[1990eam]

Hello! First post around here. Upon a fairly extensive research around these forums I decided to upgrade my headphones since my pair of loyal AKGs 240s died on me last week.

I play and record music at night (guitar and lately synths) so I decided it was only reasonable to take the opportunity and upgrade my headphones. I might also use these for listening music at night.

I basically narrowed down the search to DT990 Pros, ATH r70x and the Senheisser 650s since I want to try open backs and it seems like the 650s are the safest bet.

I have a couple questions regarding high impedance headphones though:

1) how do I know if the devices I would connect these to can drive the headphones or not? What should I look for regarding the headphones out in each device? (I use a pod x3live when I can't use my amp late at night for example).

2) if I had to get an amp for the headphones, how would the signal chain be in that case? Synth/guitar multieffects > headphone amp > headphones?

3) If an amp is absolutely necesary to listen to music on these, which one would you recommend? (budget around $200ish maybe a little more).

Thanks for the advice and sorry for the dumb questions but I've never owned pro headphones

 

[PurpleAngel]

For audio production (creation, mixing, etc) you might consider getting a "monitor" headphone, like the Sony MDR-V6 or 7506 (buy used off eBay), which are low cost.
As I believe you want very neural headphones for audio production.

Then get a second pair of headphones for all other audio listening (movies, music movies, etc).
Maybe the Soundmagic HP200 headphones?

 

[buke9]

Which K240’s did you have? There are a few.

 

[1990eam]

For audio production (creation, mixing, etc) you might consider getting a "monitor" headphone, like the Sony MDR-V6 or 7506 (buy used off eBay), which are low cost.
As I believe you want very neural headphones for audio production.

Then get a second pair of headphones for all other audio listening (movies, music movies, etc).
Maybe the Soundmagic HP200 headphones?

Thanks for the suggestions, but why not the 650s? I've read many good things about them and also of a lot of people mixing on them. They are supposed to be pretty honest headphones with just a little more bass than the HD600s (enough to be more appealing when listening to some kinds of music) so it seemed like a good all rounder for my needs.

Which K240’s did you have? There are a few.

Mmm, the lower end ones (about $70 new). They were not necesarily bad, but I really want to try the mid range stuff like the 650s since I have to invest the money into a new pair of cans.

 

[buke9]

Well I was talking about the 600 ohm 240’s I have the Monitors and the Sextetts both 1980’s versions and there are many others.

 

[buke9]

Well this has been a recent want for headphones for recording and monitoring. If this is just for yourself and you are not sending this off to mastering then that would be different.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Thanks for the suggestions, but why not the 650s? I've read many good things about them and also of a lot of people mixing on them. They are supposed to be pretty honest headphones with just a little more bass than the HD600s (enough to be more appealing when listening to some kinds of music) so it seemed like a good all rounder for my needs.
Mmm, the lower end ones (about $70 new). They were not necessarily bad, but I really want to try the mid range stuff like the 650s since I have to invest the money into a new pair of cans.

Those 55-Ohm K240s are fairly power hungry, so if they were not getting enough power, you may not have heard them at their best.
But i'm not trying to talk you into getting the K240, the the K550/K553 might make a good low cost (and good sounding) monitor headphone.

With the 300-Ohm Sennheiser HD650, I can't see any reason for you to not buy them, if they are what you want, go for it.
Just make sure you have a headphone amplifier with a good amount of power to drive them.