kirkmc
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2011
- Posts
- 16
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- 0
Hi, I'm new here. I posted earlier about Sennheiser RS 180s emitting a loud hiss; I bought them because I found the idea of wireless listening interesting. I live in the country, and it would be nice to be able to sit outside listening to music wirelessly and controlling playback on iTunes with my iPod touch. I'm pretty sure I'll be sending back the RS 180s, because, even not taking the hiss into account, they're not comfortable (they squeeze my head a lot), and the sound is quite brittle.
But I've been wanting to get a new set of headphones for a while. My current phones are Sennheiser HD 580s, which I've had for about ten years. I like them a lot, but there's something a bit bland about the sound. It's nice, but it seems to be smoothed over somehow. I also use PX 100s for listening outdoors on my iPods.
I'm interested in headphones mostly for indoor listening, but potentially outdoors as well. The 580s are big, and an iPod doesn't drive it very well. I've been looking at the Bowers & Wilkins P5s as a possible set of cans to use both indoors and outdoors, but my thought is that for their price - I'm in France, where they sell for €300 - I can get better regular headphones.
My current setup is Mac > Cambridge Audio DacMagic > Cambridge Audio Sonata AR 30. Another question I have is whether a headphone amp is recommended, and whether it will make much of a difference.
So, if anyone can recommend headphones that don't exceed around €300, I'd appreciate it. One thing: I live in the country, and don't have any opportunity to try out headphones in a store; that'd be a 3-hour drive at least. So I'd probably buy from Amazon, knowing that I can always return anything I'm not happy with.
Oh, it probably helps to know that most of the music I would listen to on headphones is classical. I'm also a Deadhead, but generally don't listen to the Dead on headphones. I listen to some jazz, mostly piano jazz, but in general, the music I listen to is not bass-heavy.
(A slightly off-topic question; I find that the balance is a bit off with my HD 580s. I have to adjust it on my amp, and adjustments aren't very fine, so it's hard to get the balance correct. Is this something that can happen to headphones over time?)
Thanks for any advice!
But I've been wanting to get a new set of headphones for a while. My current phones are Sennheiser HD 580s, which I've had for about ten years. I like them a lot, but there's something a bit bland about the sound. It's nice, but it seems to be smoothed over somehow. I also use PX 100s for listening outdoors on my iPods.
I'm interested in headphones mostly for indoor listening, but potentially outdoors as well. The 580s are big, and an iPod doesn't drive it very well. I've been looking at the Bowers & Wilkins P5s as a possible set of cans to use both indoors and outdoors, but my thought is that for their price - I'm in France, where they sell for €300 - I can get better regular headphones.
My current setup is Mac > Cambridge Audio DacMagic > Cambridge Audio Sonata AR 30. Another question I have is whether a headphone amp is recommended, and whether it will make much of a difference.
So, if anyone can recommend headphones that don't exceed around €300, I'd appreciate it. One thing: I live in the country, and don't have any opportunity to try out headphones in a store; that'd be a 3-hour drive at least. So I'd probably buy from Amazon, knowing that I can always return anything I'm not happy with.
Oh, it probably helps to know that most of the music I would listen to on headphones is classical. I'm also a Deadhead, but generally don't listen to the Dead on headphones. I listen to some jazz, mostly piano jazz, but in general, the music I listen to is not bass-heavy.
(A slightly off-topic question; I find that the balance is a bit off with my HD 580s. I have to adjust it on my amp, and adjustments aren't very fine, so it's hard to get the balance correct. Is this something that can happen to headphones over time?)
Thanks for any advice!
