[12345142]

Quote:

Looking for some new headphones for hard/prog. rock and metal. Shouldn't be too detailed since rock/metal records, esp. metal, are often VERY BAD!
Looking for something that just makes fun, it should be powerfull, thrilling and energized. It should give some sort of "IN YA FACE"-sound.
When I plug em in my amp, they should just ROCK MY BRAIN OFF. Not as clinical and neutral as K701 / DT880 for example.
 
Thought of RS60, RS80 and D2K..
Any suggestions ?
 
greeez

Grados should do fine for rock and metal. The Denons will be bassier. You might want to get the SR80s to reap the benefits of amplification - what amp do you have?

 

[authistic]

Foobar with flacs > uDAC2 > Meier Audio Corda Swing > Headphones
 
guess that should be enough for grados
 
greez

 

[matryx]

I'm looking for a headphone and need some help picking one out
 
Source: PS3, Sansa Clip+, Patriot Box Media Player, WDTV Live, Yamaha RX-V665 AV receiver
 
Budget: $100 - $200 + $80 - $130 for DAC/AMP
- I will probably be using these with the Astro mixamp in the future
 
Use: Blu-ray movies - I want something that can really go low on the bass frequency. I like to feel my bass.
 
- Games. Looking for something to immerse me into single player games. I do some competitive gaming also so I'm going to need a mic  whether that be a clip on mic or a headphone with a built in mic. I probably can't get both so if I need to buy two separate headphones then I'll get one for non-competitive first and look into getting the AD700 everyone seems to praise about. But I rather get one headphone that does all that if I can.
 
- Music - R&B, hip hop, and progressive house music. I like my music with bass.
 
Comfort: I'm going to need something comfortable that I can wear for hours. I don't want to be sweating in it because sometimes I will have 2-3 hours long gaming sessions. So comfort is very important.
 
These are going to be used at home so it doesn't need to be portable and I rather get a open headphone since I hear that they provide a bigger soundstage.
 
 
Choices:
Ultrasone HFI 450
AD700 for competitive
DT990? Not sure which ohms to get since I heard that I need a separate amp to drive some of the higher impedance one with my mixamp. I will be using voice chat.
DT770
DT880
SHR750DJ
 
Would the Astro mixamp but enough to power the headphones with higher impedance?
 
Anyone other suggestions?

 

[Armaegis]

My generic recommendation for rock/metal or anything "in your face" is either a Grado (open) or Ultrasone (closed). Pick a budget then look at your options within that bracket. The grado choice is easy, but Ultrasone has a lot of models.

 

[MickMcGeough]

 
Great thread!
 
I'm a head-fi newbie. Got a pair of Monster Beats Studios for Christmas but am returning them for a better desktop audio setup. I enjoy the comfort level and lively sound of the beats but they're the first on-ear cans worth more than $50 I've ever used and I've had nothing better to compare them to. I'm not crazy about how they sound for most rock music.
 
Files: ALAC, 320kbps mp3s
 
Source: MacBook Pro + cheap amp (Fiio E5?), iPhone 4
 
Use: Music Only: Rock, Electronic, Acoustic, Hip Hop (in that order). About 90% desktop use, 10% flying.
 
Budget: Up to $300
 
Other: 
- Looking for closed cans with medium/low sound leakage as I often work in a quiet environment with others.
- Intend on buying an inexpensive amp like the E5 (recommendations welcome) for desktop use, but want phones that are still functional driven by just an iPhone 4.
- Comfort very important: I'll use them up to 4 hours per day.
- Portability a bonus but performance on desktop most important. Already have IEMs I'm happy with.
 
Looking at:
Audio Technica M50s
Sennheiser H25-1 II
AIAIAI TMA-1
???
 
Also like to hear AMP and/or DAC (if I can afford) recommendations.
 
Thanks Head-Fiers!

 

[eucariote]

Quote:

Quote:

Looking for some new headphones for hard/prog. rock and metal. Shouldn't be too detailed since rock/metal records, esp. metal, are often VERY BAD!
Looking for something that just makes fun, it should be powerfull, thrilling and energized. It should give some sort of "IN YA FACE"-sound.
When I plug em in my amp, they should just ROCK MY BRAIN OFF. Not as clinical and neutral as K701 / DT880 for example.
 
Thought of RS60, RS80 and D2K..
Any suggestions ?
 
greeez

Grados should do fine for rock and metal. The Denons will be bassier. You might want to get the SR80s to reap the benefits of amplification - what amp do you have?

Grados will absolutely rock your brain off.  They're very intense, energetic and have a great emphasis in the mids which is where guitars and voices live.  But they are detailed and with certain ear pads, very bright and can get tiring.  My suggestion is that you get comfies- the ear pads that come stock on the SR60, which do a good job of filtering/softening the high frequencies.  Put them on a used SR80 or SR225, which will have slightly better bass.  D2000/D5000 do have stronger bass and better soundstage, but have relatively (and noticeably) quiet mids, so voices and guitars sound like they're on the back of the stage.
 
edit: 666 posts!  

 

[Ceporom]

 

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Looking at:
Audio Technica M50s
Sennheiser H25-1 II
AIAIAI TMA-1
???

