[Kibble Fat]

Hi guys,

As the title states, I need recommendations for a closed pair of circum-aural or super-aural headphones. My budget is $500, in the $200-$300 range if possible. Used is a possibility.

To all IEM experts, I'm looking to nearly match the sound of my HiFiMAN RE-262s as I can listen to them for hours! For those who haven't heard them, here is a brief description of their sound from mvw2's IEM review thread:

bass: excellent extension and some sense of fullness but decay pretty much stops on a dime, very lightly textured, outstanding dynamic range and articulation, effortless sound, clean, powerful in energy but light in body and presence
mid: open, very highly detailed, extremely dynamic, effortless, transparent, a good bit mid-centric with emphasis towards the high end, noticeably bright
treble: natural with a sweet and airy signature, somewhat laid back on the very top not being aggressive or edgy but highly energetic from great dynamic range, clean, very highly detailed, transparent
stage: open, dependent on the source material it can be quite spacious dynamically pretty in-head when texturing is needed to create space, well rounded and with excellent separation of sounds from extremely high clarity, great sense of direction
location: pinpoint location of sounds, excellent separation, but depth is only driven by dynamic (volume) cues with the lack of note thickness and texturing
clarity: extremely high detail, amazingly low distortion and transparency, extremely articulate but very thin note with minimal texturing
tone: quite mid-centric and somewhat bright due to lean bottom end and lower treble/high mid emphasis, low end notes have lack heft, high end notes a sweet and airy but lack edge and bite.
dynamics: outstanding dynamic range that is effortless and seemingly limitless even at very loud volumes, highly articulate, great sense of energy and impluse.

From above, the key attributes for me are:
- detailed
- great clarity / transparency
- mid-centric
- non-fatiguing, sweet treble
- highly dynamic

I wouldn't mind having a bit more low bass quantity and a touch more treble quantity (slightly less mid-centric?). Does any brand or model come to mind? I'm trying to narrow down my list of 12+ closed headphones that aren't known to be bass heavy.

Thanks in advance for your input!

- Eric

 

[vese]

HE-300s fit your bill rather nicely but they're extremely open unfortunately..the denon d2ks/d5ks would work nicely, D5Ks used on amazon are ~370 D2ks are ~220ish and both of them sound ok unamped but they really shine with a quality amplifier.

 

[Kibble Fat]

As a courtesy to my cube neighbors at work, I must opt for a closed design... unfortunately :mad:

 

[vese]

If people are going to be in a cubical next to you you might just want to go to higher end IEMs?
Closed headphones don't mean there's no leak, there's still quite a bit of leak with most of them really.

 

[Kibble Fat]

True. I'm really just testing the waters at this point. Extreme isolation with IEMs means I can miss phone calls if I don't see the flashing red light on my phone. Also, people either don't notice the IEMs or they assume I can hear them and will finish their sentence before I can get one earpiece out :rolleyes: I've heard many high end headphones (the vast majority being open) and haven't heard anything that moves me. I'm not sure what it is. Something about the RE-262 makes them able to capture a song's intensity without being offensive in any way. They're very fun to listen to.

I'll wait for more responses before I draw any conclusions. A short list of headphones to try/borrow is what I'm looking for here.

 

[Kibble Fat]

After doing some investigating, it seems like Grado headphones are usually recommended as mid-centric (I hate their fit and build quality, so those are out) as well as the HD-598. Now I remember liking the sound of the 598, but it definitely didn't blow me out of the water the first or second time I heard them. Maybe they deserve to be revisited. I have yet to hear the HE-300s so I'll put them on my short list.

Not closed, I know... Any other suggestions?

 

[Kibble Fat]

bump?

 

[Neosk]

I actually wouldn't recommend the HE-300 if you want RE262's sound signature. The midrange on the RE262 is a lot more sweeter/intimate than HE300's midrange which I found to be a little too warm and laidback. Overall the HE-300 does not have the magical mids like those of the RE262.
 
I too was looking for a fullsized headphone to rival RE262s presentation of music and damn it's pretty hard.