[Loodakid]

Me and my friend are planning to buy around 100$ headphones each. However after ALOT of research we still dont know who should get which, weve narrowed it down to the usual contenders the HD555, Ad700, SR80i and Akg k240 MKII . Here is the music that each listens to:

Me: Epic Orchestral, Speed Metal, House/Trance/Techno, and some saxophone house. I care about best sound quality/detail and bass. (Comfort, portability and sound leak isnt an issue)

Him: House, Trance, Pop (anything in season such as Grenade, Firework, etc) NO METAL OR ROCK.He cares about bass (cause he listens to alot of house) and abit of sound quality and detail. 

 Bear in mind that both of us are used to the iphone earphones (ones that come with the phone) so i guess that this will be a HUGE boost in sound. (I already started downloading some FLACs ! )
 
So can  anyone help with which headphone each one should get?

 

[Elanzer]

AD700 and HD555 are fairly weak on bass, both of these focus more on mids/highs and soundstage. Great for games and stuff, but not really for your genres of music which are pretty bass dependant. K240 is the most powerful on bass out of these, with probably the weakest mids out of the 4. SR80i have the most up-front sound, and most mid bias.
 
You: K240 MKII or SR80i, leaning more toward K240 MKII
 
Him: Not on your list but can be found in that pricerange: ATH-M50
 
Just be warned, the K240 is the hardest to drive out of all those 4 headphones, it won't sound very good out of an iphone at all as it's pretty low sensitivity. My K240 MKII don't work very well out of my Cowon D2, which has higher power output than the iphone. ATH-M50 would be a better choice if you were going to use it like this.
 
Also, I would not recommend the grados for portable use. They have build quality issues with the cable, they tangle easily because the ear cups spin endless and put tension on the cable. The joining part of the cable (the middle of the "Y") on mine tore after about a year, and this complaint is somewhat common for someone who doesn't leave them at a desk.

 

[Loodakid]

Thanks for the extremely fast reply!  
I just have some questions:
1.Whats a soundstage and why is it important?
2.What are mids, highs and lows? 
3.the k240 cant work on an ipod or iphone?
4.After reading abit on the M50 it is sounding pretty awesome, would it work for me too ( does it have the detail and clarity that people prasie the HD555 for but still have some good bass?) ?
5.What makes the SR80i good?
 

6.Are the 555s and the AD700 out of the picture? is it beacuse of their sissy bass?
7. My friend seems to beleive that Skullcandy can be better than the 555 (his initial choice) because of the bass, what should itell him?
And Finally, 7. Will the differnce between ANY of these an the iphone earphones be huuuuge? D:
Sorrry for the big number of questions!! But this will be reallllyy helpful!
 
Note: For me, i am between the Sr80i and the M50

 

[Loodakid]

anyone? 

 

[Nepenthe]

     Quote:

1.Whats a soundstage and why is it important?
2.What are mids, highs and lows? 
7. Will the difference between ANY of these and the iphone earphones be huge?

1. Soundstage is where the sounds seem to come from. Narrow or no soundstage = the sounds seem to originate sort of "inside your head." Wide soundstage = the sounds seem to spread out in front of you so they have a broad layout and feel like they're originating a few inches or more outside of your head. Width, depth, and instrument separation are aspects of soundstage.
 
Just a note, soundstage is a real problem for me as my two ears do not perceive sounds the same way. My Denon D1000s (which oughta be on your list too) and Bose QC2s don't have much soundstage so most music is presented flatly and inside my head and feels pretty balanced left to right. My AD700s have a decent soundstage (angled, large drivers, large enclosure, open earcups) but sound very imbalanced due to the different ways my two ears process sounds. The left side feels wide and expansive while the right side feels "walled off."
 
2. This refers to the frequency response range. I recommend this: http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm
 
Lows are bass, highs are treble, mids are in the middle.
 
