Been lurking for a while, but I figured I'd post and ask for some recommendations.
First, I own Ultrasone HFI-580's. Found them for a good deal and was told they would sound good, but were easier to drive than the 780's.
After some listening, I must say, I really like S-Logic. When I listen to some headphones (ATH-M50 come to mind here), especially during my wubwub phases, I get fatigue and headaches from the bass due to the constant directional pressure. Well, with the 580's, I don't. The bass is definitely way more pronounced but sounds more crisp to me and, due to not directing sound right at my ear thanks to S-Logic, I can listen to bassy genres for a lot longer period of time before needing to take a break.
I bought the HFI-580 in order to have it be closed (for work and travelling for work which I do occasionally.... we go through spurts of travel all the time and then don't travel for months) but also portable (It folds!). The cable is slightly on the long side for portability, but I knew that going in. They performed well on a plane (isolated well, despite being unamped from my Zune) and in airports. So i'm very pleased.
At work, I mostly to MP3's but I have recently purchased a hard drive so I have started taking my FLAC files with me. I do eventually plan on getting a desktop amp for work (inexpensive) as I use an ASUS Xonar Essence STX at home with built in amp for listening to music at home. I also plan on getting a portable amp for trips, but i'll worry about that in the next recommendation.
Next, I decided to also buy Grado SR225i for home listening. I spent a good solid 4 hours sampling the SR80, 125, 225, and 325. The 225 sounded the best so I bought them. Eventually I want to listen to the RS1i and RS2i (local store has them, but I wanted something entry level as i'm relatively new to hifi headphones (1 year)). After listening to the SR225i's back to back with the HFI-580 I realize just how much the 580's lack. Obviously the difference will be there (closed vs open) but the 225i are just so much more clear and the bass is so much more refined that I sometimes just wish I could take the 225's everywhere. But due to being an open design, that doesn't work for me.
While the soundstage is similar to me between the two cans (S-Logic helps here), the Grado are just more refined and sound much more clear. After listening to open back headphones, I definitely understand when people say closed back sounds muddied or muffled. Then again, I did buy essentially entry level hifi closed back headphones.
So, I did some research. And my research came up inconclusive. I looked at the Ultrasone PRO 900 but i'm just not sure how they are compared to the SR225i in terms of clarity. I looked extensively at these because of being able to get them at ~$330 and supposedly having great sound (I have nowhere to sample them). This is where you come in.
My budget is somewhere around $500 for a good set of closed back headphones that will allow me to isolate and are portable enough for trips. Cheaper is always better, of course
...and helps me get necessary equipment sooner, like an amp.
Honestly, if I had the money, I would just buy Edition 8's and be done with it because they sound really really good (had a chance to listen to them) and look even better. But i will leave that for later as I accumulate audio equipment. I feel that the other $500 in the price difference could be used toward a good desktop amp and portable amp which are things that are more necessary at this point in my hifi adventure.
My listening is about like this:
60% rock, including acoustic (Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Tool [A Perfect Circle], Pink Floyd, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Led Zeppelin, Disturbed, Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, Rise Against, Blink-182, Social Distortion etc)
20% Metal (Amon Amarth, Megadeth, Death, Stormwarrior, Helloween, Vader, Black Sabbath, Nile, etc.)
10% Hip Hop (Eminem, Tech N9ne, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, E40, Kanye WEst, Kid Cudi, Macklemore)
10% Electronic which includes essentially everything: house music, techno, drum and bass, dubstep, chillstep, etc
Knowing my musical tastes, what I need (portable, closed back, circumaural), and knowing that I will get both a desktop and portable amp (Fiio E17 was my initial thought) to help drive the cans when at work/on the go respectively, lets hear the recommendations!
Thanks in advance.
