hello,
a quick backstory before i begin.
(sorry for the long story but i felt it was important to sort of understand my situation for recommendation)
first off, i'm not an audiophile purist in that i don't have the greatest musical ear and also don't have a need for the absolute best/perfection... i'm probably somewhere in between the true audiophile and the casual.
this means i don't need a thousand dollar pair of headphones combined with a thousand dollar amp/dac, and then a complete audio setup with speakers/receiver, etc.
as to musical tastes there isn't really a boundary on that, i listen to all forms of sound from the pop song to a natural sound recording of a subway station/the ocean and everything in between.
alright to my present situation.
i just recently started taking my sound listening serious (on my level aforementioned) and i went ahead and bought the audio-technica ad700 which was about $160 at the time i bought it (maybe 3-4 years ago?) which was the most i'd ever considered spending on headphones as i didn't think it made that much difference in the past.
so... i wasn't blown away or anything but i was happy with the headphones, they were comfortable and gave a very nice sound on the vocals aspect and also worked fairly well with my tv watching.
clearly there was a difference between using this and some $20 dollar walmart headphones but again i wasn't so impacted to where i'd consider going to a more expensive pair.
ok, so then a week ago the audio-technica a900x went on sale and i had some spare cash and so i went ahead and jumped on the deal.
present time, needless to say i'm pretty blown away by these headphones.
in the past i've mainly been a vocal fan and i didn't care much about instrumentals, i'd hear people talking about the bass playing on that song was awesome and i'd be thinking "is the instruments that important?" because i was all about the vocals, and now i realize i didn't care much about the instrumentals because i wasn't hearing them properly as i've now started to with these new headphones, i'm sure many people have been in this situation where it's like listening to your collection for the first time again and you're noticing/hearing stuff you didn't even realize.
now i'm not just hearing and appreciating the vocal parts but i'm hearing the bass/the drums along with it, etc.
i'm excited about this, as it's sort of rejuvenated my interest in sound and i've been on a tear listening to everything i can get my hands on.
however
as much as these headphones have been a positive experience, it's not quite there where i'd be completely satisfied.. i just feel like there's another level i can reach with the sound.. and also while the headphones are comfortable they feel somewhat cheap on the ears and the ears make some noise when you move your head a bit or adjust them, etc.
so this brings me to a point of wanting to go a level higher, i don't have the money right now but i plan to start saving and using these headphones for right now.
my question is what would take me to the next level in the 200-300 dollar range? to where it would be a noticeable increase... or is this the best i'm going to get in that price range?
i'd like something that does a better job overall of really capturing the pureness of the sound on all aspects, the instrumental/vocals with no sort of distortion/buzz/hiss, etc.
i don't know if i'm explaining that as best as i can, i just want to bathe in the bliss of sound in every angle... i don't want it to be all bass, or pure vocals but i want it all to come together to where you're right there with the bass, with the vocals, with the guitar and all at once but also separate.
with a variety of music as well, i mainly listen to shoegaze/dreampop/triphop.. 90s alt rock, etc.
stuff like lamb/dot allison/julee cruise/sonic youth/my bloody valentine/cocteau twins/pati yang/smashing pumpkins/this mortal coil/mazzy star... indie stuff, but also pretty much everything else as well from soundtrack music, to breakbeat/drum&bass/dub/folk/singer-songwriter/90s rap/80s, i mean basically everything... the one thing i absolutely don't like is techno music and the various forms of techno like house/instrumental dance/hardcore techno, etc.. anything that has that same beat that every techno song has, and i don't listen to the purist country forms (but i do listen some stuff that has a country vibe to it just not the pure country)
haha.
if anyone was patient enough to read all of that, then you're the type of person i would respect their opinion so hopefully someone has an idea for me.
appreciate it, thanks.
