Another This or That - AKG 240 vs. AT ATH-M50 vs. Shure SRH440 vs. Sennheiser HD380

[TakmaN]

I finally have the urge to replace my old Denon AH-D1000 headphones. They worked and sounded great but a few of the plastic bits are coming apart. I believe they are closed but don't feel or sound that way (i.e. poor noise isolation). After hours of research today, I've narrowed it down to the following:

-Audio Technica ATH-M50
-AKG K 240 MK II
-Shure SRH 440
-Sennheiser HD 380

I will be using these mainly with portable players and on my laptop without an amp (although I would like to pick one up in the future). These all fall within the ~$130 and under price range and seem like great bang for the buck cans. I listen to almost every genre of music with more emphasis on rock/pop/alternative and electronic. I don't need overwhelming bass and just want some all around good headphones.

Right now I have the AKG in the lead with the ATH-M50 behind that. I would like to take these headphones along on trips and the AKG does not look travel friendly and are semi-open. However, I do have a few sets of IEMs for use in public where bleeding would be an issue. These may not all be direct competitors, but I'm not overly picky and just want a quality set of headphones that are at least as good or better than my current Denons.

Any recommendations/thoughts/pros/cons?

 

[revkon]

i was recently shopping around for a couple of the same headphones.  here're the results of my search: http://www.head-fi.org/t/689683/headphones-for-live-mixing-monitoring-sennheiser-hd-280-pro-user
 
however, keep in mind what i was looking for is a bit different from what you're looking for
 
the only thing not mentioned in there is that while the ATH-M50 seals better than the HD 380, it's still not completely silent from the outside (though maybe head shape has something to do with that)

 

[Mad Max]

HD380 seals better than M50 for me, so it's probably a head shape thing.
 
I recommend trying out both HD380 and M50 if you can.  They have their advantages and disadvantages over each other in terms of sound.  I like HD380 a little better.
I would take M50 or HD380 over the other two any day.