I have tried quite a few high end headphones such as the HD800 and the Beyerdynamic T1's but one slight issue I have with them is that the vocals sound a bit in the background vs right next to you. Thats why I like the sound signature of alot of IEM's because they do that but IEM's arent very comfortable for me so I was looking for a more forward sounding pair of high end headphones. Any recommendations?
I feel the same way. Lots of newly released (last 3-4 years), high end, full-size, open-back headphones, most notably from companies who have their history rooted in pro audio, where neutrality and revealing clarity are utmost.....their flagships all seem to be favoring darker, drowsy, syrupy,less accurate signatures. With recessed detail and presence in the upper mids, especially. As well as favoring much more 2nd and 3rd order harmonic distortion, even on their flagship "reference" phones.
I understand not everyone likes a 3-5db AKG K701 peak at 2k or 6k.....or some extremely exposing/irritating Etymotic E4RS peak at 2.5k, but among all the top "reference" flagships on the market today.....all of them have overly recessed upper mids to lower treble, from 1k to 6k. i realize this is subjective, but as an audio professional, I feel my opinion holds a fairer share of weight than most.
This conscious choice to recess 1k-6k, compared to higher levels of the sub-1k frequencies' collective presence on the same phones, puts a stifling lid on so much beautiful high frequency reverb / air / life / character / presence from strings, wind instruments, female vocals, xylophones/vibraphones, fender rhodes, and hammond organs. Not to mention countless percussion and rhythmic instruments. We all know certain frequencies around 2.5k and such are "irritating", but this new trend seems to be overkill, and sucking the life out of audiophiles ears, or making them resort to subpar digital EQ's (if anyone wants a truly awesome digital EQ to use with high resolution audio, try fabFilter's Pro-Q2, it's used on a huge segment of professional recordings from your favorite contemporary artists, it really does sound analog on high res stuff)
And of course we all understand, loading a phone up with 2nd and 3rd order harmonic distortion, makes it more harmonious, and "magical/pleasing", and "liquid" .....but it's getting the point where its saturated like a studer 820 several times over, or a F.A.T.S.O. tape saturation outboard device, on 11, just pouring syrup on everything. This particular trend isn't nearly as troublesome to me, as the devolving sound signature trend.
Anyways, my main culprits I'm accusing of this contemporary crime, are:
AKG K812
Beyerdynamic Tesla T1
Audeze LCD-3 & LCD-2
Sennheiser HD700
Shure SRH1540
and, to a lesser degree:
Sennheiser HD800
I blame this on several things:
---The market success of the Sennheiser HD650.......despite it IMHO devolving from the HD600. It's success must have made every exec for these aforementioned brands think the dark signature is what drove sales....when in reality it was the brand identity the HD600 deservedly built, coupled with the 650's classier styling than the 600. But not better sound.
---Dre Beats eating up a sizable part of the lower end of the $200-$500 market segment, and it's adherents' claims of "better bass"
---Much of the audiophile market is also aimed at an older market segment, with more expendable income.....and is thus possibly tailored to people who love rock from the late 50's to early 70's. I love some Zeppelin, Cream, ELP, Hendrix, etc ....but lots of those screaming guitars have a lot of abrasive, poorly Eq'd upper end.....and to make a flagship reference phone to compensate for bad recordings, i feel is a silly concept. And I suspect some combination of that factor in the process, mixed with the overall assumption that generously large cuts at key high frequencies, will allow the user to just push the volume up extremely high without encountering ANY sharpness. It's like the audiophile world's collective version of hip-hop & R&B's compression wars......
I realize I can just use FabFilter's Pro-Q2 to tailor this segment exactly where i want it, with great results....it's just ridiculous I have to....
Anyways, end rant.....
As for what i would recommend....The last high end phones I liked (and we seem to have similar tastes) from Sennheiser were the HD600, from AKG were their whole K 60_ & K70_ line, especially the K702 & K7XX. Beyerdynamic DT880's are fantastic, much better than their current price point would indicate, and my favorite from that entire house is the T-90.....very present and clear mids, vocals, and lower treble, for such a U-shaped sound.
I would suggest trying K701's, K702's, K601's, or Beyerdynamic DT880's / T90's.
And if you just want vocals to be on top of everything, and don't mind a closed back, "non audiophile phone", grab some classic Sony MDR-7506's. They are the official "vocal reference phone" amongst engineers/artists. Quite a few major label vocalists have preferred throughout the 00's and 10's, because of how their relative frequency response is from say, 200z to 1k, in relation to what is around it in the spectrum.
