[mancpg]

Hi,
 
I'm looking to move into closed back headphones as my wife is tired of sound leakage from my AKG Q701s.  Actually, I would be looking for a new pair of headphones anyway as I find the Q701s a bit too 'peaky' in the mid-treble without enough body on the vocals (especially female vocals -- these have a few hundred hours on them and I use an HA-160 amp).
 
So, some criteria for the new cans would be little sound leakage, lush vocals (but not too 'warm' -- just something that makes vocals stand out a bit), and something that's 'engaging'/'emotionally' involving (I put those in quotes as I know how incredibly subjective those are). I guess I'm not into recessed mids but I'm not looking for something fatiguing either.
 
Just as a reference, I used to love my Beyer DT931s before they gave up (after 13 years!) and I like the pace of the Q701s. I tried a high-end pair of Sonys once (can't remember which) that sounded very even across the frequency range but were just too 'polite' and not very involving.  I have a pair of ATH-M50s and they're great for the price but I don't find them to have enough clarity (and I think they have a bit too much of a mid-bass hump).
 
I'm interested to hear some recommendations. Thank you!

 

[Rezound Sound]

I am not very experienced with headphones, but I would like to throw in the idea of Philips Citiscape Uptown's. They are great for isolation, and I personally think the sound quality is pretty darn good. But, it's only $150, and there's probably much better cans out there that fit the criteria better.
Edit: I forgot that I recently demo'd the AKG K550's. Haha, think about those too. They sound better than the Uptown's, by far. Barely leak too, there's videos of it on YouTube.

 

[staticfi]

The Brainwavz HM5 could be right up your alley. Nice midrange, controlled bass, never harsh, just a nice balanced musical sound to me. Excellent isolation too. 

 

[mancpg]

Thanks @Rezound Sound -- the K550s were something I looked at briefly as I have the Q701s. I was just concerned that it might share the same treble energy of the k701/702/q701s.  I'll add it to the list in any case.
 
Thanks @staticfi, the HM5s weren't even on my radar, I'll have a look.
 
So, far, I've looked into (on Head-Fi) the ATH-A900x, the Denon D2000s (which I think are discontinued), the Beyer 770s and the Shure SRH-940s.  The Denons are discontinued, the Beyers seem to have recessed mids and the Shures seem to suffer from poor build quality.
 
Clarity is paramount (what I love about the Q701s) but I would love something that isn't as fatiguing to listen to while still sounding engaging (and in a closed design -- a tall order, I know!).

 

[Lorspeaker]

u are definitely talking about the philips uptown.

 

[KG Jag]

Shure SRH 940--provided your music sources are good.

 

[mancpg]

Thanks @KG Jag -- using a Rega Saturn/Rega DAC and Burson HA-160 (I find they work well together).

 

[KG Jag]

Quote:

Thanks @KG Jag -- using a Rega Saturn/Rega DAC and Burson HA-160 (I find they work well together).

Excellent--but my reference was to your music itself.  If you feed the 940 garbage/problematic/poor quality tracks, it will let you know.

 

[mancpg]

@KG Jag I like that quality in a headphone actually -- I'd like it to be faithful to the original recording (the Q701s are like that and yes, highly compressed recordings show their true colours!).

 

[valerianaoff]

Prolly a look into KRK KNS 8400 may help.
 
Cheerz!

 

[mancpg]

Thanks everyone, reading some reviews I think I've narrowed it down to the AKG K550s, the Shure 940s and ATH-A900x. The GermanMaestro GMP 8.35D seem interesting so may look at those as well (and if I was willing to spend more, which i may not be, the ATH-W1000x).

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[meton]

A bit late to this but based on your criteria the A900X would do the job.  The K550 do have excellent clarity up and down but the A990X are more textured and engaging.