slmckay73
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2014
- Posts
- 58
- Likes
- 10
Hey, Head-Fi. I just jumped into the headphone hobby pretty recently with the ATH-M50x, and now I'm looking for my next set of cans.
I'm looking for--as the title says--a sub $150 open-back headphone that I'll use for music as well as gaming. But, I'm not planning to buy them immediately since they'll be my pc gaming cans, and well, I haven't exactly built a pc yet.
On the music side of things, I want some headphones that do really well with more acoustically focused music, like folk, indie singer/songwriter, and some classic 60s & 70s stuff. Some of the artists I'll be listening to a lot are:
Josh Garrels
The Oh Hello's
Neulore
James Vincent McMorrow
Creedence Clearwater Revival
If you haven't heard of some of these artists, feel free to click the links and hear a sample of their music. Hopefully that will give you an idea of what I'm looking for. Some other qualities I'd like in the headphone are a very spacious and well defined soundstage, great comfort, excellent transparency, and a focus on mids and highs that are detailed but smooth and not fatiguing. At least a smidge of bass and low mids would be nice, just to give lower strings and voices some weight, but I realise I probably won't get all these things at once. My source will be the Fiio E10K.
For gaming, I really only need the sound to be clear and the spacial imaging/positional audio to be really good.
I've done some looking around on the forums already, and one pretty frequently recommended model was the ATH-AD700 (old thread), and I've been seriously considering the AD700x. It seems to be a pretty popular choice, and they're crazy cheap on Amazon right now. As I write, I'm listening to my brother's Senn. HD598, and I can't say I'm crazy about them, so let's rule those out. Other than that, I'm not really sure what else is out there. I welcome you guys' sage advice.
I'm looking for--as the title says--a sub $150 open-back headphone that I'll use for music as well as gaming. But, I'm not planning to buy them immediately since they'll be my pc gaming cans, and well, I haven't exactly built a pc yet.
On the music side of things, I want some headphones that do really well with more acoustically focused music, like folk, indie singer/songwriter, and some classic 60s & 70s stuff. Some of the artists I'll be listening to a lot are:
Josh Garrels
The Oh Hello's
Neulore
James Vincent McMorrow
Creedence Clearwater Revival
If you haven't heard of some of these artists, feel free to click the links and hear a sample of their music. Hopefully that will give you an idea of what I'm looking for. Some other qualities I'd like in the headphone are a very spacious and well defined soundstage, great comfort, excellent transparency, and a focus on mids and highs that are detailed but smooth and not fatiguing. At least a smidge of bass and low mids would be nice, just to give lower strings and voices some weight, but I realise I probably won't get all these things at once. My source will be the Fiio E10K.
For gaming, I really only need the sound to be clear and the spacial imaging/positional audio to be really good.
I've done some looking around on the forums already, and one pretty frequently recommended model was the ATH-AD700 (old thread), and I've been seriously considering the AD700x. It seems to be a pretty popular choice, and they're crazy cheap on Amazon right now. As I write, I'm listening to my brother's Senn. HD598, and I can't say I'm crazy about them, so let's rule those out. Other than that, I'm not really sure what else is out there. I welcome you guys' sage advice.