[brat]

Jazz?
K701/2 of course!

 

[Feanor]

K501's have a wonderful midrange, should work well for vocals. Not perfect phones (don't expect too much bass), but the guy who's pair I auditioned has avoided upgrading to the 701 because he felt the midrange was lacking.

 

[aristos_achaion]

I love my K501s and HD580s for jazz, but my favorites, jazz-wise, are my YH-1 Yamaha orthos. They're older than I am and still going strong. It's a certain taste, but I find the warm sound and great midrange does wonders for jazz, especially vocal jazz. Of course, the downside is that they need dampening, are hard to drive, and are very, very out of production.

As for amps--it depends on your CD player. Some might have a good enough headphone out to passably drive hard-to-drive 'phones, but I wouldn't count on it. On the plus side, you probably don't need a DAC, since your CD player should have a decent one already. If you end up going with hard-to-drive 'phones (and most of the ones recommended in this thread are), I'd recommend picking up an inexpensive amp (maybe a Starving Student off the FS forum?) to go with them.

 

[pataburd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feanor /img/forum/go_quote.gif K501's have a wonderful midrange, should work well for vocals. Not perfect phones (don't expect too much bass), but the guy who's pair I auditioned has avoided upgrading to the 701 because he felt the midrange was lacking.

Another enthusiastic endorsement for the AKG K501; they are my jazz headphones of choice as well as my favorite headphones, period, and I've tried many--barring the more expensive T1, HD800, Ed.8, D7000, etc.

The K501's midrange is much more coherent than the K701's, IMHE, attesting to the what Feanor quoted above.

 

[Bones13]

I second (third/fourth) the Sennheiser HD 580/600/650 line. I would recommend finding a used headphone in the for sale forums here, and get a used amp, does not need to be fancy or expensive. If your CD player has a headphone out and a volume control you will probably be good to have a go just with it initially.

You will be ready for upgrading over time to a better amp +/- source.

Of course, if you can manage to actually go listen to some headphones with your music...

 

[kool bubba ice]

60i/K501/AD700/DT48/HD600