[ienhz]

Looking for some lower-end headphones and I've narrowed it to these 3. Looked through a ton of reviews here and I've seen a lot of praise for the 3.

I live in Canada so the D1001's are pretty hard to get outside of ebay (~$130 CAD), the 238's are at the Apple store here for $109 CAD, and the 448's are about the same price as the Denon D1001.

Anyways, right now I'm using a pair of Koss KSC-75, so I "sort of" prefer the open sound but I haven't really had much long-term use of a set of closed headphones to make a definitive judgment. I do know that I don't really like the HEAVY boxed in, echo-y feeling of some closed headphones though.

I listen to pop, rap, r&b, and techno/trance mostly (in that order)... stuff I've been listening to recently have been Leona Lewis - My Hands and Tiesto - Feel It in My Bones. Even though I do listen to music with bass, I'd prefer a set of headphones that don't have overwhelming bass like my Sony in-ear headphones do.

Forgot to say, these will be mainly for home use so isolation and sound leakage aren't huge concerns.

 

[swartzy.baby]

If you love bass in your music, I'd say take the HD 448 off the list. I tried them out and loved everything about them, except the bass. It was ultra-defined, but also way 'light', had a fairly high cutoff point, and though I'm not a basshead by any means, there just wasn't enough there for me to keep them (I listen to mostly rock).

I've had the Denon 1001 as well, and wish to hell I could have the bass of the 1001 with the mids/highs of the HD 448. The 1001's have terrific bass, slightly emphasized I think, but pretty well defined. The mids/highs were fine, but didn't pull me in as much as I like.

Can't comment on the 238's - anybody else? I'd say definitely take the 448 off the list, I can't imagine they have even remotely the quantity of bass you're looking for.

 

[K_19]

IMO having owned both, HD238 has slightly better balance throughout the spectrum compared to D1001, and they'll sound closer to your KSC75 (although both will have mids that are slightly more recessed in comparison). 238's have slightly better highs extension and sparkle, and has silghtly better soundstage. Bass is around the same as both have some degree of emphasis in that region. D1001 does sound pretty open for a closed headphone, though, and is also pretty comfortable... they both sound pretty similar overall, actually, so your choice will depend on whether you want supraaural or circumaural headphone IMO... In Canada, I'd say 238's are of slightly better value. I haven't heard the 448's though so I can't comment on comparisons to that.

 

[Deep Funk]

The HD428 might help out. I'm burning one in now and I like it very much up to now. It's cheaper at the least.

 

[ienhz]

Well I decided on the 238's just because they were easier to attain and I'd have an easier time to return it if anything went wrong.

So far, it definitely adds a lot of bass I was missing when using my Koss KSC-75's. They sound a bit brighter than my Koss and defintely have some more detail in them. Switching back to my KSC-75, I found the mids to be really flat compared to the 238's. I do find the bass to be almost too much though... but that may be because I'm not used to having much bass in my music to begin with (due to the long time I've been using the KSC-75). Overall, not a bad purchase.

Thanks for the help guys.