[dumboearz]

Hi all, i'm new in the forum and about headphones. I'm looking into buying a good set of cans to compliment my PC with an ASUS Xonar Essence STX soundcard. This soundcard got rave reviews for it's sound, and I believe it has enough juice to run entry level, audiophile-grade cans. I have a budget of $400 and I came across these three so far. I do not plan on buying a headphone amp, unless I feel that the soundcard cannot fully run the headphones.

I listen to a variety of music such as classical, rock & pop, r&b, rap, world music, dance/electronic. I will also use the headphones on my Yamaha piano.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Acix]

K702 or RS-1 used.

 

[wnmnkh]

K701/2.

I would not say RS-1 is great for classicial and for piano play, since they bring some serious coloration on mid-range and lack of sound stage.

 

[ph0rk]

I'd look at the k271/272, and spend what's left on music. You can likely audition a k271 in a local music instrument store, like guitar center.

 

[wind016]

i have an akg k272 and theyre REALLY boring. it's a studio headphone and i used to do mixing for my band's music. hate the akg for music listening tho. nothing impresses me. both the grado and the akgs need an amp. the akg more so than the grado. i have a GRADO SR325i and it's awesome. super clear highs and bass that can actually do some head thumping.

a note tho, when i use the grados, i put my itune's and winamp's equalizer's preamp to zero otherwise the grado will start sounding harsh when u bump up the lows, high-mids, and highs hella high on the eq. im kinda a basshead so i bump the lows all the way up and make them thump my head.

 

[invisiman]

If you're confident that your card can power them, I'd go for the AKG K701's. If you're not sure it can handle them, I'm probably go with the Grado's.

 

[crazyeyes]

I had the SR325i's for a little while. They were awesome for rock music but when you got to jazz and stuff they just were not suited for that type of music. I now have the K702's and they can do everything if you have an amp that can drive them. I am running them out of my Apogee Duet which drives them quite well actually. I am not sure about your sound card but if it can't give the K702's the power they need you won't get a great sound from them. So if you are doubting it at all you might want to go with the grados however they will not handle jazz, classical all that well.

 

[ffrr]

2nd on the 701/702

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Forget about listed AKGs if you are not planning on amp. 325i? Not sure, you might want MS2i instead, more civilized treble. I used to own one, but to be honest total lack of comfort and build quality issues totally turned me away from Grado. You may also want to look into some open ATHs, like AD900, they are not amplification picky.

 

[dumboearz]

Thank you everyone for your advice as I really appreciate the feedback. It seems that the only way to figure out what suits me best is to try them...so I bought both the AKG k702 and k272HD. I'll testdrive them both with my ASUS Xonar Essence STX soundcard and once I figure out which is better for my tastes, I'll return the one that I didn't like. Then, I'll buy the Grado SR325is and compare again until I find the right one for me and return the unwanted item again. I feel that this is the only way to come to a solution for my question.

Can anyone recommend a good headphone amp for under $500 for the AKG's and the SR325is? I may need to pick up one based on everyone's comments....

AKG k272hd is coming on wednesday, and the k702 on thursday of this week. I will post my decision on thursday.

 

[arteom]

Just be sure you go with a low impedance amp. The x-can v8 will drive both brands mighty well, heed canamp is another popular choice for the 701. Keeping both phones and going with an amp might do the trick for you, if you are lucky. You can also look into one of the Denon phones, the audio technica ATH-D2000. The Sennheiser HD-600 might work particularly well as all rounder if you want just one set of phones (for this one you want an amp that handles higher impedance phones). Of the above I had a D2000 and a HD600, the K701 stayed and they went. But I also did end up getting a Alessandro MS-Pro (and proceeded to ultimate mod it) to use when listening to electronic and rock music. The two (K701 and MS-Pro) are keeping me happy

.

Welcome to head-fi, sorry about your wallet.

 

[dumboearz]

I decided to keep the AKG K 702, and return the K 272 HD. Now it's time to get the Grado SR325is and compare once more.

I've made my choice w/o doing the burn-in process; right off the bat the K 702 sounded better while listening to my 24-bit CD copy of the "Amadeus" soundtrack. Note that this is powered with the Heed CanAmp connected to my ASUS Xonar Essence STX soundcard in my PC.

I'm sure after the 300 hrs or more of the burn-in procedure, it'll sound awesome.

I'll be back again for another comparison, this time with the SR325is.