[Rackhour]

I started an identically titled thread in the IEM sub-forum.

- Hyland Audio Jupiter One: daily driver for general non-critical entertainment and music
- Sennheiser HD598SE: paired with an ABLET boom mic; primary headset for professional and personal voice chatting
- Focal Elegia: for when more isolation is needed at home, but IEMs are buried in my bag

 

[msing539]

Denon D9200 for closed back.

Meze Elite, Quad ERA-1, or a Hifiman for open.

AuR Neon Pro or Penon Serial for travel.

Philips SHP9500 for work calls.

 

[MakeshiftApe]

AKG K702: General everyday headphone, it's the best of my collection so gets the most use. Definite go to every time for jazz or classical especially.
Creative Aurvana Live!: When I want that lush (I use that word so much to describe it, can't think of a single better word) biodynamic bass. It's decently bassy enough to make any EDM or bass-heavy music sound great, but mainly it's the quality of the bass, has this soft but powerful feel to it that I don't get with my other headphones and sometimes I'm craving that.
Sennheiser HD25: When I need isolation or want the more intimate internal soundstage, sometimes for EDM but might be less so now that I've discovered my K702 handles EDM fantastic with a little EQ (without the bass is too lacking).
Sony DR-BTN200: When I want Bluetooth/to move about while listening, or something super light that vanishes on my head and don't want to wear in-ears. Also good for falling asleep wearing so long as I don't need to sleep on my side.
Tanchjim Zero (IEM): For maximum portability, side-sleeping. When I want isolation but also the most natural timbre (K702 + binaural recordings = If I close my eyes I'll flinch and react to sounds getting too close because it feels so real. Tanchjim Zero comes second in this respect but beats my other headphones despite being a $15 IEM)

 

[IkSak]

Well, here I go:

At home:
Sennheiser HD800: classical music, particularly orchestral.
Hifiman Edition XS: daily driver for all types of music.

At the office (I have a private office):
Focal Elex: daily driver. Great all rounder.
Aeon Flow Open: for club-like presentations, female voices

In bed: mainly IEMs, driven by a Shanling M3X
Thieaudio Monarch: amazing all rounder. Great for anything you want. Great detail for classic.
Moondrop Blessing 2: gorgeous for when I want to focus on voices.

 

[pecotunkA]

Wireless:
Razer Kraken Bluetooth (YouTube/music on tablet) (don't laugh at me these were my first wireless pair and they were cheap with exceptional battery-life and 10-band App EQ)
EFM Austin Studio ANC (physical media movies, paired to small square bluetooth transmitter, ANC helps me hear the film during heavy rainfall)
Creative SXFI Air (most used for streaming movies, occasional music from SD card input)
Korg NC-Q1 ANC (streaming blockbuster movies specifically, ANC helps me hear the film during heavy rainfall, occasional music but battery-life isn't great so I keep it to a minimum)
Sony CH720N (Youtube/music on tablet, plan to use on transport if I have to since wireless signal strength is great)

Wired:
Beyerdynamic TYGR 300R Semi Open-back (lossless music files with EQ)
KZ ZAX IEM's (lossless music files with EQ)

both wired headphones have wide sound-stage further enhanced by EQ and are extremely immersive. but I put wired at the bottom because wireless get's way more use for me even though the experience with wired ones are better.
as you can see I have too many wireless headphones. up until I had just 4 pairs, each had their own specific main use case and they were all used pretty regularly. since I got the Sony CH720N that has mixed things up. I think I am choosing to use it instead of others because it's the "newest".

 

[pecotunkA]

Creative Aurvana Live!: When I want that lush (I use that word so much to describe it, can't think of a single better word) biodynamic bass. It's decently bassy enough to make any EDM or bass-heavy music sound great, but mainly it's the quality of the bass, has this soft but powerful feel to it that I don't get with my other headphones and sometimes I'm craving that.

yeah I remember the first Aurvana Live! it was very highly regarded and the asking price was great and the cherry on top. I only found out about it after they stopped selling it though so I was too late to the party.
apparently they butchered the tuning with the Aurvana Live! 2 which had a massive boost in the bass region leading it to sound extremely muffled.

 

[garlicky]

yeah I remember the first Aurvana Live! it was very highly regarded and the asking price was great and the cherry on top. I only found out about it after they stopped selling it though so I was too late to the party.
apparently they butchered the tuning with the Aurvana Live! 2 which had a massive boost in the bass region leading it to sound extremely muffled.

There is now the creative aurvana live se. You can buy it with it's companion dac or just the headphone.
Still a great price for just the headphone. Maybe the best closed back budget headphone you can buy. I don't think there's a better headphone at the price, depending on one's taste of course.
It has boosted bass but not ridiculously boosted.
I've heard it's better than the original cal and the cal2.

 

[jdk6069]

For critical listening I'm using HD600's and for gaming I've been really enjoying my Kiwi Orchestral Lite's.

