[ozaudio]

Hello, I have never been really into audio, just listening to audio in the car or on my phone  as that all seemed to sound all fine and adequate but now i'm starting to rethink things. To cut ot the chase skip to bellow the line.
 
I've never had a sound system, like I said just listened to music on my computer or phone and never really cared that much about sound quality with the TV or movies. I had a 5.1 system but only because i've never liked any of the speakers on any of the TV I have ever gotten, they always sound too... I dunno... like tinny or something. Anyway it was only a cheap 5.1 system from the electronics store so nothing too great but the cheap speakers it came with sound a lot better then the TV and that's all I wanted.
 
Anyway that cheap thing died not too long ago and a friend of mine said they were trying to get rid of some things where he works quick and I got a Yamaha RX-V475 for next to nothing. I wasn't too concerned over how good it was or anything since I just wanted to be not using the TV speakers anymore (still just using the cheap speakers that came with the $150 5.1 system).
 
I only really listen to music in the car, any other time i'm home i'm either playing a game (don't like music while playing) watching TV or doing work so never listen to it much except when i'm in bed so never needed good quality sound. My headphones are just a step up form cheap gamecom gaming headset so needless to say they are no fantastic sound producers but as I said everything has sounded fine to me.
 
So not too long ago i'm cleaning the the lounge room and I notice this Yamaha I got has a USB port or it, even though I got it for next to nothing and it's nothing high end it's still not a cheap unit (was $699 retail in australia) so thought maybe i'd see what music sounds like on it compared to my car and computer/nokia. Was surprised to see it also supports FLAC as well as mp3, anyway I put some things on a USB stick and get the gamecom and an adapter and plug it into the Yamaha and... there is quite a noticeable improvement in the sound, things just sound nicer even with these cheap headphones.
 
So did some reading and it seems that the sound circuitry, amp etc in this AV receiver is pretty good especially the headphones (long as you don't use any DSP effects). So that got me thinking that if what I listen to actually sounds noticeably better on this thing with just these $50 gaming headphones, would it also sound better yet again with a decent pair of headphones? And if so i've seen good and bad about lots of headphones so which ones...
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As stated the source is a Yamaha RX-V475 AV receiver with 320k mp3 or FLAC files. Would a good pair of headphones sound any better or not? If so i'm looking at up to $270AU or so for them which is around the cost of some sennheiser HD-598 online.
 
Will only be using them with the Yamaha so type of headphones doesn't matter long as they are over the ear and I couldn't care less about the aesthetics of them, only how they sound. I like symphonic metal and gothic rock type music but lately i've stumbled upon the whole epic trailer music genre which is becoming a sizable part of my library, some electronica but not too much. I really enjoy female vocals but none of that metal nonsense where all they do is scream or pop stuff where they basically just speak along with music or rhyme a little, proper singing vocals like Tarja Turunen, Vibeke Stene, Merethe Soltvedt etc.
 
So would it be worth getting a pair of decent headphones with this source or would there be not much improvement?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Normally headphones in the 120-Ohm to 300-Ohm impedance range would be best for use with the Yamaha.
Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro (250-Ohm) headphones.
AKG K612 Pro (120-Ohm) headphones.
AKG 7XX series (62-Ohm) headphones
Sennheiser HD558 (50-Ohm) headphones
The AKG 7XX series and the Senn HD558 seem to work decently with receivers, even with them being lower impedance (Ohm)
 
Using HDMI from your sources to the Yamaha should make a decent connection.

 

[ozaudio]

Don't need to worry about connection, will only be using them with music on the USB.
 
The 7XX and DT880 cost a bit more then I want to spend, $350 and $400 with local warranties so unless they are quite alot better i'd rather not spend that much. Think there is a store I can try some HD558 at but I don't know of anywhere that has any AKG I could try. Reading some reviews of the K612pro they sound like they might be what I want.
 
A local store has Sony MDR-10R for only $100, are they at all comparable to the K612? Be nice if I could find some other comparable phones that I could actually go and try out.
 
And silly question but whats the difference between  the studio/monitoring headphones and errrr just headphones

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Don't need to worry about connection, will only be using them with music on the USB.
 
The 7XX and DT880 cost a bit more then I want to spend, $350 and $400 with local warranties so unless they are quite alot better i'd rather not spend that much. Think there is a store I can try some HD558 at but I don't know of anywhere that has any AKG I could try. Reading some reviews of the K612pro they sound like they might be what I want.
 
A local store has Sony MDR-10R for only $100, are they at all comparable to the K612? Be nice if I could find some other comparable phones that I could actually go and try out.
 
And silly question but whats the difference between  the studio/monitoring headphones and errrr just headphones

I've always assumed "studio monitor" is were you want exact detail, where as regular headphones are more about the end user and can be "colored" to enhance the audio experience.