 
Your request is very similliar to mine. Those are the exact headphones I've been looking at too. I recently got to try out the TMA-1s. My first impression of them is that for anything that relies on bass they are indeed very good, but I find they are just too veiled and dark for just about anything with vocals. It was pretty dissapointing for me, after hearing so much praise about them. THey are very easy to drive though; I can't see a need for an amp with them. 
 
As for an amp; you might want to check out the e11 (there's a thread about it here I believe) that's about to be released by Fiio. It's supposedly going to be maintained as an inbetween amp-only device for the earlier e5 and e7 models, Seems like a new choice to me.

 

[matryx]

I just got the KCS-75 and using them on the PS3. I find the volume too low so I connected it to my Creative Inspire T3000 2.1 desktop speakers with a headphone plug on the volume control.
 

 
It certainly helped with the sound but I wanted to be on the cautious side and see if it's alright doing this. I don't want to damage the speakers or any of my equipment. Does the Creative T3000 has it's own DAC I wonder?

 

[Eric_C]

Ceporom, MickMcGeough: I think the HD 25-1 is an extraordinarily adaptable beast (neutral, accurate sound) that arguably offers the best in terms of price, performance and portability. I know I am not alone in this opinion. But the comfort is iffy--some people have no problem wearing it for hours on end, some (like me) prefer to keep sessions to under an hour. 
 
Based on a short audition and what the majority of others say, the M50 is an excellent choice for comfort. Its sonic caveats appear to be a slightly exaggerated low and top end, i.e.: the bass is a bit stronger than normal, and the highs can be a bit more forward/piercing than they should. (In my audition I didn't find the highs problematic) 

 

[Eric_C]

Quote:

I just got the KCS-75 and using them on the PS3. I find the volume too low so I connected it to my Creative Inspire T3000 2.1 desktop speakers with a headphone plug on the volume control.
 

 
It certainly helped with the sound but I wanted to be on the cautious side and see if it's alright doing this. I don't want to damage the speakers or any of my equipment. Does the Creative T3000 has it's own DAC I wonder?

Highly unlikely. It's just louder, right? Sounds like an amp only, then.

 

[tehort]

I`m looking for an easy on the ears headphone, smooth and non-fatiguing treble, with decent bass(not overwhelming) and details.
I do prefer if it had more pronounced mids actually, or at least not recessed.
Basically looking for something that sounds like the Westone UM3X and Earsonics SM3(yes, I`m coming from the IEM section). 
Budget: 200~400, I`ll be getting an amp afterwards.

 

[neonwilderness]

Hello everyone, I'm new here but have been reading around as a non-member over the last few days, please forgive my lack of knowledge on headphones (I've been trying to do some research over the last few days but I'm finding it all a bit overwhelming!). I've always loved music and I like to think I can recognize good sound when I hear it (haha),  I'm getting sick of the low quality sound from my cheapish headphones that I've always bought, but I'll be totally honest in that I'm not the best person when it comes to understanding modern technology jargon and how it all works exactly...so hopefully someone can give me some advice on buying a new set of headphones! I'm looking to buy a decent pair of headphones, these will be my first good ones that I plan on buying and as a poor enough student these will probably be the only good pair that I will be buying for a long time. I'm looking for open cans, I'll be using them mostly for music listening and they'll be strictly for home use. I listen to just about anything-rock, classical, hip-hop, electronica-I like my bass but don't need anything crazy that overpowers. At the moment the only thing I will be using them with is my laptop (losless format sound quality), but I'll hopefully be getting my hands on a USB sound card soon as well which will boost the sound quality a bit I'm hoping. I can stretch the budget up to about €250, although I'd rather keep to around €200 euro mark. I've been looking into a few different sennheiser and ATH models like the HD558s or the AD700s.....but honestly I really have no idea what to look for overall. Any guidance would be much appreciated!  

 

[Eric_C]

Hi neonwilderness, welcome to Head-Fi. 
HD 558 and AD700 are not known for their bass; the HD555 is reputed to have a little more bass than its successor (although it is still not regarded as 'bassy' by any stretch of the word). 
 
Look into closed models as well as open. There are excellent sounding closed headphones that have "bass which doesn't overpower", and by neglecting closed 'phones altogether, you might miss out some great options.
 
What headphones are you using, and what headphones have you tried before?

 

[neonwilderness]

Thanks for the welcome Eric_C. At the moment I'm just using some cheap enough sonys (think they were around €25) I picked up for portable use-the MDR-570LP's and was also using a set of sennheiser CX300-II precision up until a few days ago when they broke..other than that I've really only ever really bought the cheapest set I could find that I could tolerate listening to (the joys of being a poor student!) so I have no real experience of good quality headphones as you can see. Thanks for the advice, I'm definitely open to looking into closed cans as well, I'm just a bit lost at the moment for what to look at! 
Quote:

Hi neonwilderness, welcome to Head-Fi. 
HD 558 and AD700 are not known for their bass; the HD555 is reputed to have a little more bass than its successor (although it is still not regarded as 'bassy' by any stretch of the word). 
 
Look into closed models as well as open. There are excellent sounding closed headphones that have "bass which doesn't overpower", and by neglecting closed 'phones altogether, you might miss out some great options.
 
What headphones are you using, and what headphones have you tried before?

 

[Eric_C]

Ah, the CX300-II! I think they sound very pleasant. Do you like how they sound?