Headphone shopping for a Christmas present for my brother.
(In order of importance)
Music: He listens to a lot of vocal-based J-pop (
Kalafina) and J-rock music (
Stereopony), some "non-mainstream" hip-hop (
Shing02, Nujabes), piano and instrumental, and anime soundtrack (
Clannad After Story opening theme).
Budget: preferably less than $200
Type: circumaural, closed-back
Source: MacBook (late 2008) or iPod Touch 2G; mostly "meh" quality files (< 320 kbps MP3)
Amp: preferably no
Design: some sort of folding mechanism for storage
Headphones I've considered (in a random order):
- Audio Technica ATH-M50 (he likes the limited edition colour)
- Shure SRH840
- V-MODA Crossfade M-100 (he claimed the treble response wasn't very good, and I don't blame him XD)
- Audio Technica ATH-ESW9[A?] (though I've read these are fairly fragile)
- Logitech UE6000 (the treble range might be "meh" for him, I'm not too sure though)
- AKG K550 (though it's out of my budget)
Any help is appreciated.