[Procrastinating]

I'm looking for some cost-effective cans, at around the $80-120 range. After lurking Head-Fi for some time, the best options after looking at the positives and negatives of various headphones in this range have narrowed down to the FA-003/Hm5, the beyerdynamic DT770's and the obvious pop choice ATH-M50's.

Now while a pop choice, a lot of people feel that the m50's are much overrated, offering various alternatives. But what are your thoughts on these, compared to the 770's and the 003/HM5/jaycar/whoevers?

I have a big problem with sibilance, and there have been complaints with the 770 with regards to that, and comments about EQing them giving a muddy treble.
The HM5 are a different beast altogether, being much more neutral and "pretty good" for the price if you can get them cheap, namely jaycar. But there have also been comments on muddy mids/boring bass here.

I listen to a variety of music, and these will mostly be used for movies, TV shows and games(fps and tps for the most part), So accuracy is nice but not cohesively nessecary, and minimal sibilance is a must. I watch a lot of anime and the sibilance in Japanese can get real bad, so there's that. I'm not a basshead but I do like me some fun tunes. I also like being able to hear the vocalist. Along with that sibilance I'm not fond of some high frequencies, so I don't mind too much if cans/dacs/amps roll off there(i'd probably EQ them off anyway!)

This is going to be almost exclusively a PC headset, so portability isn't too much of an issue. I have a small head so clamping force/discomfort should not be a big issue. Durability is important (I've heard about the Hm5's snapping after a year or so of use?)

My current situation favors headphones which don't leak too much, so closed headphones are more ideal.

Some other considerations of course are the AD700's, but comments there on the bass being non-existent(but can be improved with an amp?) are discouraging.

Many of these options improve/change dramatically with different amps/dacs, and I don't have a great dac(via onboard ;-; )/no amp at the moment. Dolby headphone would be a nice feature in any dac/soundcard. Various comments point to the UCA-202/222(what's the difference?), the X-FI GO!, and the Xonar U3.

What are your thoughts on this range of headphones/similar headphones+amp/dacs keeping things within the <$130 ish price range? Namely with dacs/amps I'm not afraid of buying used.

Lastly, I live in New Zealand so I'm going to be almost exclusively importing unless anyone knows of good places to buy (Obviously there's Jaycar but you can probably get them even cheaper via import :> )

 

[PurpleAngel]

Takstar Pro 80 (Gemini HSR-1000) closed headphones.
On eBay they (Gemini) are selling for $55 (shipped from L.A.)
Asus Xonar DG (PCI) sound card $30 (USA price).
 
 
DT770 headphones need a half-way decent headphone amplifier to sound their best.
 
FA-003/HM5, not enough bass, but other wise a good value.
 
ATH-M50s, good for music (bassy), but not great for FPS gaming (not the best for surround sound).
 
Anime? I just finished watching Heroic Age, liked it.

 

[Senpai3330]

Like Purple Angel said, the DT770's do run into amping issues. Buying the 32 ohm consumer friendly version isn't really a fantastic way to get around that as SQ degradation is well noted by reviews.

Having owned the ATH-M50's and FA-003's, I have to say the M50's aren't overrated, but a very stale over-recommendation that homogenizes everyone's inventory too much. Sound-staging is definitely smaller than the FA-003's. It's a cramped sound, darker, bassier and more intimate. As such I found it kinda fun for games that use more electronica in their soundtrack.

If it's a quality sense of air and strong sound staging in a closed pair of headphones you want then the FA-003's. I do agree the bass could use a little work, but they're nowhere near AD700 levels.

Comfort wise my vote goes to the FA-003 stock since they provide leathers and velours, however if you manage to import DT250 velour pads for your M50's they feel like heaven.

Sound leak wise, I'd say neither one would cause an issue unless you're really cranking the volume.

I feel really rude saying this, but if you do end up going for the MH5/FA-003, I have a listing in the classified forum :x

 

[Procrastinating]

Hadn't heard of the HSR-1000's! You reckon they would be better performing than the HM5's in those aspects? And is that a fire sale or something? Looks like a good deal to me.