Buying new headphones in $20-$130 range, please help

[VanillaShades]

My history with good headphones is very limited, consisting of the Sennheiser 555's and the Sennheiser 429. I thought the 555's were the best thing ever and I could die happy if I had a case of them stored away.. the 429's however I was simply annoyed with, having experienced the wonders of the 555's prior to them. 555's lasted me around 4-6 years accounting for half way broken experience. I abused my 555's, looking back on it they felt indestructible. The 429's broke real quick.. i'm not sure like a year maybe two? I lose track of when I purchased things..
 
I'll be using these headphones for music and game sound(in conjunction: at the same time) but the music part is all I really care about, I could do game sound with $10 Koss from Kmart haha. I only care about one type of music and that's "happy hardcore", also known as "uk hardcore", it's like dance music with a really fast beat, and also has vocals(i'm addicted).
 
Quick afterthought, not sure if it matters that i'll be playing two different sounds at the same time-->music+game sound
 
Anyways with that out of the way I just want something I can plug directly into my cheap $500 PC that's going to sound amazing and be comfortable for extended periods of time, like the 555's. I would say I was only looking for the "open design" but apparently the prices have only got higher for these since the 555 era, so I don't want to limit my search by availability anymore than I already have with this price range.
 
Thanks ahead of time!! Any headphone recommendations & knowledge is greatly appreciated!!
 
Edit: Wiki explanation of this genre of music: Happy hardcore, also known as happy rave or happycore,[size=10.8333px] [/size]is a genre of hard dance typified by a very fast tempo (usually around 160–180 BPM), often coupled with solo vocals and sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of hardcore, which tend to be "darker".

 

[Agent of Chaos]

Hi VanillaShades
 

   
I could do game sound with $10 Koss from Kmart haha

You do mean the KSC 75 right?? Well no matter what's your budget you need to buy these miracle tiny bastards
I searched for this sub/genre and it seems to be evolved around typically electronic stuff, Right?
Anyways the budget range is very confusing, I can suggest the superlux HD 681 for 30 dollars or less, But they are slightly bright and they don't have an excellent bass response, Therefore I recommend the Philips SHP9500 (they look amazing and they are super comfy) And eq their subbass slightly forward, And I'm sure you will fall in love with them directly, Best wishes.

 

[VanillaShades]

  Hi VanillaShades
 
You do mean the KSC 75 right?? Well no matter what's your budget you need to buy these miracle tiny bastards
I searched for this sub/genre and it seems to be evolved around typically electronic stuff, Right?
Anyways the budget range is very confusing, I can suggest the superlux HD 681 for 30 dollars or less, But they are slightly bright and they don't have an excellent bass response, Therefore I recommend the Philips SHP9500 (they look amazing and they are super comfy) And eq their subbass slightly forward, And I'm sure you will fall in love with them directly, Best wishes.

I put that confusing price range because i'm not sure if I'd be better off with something cheap that I could toss in the bin, *cough* 429's. 

 

[VanillaShades]

  Therefore I recommend the Philips SHP9500 (they look amazing and they are super comfy) And eq their subbass slightly forward, And I'm sure you will fall in love with them directly, Best wishes.

WOW these look perfect!! Thank you, real life saver! Likely ordering these. The other headphones noted are interested as well. Thanks again.

 

[Agent of Chaos]

  WOW these look perfect!! Thank you, real life saver! Likely ordering these. The other headphones noted are interested as well. Thanks again

You are welcome buddy

 Hint : they are selling for $57 on Newegg I think, Great pricing there.
For 100-130 I think you can't get a real upgrade over those, Considering those are neutral you can also listen for other genres instead of locking it for uk hardcore 

 They also have huge soundstage for their pricing Hope I helped and gave enough details.

 

[VanillaShades]

  You are welcome buddy

 Hint : they are selling for $57 on Newegg I think, Great pricing there.
For 100-130 I think you can't get a real upgrade over those, Considering those are neutral you can also listen for other genres instead of locking it for uk hardcore 

 They also have huge soundstage for their pricing Hope I helped and gave enough details.

I'm wearing them now.. so far so good however I feel like they have a ton of bass, been using gaming headphones that had a bass adjuster thing on the cord and I always had the bass all the way down. I'm not sure if i'm just not used to having bass or the bass is overemphasized on these. Should I try to get used to them or use the audio software that came with my PC to turn the bass down? I currently have the audio software off. I don't remember anything like this on the 555's, been using them for about a hour now.

 

[punkmanmatthew]

  I'm wearing them now.. so far so good however I feel like they have a ton of bass, been using gaming headphones that had a bass adjuster thing on the cord and I always had the bass all the way down. I'm not sure if i'm just not used to having bass or the bass is overemphasized on these. Should I try to get used to them or use the audio software that came with my PC to turn the bass down? I currently have the audio software off. I don't remember anything like this on the 555's, been using them for about a hour now.

Maybe you like good quality detailed bass and not a lot of bass or too much bass?
 
Meaning fast, detailed, punchy not bloated and muffled sounding.

 

[punkmanmatthew]

No one can really say for sure what u will like but I personally like these in that price range:



Grado sr80e
ATH AD900x
DT990
Vmoda XS

Sennheiser HD598 is pretty good as well.


Note:
I don't like veiled/muffled or bass heavy headphones.

 

[Agent of Chaos]

I am not sure why though, As the shp9500 is very slight bass emph. and they actually go down in subbass as I stated before, I thought it suits your genre and I was surprised when you said "they have tons of bass" , I mean they are only slightly bass-forward(ed), But if you want less bass, Use an equalizer and lower 200Hz-100Hz by 3 Dbs (Do that only if you think that bass doesn't suit you)

 

[VanillaShades]

  I am not sure why though, As the shp9500 is very slight bass emph. and they actually go down in subbass as I stated before, I thought it suits your genre and I was surprised when you said "they have tons of bass" , I mean they are only slightly bass-forward(ed), But if you want less bass, Use an equalizer and lower 200Hz-100Hz by 3 Dbs (Do that only if you think that bass doesn't suit you)

I don't know it's strange, I feel like when I turn these up they'll blast my eardrums out, while with 555's you could blast them at most any volume. I've used them a bunch now and I've come to accept what it's going to sound like. Depressing as I write this I hear a song sound like **** with volume up because bass blasting my ass.. most songs sound fine though.

 

[VanillaShades]

  I am not sure why though, As the shp9500 is very slight bass emph. and they actually go down in subbass as I stated before, I thought it suits your genre and I was surprised when you said "they have tons of bass" , I mean they are only slightly bass-forward(ed), But if you want less bass, Use an equalizer and lower 200Hz-100Hz by 3 Dbs (Do that only if you think that bass doesn't suit you)

So.. I had a setting wrong that was causing the insane bass, my built in audio software, whatever it is, has 3 different speaker size settings Large-->Medium-->Small   ..  It was set to medium by default which is what was causing the bass blasting. I FEEL LIKE AN IDIOT for having done this, this is a new setup from my old PC so had to learn the hard way about this setting
Maybe this post will help someone who's not using "small" for headphones.
 
Still though the bass is insane on default xbox 360 settings and I assume that's because xbox 360 wasn't intended to have headphones adapted to them. It's interesting, playing modern warfare 2 I notice hearing footsteps is much more difficult which explains why they sound freakishly loud with "turtle beaches".