[rocketship]

I recently purchased a high-end digital piano: the Kawai CA63.
 
So I figured it was time to splurge on some good headphones for both the digital piano and for listening to classical music.
 

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Budget: $300-$400. Maybe up to $500, depending on amp/DAC needs.
 
Sound: It seems that a neutral headphone with a flat frequency response would be ideal for piano and classical music. If this is true, then this is what I'm looking for. I listen to other genres, but I mostly care about how the headphones sound with classical. My collection is about half solo piano music and half orchestrated.
 
Open/Closed: I don't care about isolation. These headphones will stay in my room. I have some Klipsch IEMs for portable use. So I'd prefer an open headphone, but it seems that there are a lot of good closed options (e.g. Denon) and I have no reason to rule them out.
 
Style: I'm vain and want something that looks nice. For example, I love the look of the Beyerdynamics; the Denon AHD2000 looks OK; and I'm not keen on the Sennheiser HD600/650.
 
Amp/DAC: This is perhaps where I need the most help. I know nothing about amps, but it seems that at my budget I won't find a headphone that won't need one. For what it's worth, the Kawai CA63 should be able to drive most headphones; I know that high-end stage pianos have built-in amps that are reportedly decent. But I'd also like to listen to my classical collection on my computer, so I'll need a dedicated amp. Desktop or portable would be fine. Sorry for being vague, but I figure I'd start with a headphone and figure out ideal amp (and maybe DAC) pairings later -- if that brings my budget closer to $500 that'd be OK.
 
Comfort: I often spend up to 3 hours straight practicing piano. So comfort is absolutely critical.
 

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My research so far has led me to the Beyerdynamic DT880s (250Ω) and the Denon AHD2000s, both just above $300.
 
Any help or recommendations are appreciated. Thanks.

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,
 

 
I really enjoy Beyers & Sennheisers for piano, but also these days Hifiman. Denon is also a really good idea.
 
Beyer - I would go with the DT880, you can get the 32ohm and not worry about an amp and just plug into your piano.
Sennheiser HD580/600 (same headphone) - It works, but an amp would be idea, a simple Fiio E9 would do it.
Denon D2000 - Plug in, and go. Super comfortable. No amp. This would be the easiest solution and be great for everything else you end up doing with music honestly.
Hifiman HE-400 - A planar magnetic, and I really think it sounds great, it won't even need an amplifier, and it's fairly comfortable for hours on end.
 
My first choice here would be the Denon. Second, the Hifiman.

Note, your piano has a line out, so you could feed it into any basic DAC/AMP setup if needed. But you don't actually need them unless the output of the headphone jacks is noisy or something. I'd try without it first. If it sounds like hiss and noise, then entertain a DAC/AMP addition.
 
Very best,

 

[ZARIM]

The Sony SA5000, AKG K702, Pro2900 are highly recommended with decent AMPs like Matrix M Stage, Asgard.

 

[rocketship]

Thanks for the recommendations.
 
The HiFiMAN seems like an interesting choice -- I read as much as I could about them after you recommended them. And the Denon of course, though it'd be so tempting to go for the D5000 model
 
I should probably search around NYC and find a place to demo some of these options, at the very least to get a sense of comfort.
 
It looks like I just have to do more research, though the Denon D2000, Beyer DT880, and HiFiMAN are all on the list.
 
Both the Matrix M Stage and Asgard seem overkill for my tentative budget. I wish I was more experienced, because I have little intuition for how price-to-performance scales in amps
 
The piano has fairly advanced sound samples, and people have mentioned how much good headphones make the sound shine. Other than that I've just been assuming that neutral/transparent headphones and amps would be preferable to, say, a warmer sound. But I could be wrong.
 
Thanks for the replies.
 
edit

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They DT880s (600Ω) are $270 on Amazon. That seems like a good price that would give some leeway for an amp.

 

[rocketship]

Old thread, but I ended up going DT800 (600 Ohm) with the Magni + Modi.
 
Pretty happy with the package. Not sure if I made the right choice with the 600 vs 250 Ohm models, but I don't really have a reason to worry about it.
 
I've played piano for years and have never heard it sound like this. It doesn't beat an acoustic sound overall, but the headphones add something that even a Model D in a concert hall can't replicate, like sound separation. Bach fugues sound completely different to me now. I love it.

 

[pp312]

Quote:

Pretty happy with the package. Not sure if I made the right choice with the 600 vs 250 Ohm models, but I don't really have a reason to worry about it.
 
 

 
Not quite sure what you mean by that, but many who've A/B'd them have heard little to no difference. Others say there's a world of difference, but there wasn't to my ears, and if the difference was that great it would be obvious to all. Some say the 600 ohm scales better, but that's only relevant if you want to spend heaps on an amp for what is a relatively cheap headphone.
 
Personally I'll stick with my 250 ohm Pro.