[sunny342]

First let me just say that I am a newb. Been using a sony walkman with stock sony headphones for a while and was content. However now I want some over ear headphones with lots of bass. Most of my music is bass heavy and I love hard hitting bass. Decent sound quality is good for me. So I want to spend less than $70 for headphones. Also I don't know if i need an amp but if I do I am thinking of getting a e3 or e5 (what is your opinion on these). I was looking at sony mdr xb500 because apparently they have great bass and they are $50 on amazon. What do you guys suggest. Budget and bass is very important to me.
 
Current mp3 player I use:
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Walkman-Video-Player-Black/dp/B000VAKI60/ref=sr_1_47?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1294723518&sr=1-47
 
Thanks in advance!

 

[afinch1992]

xb500 is without a doubt the biggest bass youll get for cheap. you can even eq them for some really nice mids and treble 

 

[monterto]

Much love OP! I use the exact same DAP

 

[WillHughes]

I was in the same situation as you earlier this year. I ended up buying the XB700 after reading recommendations that it had a rediculous amount of bass... They certainly do not dissapoint, HOWEVER, they have almost no kick/slam/thump and thats why yesterday I bought the XB500.
 
From what I understand they have the bass that I'm looking for as well as the best slam out of the XB series, hopefully I am not dissapointed. If you want to wait til I receive mine I could give you more information then but that is most likely going to be 2 weeks away.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

XB500 is a good choice when you want hard hitting bass for that budget. Don't worry about getting an amp, especially one of those cheap FiiO ones as it only sounds worse with those in my experience (less clear and it's already rather smooth/warm sounding). You may want to EQ it a little for best result, that player has a 5-band EQ like my mp3 player and it works fine, as long as you're able to have the upper bass range a bit lower than the rest, just leave it at default value for example (the 2nd band from the left) and the first band like perhaps 2 - 3 steps above that and the 3rd maybe also 2-3 steps above that and the 2 last ones maybe 3-4 steps above the 2nd band.

 

[sunny342]

Well thanks everyone for the response. So I'm probably going with the XB500. @RPG Thanks for the EQ tip. The reason i asked if the XB500 are good is because after 5 minutes of research on google those were the headphones i found, and I just wanted to know if i was not missing or overlooking any other headphones. 

@willhughes: I'm in no hurry to buy them so post your impressions here. Also your impressions would probably be good for other newby forum members who are looking for bass headphones. 

one question do the XB500 come with a case?

 

[RaZrReD]

The XB500 are worth it. Unamped and running out of my MacBook and iPod, they give ridiculous amounts of bass. I have tried the XB700 and they just couldn't compare to the 500.

 

[Cooter]

Quote:

one question do the XB500 come with a case?

 
They come with a bag.
 
I bought some for my daughter for XMas. Holy crap! I'm definitely buying some for myself! I've never heard such powerful bass from headphones. Very comfortable, too.

 

[SoSpecial]

As far as bang( and punch) for your buck headphiones go the XB500's are incredible. I got mine for $48 and have never heard anything quiet like them.
 
Are they Reference headphones? Not in the slightest but they are to my ears some of the most energetic  headphones to date. Much of their energy comes from that mid bass thump that is Aw inspiring. Theyare what I call Audiophile converters. They will make a believer out of a consumer in a few minutes flat.

 

[TobaccoRoad]

Is XB500 generally considered better than XB700 or something?

 

[winma]

Quote:

Is XB500 generally considered better than XB700 or something?

The 700's need some power to be driven properly, the 500's sound much better unamped. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Is XB500 generally considered better than XB700 or something?

Generally concidered is difficult to speak for, maybe if there was like at least 50 people trying both and then report we'd have a better picture. Despite they use same design and kind of drivers only with different size they still sound quite different and it's definitely not the case either of them doing what the other does but better. It's down to personal taste which is concidered better. I've so far read about 5 people here I think having tried both and like 3 preferred XB500 and 2 preferred XB700. It's all down to personal taste IMO, I try to refrain from speaking for what sounds "better" because what's better sounding is invidual and not cuz we hear things differently but we want it to sound like differently or we might have different "purposes" for the headphone we pick, one may want to complement their neutral or laid-back headphone selection with a "fun" sounding headphone which in case XB500 would fit better for example. In short XB500 is slightly more "fun" and XB700 is slightly more "neutral" sounding without going further into the details but I think both are awesome value for the money though and quite funny concidered these are marketed as "Extra bass" LOL. I'm no Sony fan by any means and I haven't heard any other Sony headphones and I don't own any other sony products etc but they did excellent job with the Sony XB series for sure.

 

[earerror]

Quote:

Generally concidered is difficult to speak for, maybe if there was like at least 50 people trying both and then report we'd have a better picture. 

Seems like we need a poll here, 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Quote:

Generally concidered is difficult to speak for, maybe if there was like at least 50 people trying both and then report we'd have a better picture. 

Seems like we need a poll here, 

 
You don't think it could become a little biased? People without actually having tried both would vote. ^^ People want to speak good things about the stuff they own. I really liked XB700 myself too and it's my 2nd fav headphone so far after XB500 and couldn't have imagined that I'd like XB500 even more but I did so I'm glad I decided to try both.
 

 

[earerror]

Quote:

 
You don't think it could become a little biased? People without actually having tried both would vote. ^^ People want to speak good things about the stuff they own. I really liked XB700 myself too and it's my 2nd fav headphone so far after XB500 and couldn't have imagined that I'd like XB500 even more but I did so I'm glad I decided to try both.
 

lol
yeah thats a good point!
personal preferences may vary, and i doubt they had the chance to try both, like you did.