Slaughter
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2006
- Posts
- 1,471
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- 28
The AD700 is not "better", it's different. Huge soundstage, unnatural treble, bass can be heard, but zero impact, like 200 rows back at a concert. It is a very open, airy headphone. Great for pinpoint positioning for gaming, but not fun at all if you care. Someone else said it best, while playing left 4 dead, when casings hit the ground it sounded like 10 feet away versus by your feet where it should be. It is cheaper, but not necessarily more comfortable. For me the AD700 pads rested on my upper jaw and hurt like hell after 10 minutes or so. Some people have to rubber band the wings on top to get a good fit. You listen to a lot of music and you really only have two choices for gaming. AD700 and HD555. The 555 is the better all-arounder. It handles a large variety of genres much better than the AD700. It's not my opinion, it's just the way it is. Eminem will sound horrendous on the AD700 and sound decent on the HD555 and will sound awesome on the M50, but the M50 isn't going to work for gaming.
The 555 is a good first step into audiophile headphones. Just because headphones cost more than the 555 doesn't mean they will sound better. Honestly, you can see in my sig that I have owned a lot of headphones and I listen to the same wide varity of music you do. The M50 has made me the happiest out of all my phones. As you move up the chain, heapdhones seem to get more genre specific. The 880/600 is one of the best I have had, but only for folk, acoustic, jazz, vocal type music. The Grado 225 I had was great.....for rock. I have three headphones now. The 555 for gaming, the M50 for pop/rock/hip-hop type music and the 580 for folk, jazz, acoustic type stuff.
You really just need to buy a pair and enjoy. You can always sell for a minimal loss and move on to something else. Or buy two at a time to compare and sell/return the other. And you don't need an amp with any of the phones you are looking at currently.
The 555 is a good first step into audiophile headphones. Just because headphones cost more than the 555 doesn't mean they will sound better. Honestly, you can see in my sig that I have owned a lot of headphones and I listen to the same wide varity of music you do. The M50 has made me the happiest out of all my phones. As you move up the chain, heapdhones seem to get more genre specific. The 880/600 is one of the best I have had, but only for folk, acoustic, jazz, vocal type music. The Grado 225 I had was great.....for rock. I have three headphones now. The 555 for gaming, the M50 for pop/rock/hip-hop type music and the 580 for folk, jazz, acoustic type stuff.
You really just need to buy a pair and enjoy. You can always sell for a minimal loss and move on to something else. Or buy two at a time to compare and sell/return the other. And you don't need an amp with any of the phones you are looking at currently.