

so if anyone could help me choose. will pair these with sansa clip 8gb and a mini3 later on

 

[rds]

I guess iems are out then?
You can get the se530s for about $250 on amazon and they sound very nice with portable sources.

 

[monoxyde1234]

iem's are not that much out, afterall, they are better isolating a lot more portable than full sized cans, though SQ wise, is the se530 a good contender with these cans, taking to account the music/artists/bands a listen to?

just looked at amazon, and the lowest i saw was at 266$ tho

 

[guyx1992]

For portable use, I only use IEMs. Anything other than that just annoys me, even the KSC75 that I own and the px100 that I tried at the store.

 

[jonathanjong]

I own both HD25 and ESW9. From your list, I listen to Radiohead, Coldplay, Postal Service, Kings of Leon, and Bloc Party. I'd go for HD25 if you don't care about the looks. ESW9s do Coldplay and Kings of Leop better, but subtly so. For the rest, I like HD25 better. Postal Service especially.

 

[rds]

Quote:

Originally Posted by monoxyde1234 /img/forum/go_quote.gif iem's are not that much out, afterall, they are better isolating a lot more portable than full sized cans, though SQ wise, is the se530 a good contender with these cans, taking to account the music/artists/bands a listen to? just looked at amazon, and the lowest i saw was at 266$ tho

I would never be able to use anything else for portables now. There are many great things that only iems can offer. You don't realize how great having that isolation is until you've had it available for a while. It's not just on planes, buses, and so on. At the end of the day maybe you're in a coffee shop and you just want to relax and tune out. You can put in your iems and play your music quietly without having to compete with all the ambient noise. Having music without the background noise is really nice and makes the sound much better in terms of enjoyability.

As for the se530s - they have a fantastic midrange and lots of bass. The highs are very smooth and detailed but a little rolled off compared with full size cans. These can also be driven very well from portable sources.

Despite having fancy equipment and cans, my itouch and se530s get the most use and I don't wish I had anything more for portable use.

Also note you won't need an amp with these phones which might justify the slightly higher price.
...and yeah I said "around $250". I don't think you'll find them lower than $266 anywhere.

 

[monoxyde1234]

i guess i just have to have both. but as of now, just to be safe(something im accustomed to), and due to lack of funds, i'd pass on the iem's. but someday my friend, someday

. i did get interested in iems once and read some stuff about them; ie8 - fun, se530 - detailed, um3 - balanced; but then SQ wise they are at par with less costly full sized cans so i reverted back. yeah there are trade offs but as of now, thats the way i'll go.


so hd25 is more pleasurable than esw9 with regards to my musical taste. tho still no word with the ultrasones.

 

[burgunder]

I'm just posting here as I'm also interested in the Ultrasone HFI 680 vs. 780 discussion since I'm in for a closed pair of cans that I could use the few times I'm in need of a portable. I leaning slightly towards the HFI-680 it's not mentioned much here but I does get some praise from time to time like here and here and it seems aesier to drive than it's brother.