[climbingair]

Hey all,


I’m trying to find a headphone that would fit my music taste and budget. I mainly listen to acoustic, folk rock, classical, blues, soundtrack (think Pirates of the Caribbean, Last of the Mohicans, Braveheart). Lindsey Stirling’s music is my guilty pleasure. So lot’s of violin, but there’s still some bass in there.



With that in mind, I’ve really been looking at the ATH W5000s. Right now they are about the price I’m looking at as well. $600 range. But they are an old model for sure. Is there anything else out there similar or better, that I should be looking at. Also, these will be used in an office environment, so they need to be closed. I’m not into IEMs either. Tried those, but they didn’t work out very well practically.



I do have an amp, The Element from JDS Labs. It currently drives my AKG K550s, which are great. I’m just curious about whether or not upgrading to something like the W5000s would be worth pursuing.



Also, I don’t live in an area where I can easily audition various models. So I pretty much have to go by reviews. Any thoughts?



Thanks for your time!

 

[michaelwheeldon]

Try to get you hands on a pair of final audio design Pandora 6
I've a pair they are truly stunning
Mids and top end are their forte with tight bass, soundstage is very open .
Not closed back at all.
Have genuinely tried to replace these headphones for a couple of years will headphones the likes of audeze lcd xc and ultrasonic edition 8 but they just didn't have the magic Pandora,s have, if I ever broke them I'd buy again.

 

[Monsterzero]

My search would start with the Mr.Speakers Aeon Flow closed.I just recorded a review of these a couple days ago where I singled out folk and acoustic as being especially spectacular on these.
Theyre closed back,comfortable and have amazing tonality.

 

[michaelwheeldon]

Frankenbeyer,s lol

 

[climbingair]

Thank you gentlemen,

I do keep seeing the Aeon Flow closed come up. I do have one concern with the company, however. It's small and hasn't been around very long. Both Oppo and Audioquest left the headphone business very recently. I'm concerned about the longevity of the support if I were to need new pads/cables/repair in a few years.

Do you guys feel that this concern is not warranted?

Thanks for the suggestion of the final audio Pandora (now Sonorous VI). I'll look into that one further. I saw the very lengthy thread earlier today.

 

[Rhamnetin]

ZMF Blackwood all the way. I currently have both this and the Audio Technica ATH-W1000Z (which is generally said to be the best W series Audio Technica headphone, it is closest to the W3000ANV in timbre it seems), I've also owned a Stax SR-007A system for over a year and a half for reference. The ZMF Blackwood is one of the absolute best headphones you can get for under $1,000, it's damn good (or better) for everything. Handles big, complex songs well which is super rare for a closed back, has super fast decay which I don't believe dynamic headphones can compete with, has bass extension and impact that are beyond what a dynamic headphone can accomplish, very clean yet detailed and non fatiguing treble, authentic and very enjoyable timbre all around, excellent comfort. Seriously, how many closed back headphones don't get all confused with even a big, complex classical track, while at the same time providing utterly spectacular and incredibly deep planar bass that dynamic headphones can only dream of? I can't recommend this enough.

The ATH-W1000Z on the other hand is quite pitiful in all honesty, all it's good for is guitar solos. It has a horrible ringing at around 16 KHz or so that just ruins the entire sound signature, also worse bass extension than $200 open back headphones like the Beyerdynamic DT 880, and nasally and at times shouty vocals (depends on the vocalist). A fatiguing listen for sure. Here are my recent reviews of each if you want more detail:

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/zmf-blackwood.20484/reviews#review-20172

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/audio-technica-ath-w1000z.20533/reviews#review-20211

The Blackwood is so good that I can't even imagine a better closed back headphone, and believe me I've tried many others than just these including the Fostex TH-900. Zach from ZMF also provides better support than... anyone in the industry?

 

[onevstheworld]

Thank you gentlemen,

I do keep seeing the Aeon Flow closed come up. I do have one concern with the company, however. It's small and hasn't been around very long. Both Oppo and Audioquest left the headphone business very recently. I'm concerned about the longevity of the support if I were to need new pads/cables/repair in a few years.

I don't have any inside knowledge on Mr Speakers, but they do seem to be flourishing. Unfortunately, this day and age, nothing can be certain. Something to think about: Phillip's audio division is owned by Gibson, who are in pretty poor financial shape... so even well known and established brands don't necessarily have the best future prospects.

Anyway, back to your question : have a look at Campfire Audio Cascade

 

[climbingair]

Ha! I just saw the Campfire Audio Cascade today. I like what I've been reading. It seems to be an odd thing in the high end headphone world. It looks like a lot of the main innovations are being made by small companies, while the larger company's options seem very...stale. I love the idea of supporting the passionate little guy, and they won't be successful unless people such as myself take the risk. But it is a risk. For me $800 is no small change.