7. Yes, just by design for starters. Just take heed of the notes about trying to drive some headphones with a phone. For instance, my Bose QC2s are far behind my other headphones when I'm listening at home with or without my amp. However, they are the ONLY headphones I have that sound even halfway decent out of my work computer's afterthought integrated sound output -- all the others (none of which are very hard to drive) sound extremely thin and lifeless with virtually zero bass at low volume and are a distorted disaster if you try to turn it up or EQ the bass. I'm not sure how a phone compares to this computer.

 

[Loodakid]

Thank you very much for the answers!!  
can anyone else please answer the rest ofthe questions, as they highly affect our decisions.

 

[philistine]

I'm afraid I can't answer your remaining questions for you, but I will contribute what little I can to your quest.
 
I do a lot of reading here, mostly shopping for things I can't afford, and it's absolutely uncanny how every time someone makes a post considering the purchase of sub-100 dollar Grado, ten different people will jump in and advise that they instead go for Alessandro MS-1. Apparently the MS-1 is based on the supposedly higher-end Grado SR-125i, and not only that, but improves them, and can be got for 100 USD, which is a huge boon if you're outside of the US because Grado are expensive to get elsewhere. I can tell you that my experience with Grado SR-60i, my first and only pair of quasi-serious headphones, has been great (unamped). The bass sounds powerful to me, where after a year with the things I'm starting to get a little overwhelmed at the mids and highs. It's all just too much sometimes. They sound really detailed and big to my ears, but they're also the only decent headphones I've ever used.
 
That being said, I too am looking to buy some full-size headphones in the 100-150 range, possibly higher, "upgrading" from my SR-60i. It's essential that they sound great unamped, as I don't have the education to amp or whatever else you do to the signal. However, potential for upward growth should I ever come into that knowledge is a big plus. Sound isolation is not an object. I'm not looking at any Grado or the Alessandro for obvious reasons.
 
Commendations for phones on my list, recommendations for phones not on my list, personal experiences, physics lessons, and high-handed derision at my unseasoned naivete are all welcome!
 
Looking at
 
AKG K-240 (~100)
 
Audio Technica ATH-M50 (~100)
Audio Technica ATH-AD700 (on sale at amazon for $94.61)
 
Beyerdynamic DT 440 (~100)
 
Sennheiser HD448 (~100)
Sennheiser HD555 (on sale at amazon for $90.72)
Sennheiser HD595 (on sale at amazon for $139.99)
 
Shure SRH440 (~100)
Shure SRH840 (on sale at amazon for $149.00)
 
Sony MDR series
 
I Like
 
Rock: noise rock/noise pop, punk rock, shoegaze, post-punk, experimental rock, "rock and roll", folk rock (with reservations), college rock, jangle pop, non-insipid indie rock, art rock, post-rock, psychedelic rock
e.g. Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Pavement, The Velvet Underground, Sigur Ros, Bjork (for lack of a better category), Pixies, R.E.M., Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens, The Flaming Lips (The Soft Bulletin mostly), The Smiths, Talking Heads, Nine Inch Nails, Bob Dylan, Yo la Tengo
 
Hip Hop: East-Coast, West-Coast, Trip Hop, Gangsta Rap, "Alternative" hip hop, Acid rap, Conscious hip hop
e.g. Kanye West, Mos Def, Common, Gang Starr, Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Ol' Dirty person, DJ Shadow, Bjork (for lack of a better category), Cannibal Ox, Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne (almost exclusively Tha Carter III), The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, some Jay-Z, Big Pun, Immortal Technique, Eric B. and Rakim, Gucci Mane (his talent, not his music), and of course M.I.A.
 
Other: I know nothing about Jazz but I would like to learn. I listen to about as much classical as the next guy/girl. Some House. Some IDM (intelligent dance music). I hate that term, but you know the kind of music I'm talking about. Pop that actually works (Madonna and her ilk). Aphex Twin is good. 
 
I Just Can't Do
 
Any metal, prog *genre*, techno, Baroque Pop, Coldplay, King Crimson, Music for People Who Go to Conventions, Music for Linux Users Who Actually Only Know a Little Java and Some Scripts, Music to Read Webcomics by, etc.