 

[pecotunkA]

There is now the creative aurvana live se. You can buy it with it's companion dac or just the headphone.
Still a great price for just the headphone. Maybe the best closed back budget headphone you can buy. I don't think there's a better headphone at the price, depending on one's taste of course.
It has boosted bass but not ridiculously boosted.
I've heard it's better than the original cal and the cal2.

yeah I actually incorrectly typed "Creative Aurvana Live! SE" in my original comment but quickly removed the SE because another quick google search revealed it was a different model from the Aurvana Live! 1.
I can see the SE model on Amazon for $49 yeah, but I am 90% sure all the original praises I read around 5+ years ago about the sound were describing the Aurvana Live! 1. it sounds like the SE is in between the 1 and the 2 regarding the bass, and target preferences are different now than they were in the past such as Harman curve now having quite a bit more bass I think. so maybe the SE really is just a more modern "up to date" sounding tuning of the Aurvana Live! 1.

also read this somewhere else, but apparently the Drop E-MU Walnut headphones are basically the Aurvana Live! (1 I think?) with wooden earcups and sound almost identical (interally identical product). currently still available on Drop for $69 that I can see. so you can spend that extra $20 and get a premium feeling/looking walnut version of the Aurvana Live! as well.

 

[silent-circuit]

Hyland Audio Jupiter One for gaming and listening to music on the PC most of the time. Sometimes I switch to the AIVA, but I think it's mostly "because I have it" and it helps me justify keeping them.

Focal Elegia for PC use when isolation is needed.

Dan Clark Audio Aeon Closed X for most music listening around the house when trying to not my partner.

IEMs get mixed in kind of at random. Mostly the Empire Ears Bravado Mk2, Campfire Audio Vega 2020, and Custom Art FIBAE 4...

Pretty much everything else is boxed up. I need to get pictures and pricing together and downsize, badly.

 

[Cheesebuggah]

Near-field Kanto YU5.25'' (EQ'ed for highest plausible Spinorama score): Main form for anything desktop-related, including casual gaming, music listening, and studying.
Tablet speakers: Used to fall asleep to. Earbuds previously filled this role.
Sony WH-1000XM3 or Etymotic ER2SE: Chores
Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro: Outdoor commuting
Soundpeats Truefree 2: Anything related to me being active and its consequences From jogging, weight training, showering, and drying wet hair.

 

[Rackhour]

Near-field Kanto YU5.25'' (EQ'ed for highest plausible Spinorama score): Main form for anything desktop-related, including casual gaming, music listening, and studying.
Tablet speakers: Used to fall asleep to. Earbuds previously filled this role.
Sony WH-1000XM3 or Etymotic ER2SE: Chores
Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro: Outdoor commuting
Soundpeats Truefree 2: Anything related to me being active and its consequences From jogging, weight training, showering, and drying wet hair.

Interesting. You wear buds while showering? Don’t you think the soaps would further shorten the buds’ lifespan?

 

[Rackhour]

Hyland Audio Jupiter One for gaming and listening to music on the PC most of the time. Sometimes I switch to the AIVA, but I think it's mostly "because I have it" and it helps me justify keeping them.

Focal Elegia for PC use when isolation is needed.

Dan Clark Audio Aeon Closed X for most music listening around the house when trying to not my partner.

IEMs get mixed in kind of at random. Mostly the Empire Ears Bravado Mk2, Campfire Audio Vega 2020, and Custom Art FIBAE 4...

Pretty much everything else is boxed up. I need to get pictures and pricing together and downsize, badly.

Oh hey, another Hyland user outside the Hyland thread!

 

[Cheesebuggah]

Interesting. You wear buds while showering? Don’t you think the soaps would further shorten the buds’ lifespan?

Perhaps, but I don't really care if it does. I'm more concerned with my canal hygiene since there is an earbud blocking the interior. I bought it for around $30 around 2 years ago, and it's still going strong. The exterior looks fine, and I also removed the filters to test the question of whether water or moisture could damage the drivers. I read online that it would be fine since the drivers are in their own compartment—an area harder for moisture to reach—or something like along those lines.

 

[Svperstar]

I'm a big fan of ambient music. For years I preferred dark headphones. My favorite ambient radio station has been going since the early 2000s and is encoded at 56k because back in the day when it started dialup was still the majority.

Dark headphones help smooth over the low bitrate encoding, since I got the Sennheiser HD800 ( no mods ) I have been listening on them at night, I find the wide soundstage meshes well when ambient tracks with rain/nature play. I'm used to hearing the low-bitrate artifacts since I have been listening to that station for over 20 years. I like it, its an extra bonus hearing the tracks in full glory when you look them up in lossless.

For ambient music I went from 580 - > 6XX -> LCD2 (pre-fazor) -> LCD2 Classic -> LCD2 (2023 fazor refurbished) -> Sennheiser HD800

Station is sleepbot:
https://sleepbot.com/ambience/broadcast/