[Xenon-135]

I looked at the glossery of sound terms, the other glossery of terms, looked at the articles forum, buyers guides... someone please pull my arse out of the gutter, I am looking for MUSIC headphones... that is all I am able to say at this point. I believe I can spend up to 700 (when December-Jan comes around if I get my promotion mabey 300-400 more) but my music tastes are very varied... can you please help me I did HONESTLY try my damndest to research the things I'd need to know to ask so I would be able to not have to beg for help like this but with the amount of bank that I'm looking to drop I guess I'm going to have to. These headphones should be fully dedicated home phones (even though I have no fashion problem wearing bulky beasts in public as long as its not raining I actualy take pride in it)

 

[money4me247]

so no portable usage? do you need noise isolation (aka want to seal off from outside noise & not have any music leak from your headphones)?
 
if budget up to $400 (I don't think you need to hit $700 realistically), here would be my recommendations.
 
1) portable closed headphones: Oppo PM-3 ($400), NAD Visio ($300), AKG K545 (sub-$200)
2) closed home usage headphones: Alpha Prime ($800ish), AKG K553 pro ($200 or less)
note: the closed non-portable headphone category is relatively pricier than other markets. I would also investigate the closed options from Beyerdynamic. I've demoed them and was pleased though did not spend enough time to really place them on a recommendation list.
3) open full-sized headphones: Hifiman HE-400i ($500), Sennheiser HD650 ($500ish but can find cheaper), Sennheiser HD600 ($400ish but can find cheaper on sales), Phillips X2/27 ($300), Hifiman HE-400S ($300), AKG K7xx ($200). My personal favorites are the HE-400i and AKG K7xx, but all those options are quite excellent!
 
Please also note that price point does not consistently correlate with improved sound quality or a better fit for your sound signature preferences!!
 
Cheers!
 
edit: if you can't describe your sound sig preferences, you can list headphones you enjoyed/disliked & we may be able to guide you better with our recommendations. My recommendations are all pretty neutral-orientated resolving options so should match a wide variety of tastes though more precise recommendations will require more knowledge on your sound signature preferences & what sonic attributes you feel is more important.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  I looked at the glossary of sound terms, the other glossary of terms, looked at the articles forum, buyers guides... someone please pull my arse out of the gutter, I am looking for MUSIC headphones... that is all I am able to say at this point. I believe I can spend up to 700 (when December-Jan comes around if I get my promotion maybe 300-400 more) but my music tastes are very varied... can you please help me I did HONESTLY try my damnest to research the things I'd need to know to ask so I would be able to not have to beg for help like this but with the amount of bank that I'm looking to drop I guess I'm going to have to. 

 

Unless you're listening to music that has very loud low bass the only thing that will really matter as far as the sound is concerned is how smooth the frequency response is. There is no headphone nor speaker with a perfectly flat response graph, unlike amps and DACs, due to current technological limitations. Generally you'd want to avoid headphones with very narrow and tall spikes/deep dips in the response, and the whole range needs to be as flat as possible. For example, even if the response looks smooth in shape but it actually hollows out past 1khz and then has a spike high up in the treble range, your ears will likely perceive that spike to be louder than it is since the frequencies around/preceding it are relatively weaker. That's basically the HD700 compared to, say, the HD650 and K702.

 

 

 

Still, as much as that would help to scientifically narrow down your choices, there are other considerations. In some cases you might have a headphone that has a plateau that gets in the way of hearing the other frequencies properly vs a headphone with a relatively very flat response in the same region, but has a problematic response in another part of the range. Let's take the HE-400 for example - it has a wide "hole" in the upper midrange-treble area but it's as flat as you can get at that price range from 1khz down to 30hz. That means the bass and most of the percussion are about as natural as you can get, but you can have a noticeable difference in the vocals for example. Still, it's not a bad headphone, it depends on what kind of compromise you would rather make.

 

 
 
 

  These headphones should be fully dedicated home phones (even though I have no fashion problem wearing bulky beasts in public as long as its not raining I actualy take pride in it)

 

All the headphones I used as examples above are open headphones that are bulky and are best left for home use due to the vented earcups. A sealed earcup has more isolation from noise (both ways between you and other people) but the sound tends to have greater resonance due to the enclosure, and normally that would require large cups with a lot of dampening material - completely counterintuitive for when you need a sealed headphone for portable use (which is why I strongly recommend IEMs for such use). In any case, you can start with the ones I used as examples above.

 

[Xenon-135]

Home usage is my #1 concern, and passive and active noice cancellation are things I'd like but not if they interfear with the music (I've heard they can.)

 

[cel4145]

Since it will be a few months, best thing to do is find a way to go demo some headphones. If you can listen to some different make/models, and then tell us what you like about the amount of bass, mids, and treble, then people can help you better

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Home usage is my #1 concern, and passive and active noice cancellation are things I'd like but not if they interfear with the music (I've heard they can.)

 

Active noise cancellation deliberately interferes with the audio signal in order tune the phase of the sound in order to cancel out ambient noise.

 

Passive noise cancellation on the other hand just seals your ears as best it can, from a headphone earpad that wraps around your ears (that is basically not effective on its own, like on an open headphone if used in a noisy environment) all the way up to a custom IEM made using an impression of your actual ears.

 

[Oklahoma]

Another thing to remember with many of these headphones is how will they be driven?  Most of the listed headphones above are either high impedance or have a planar driver both of which usually need an amp.  If you don't have one start to figure that into you budget.  You can get very nice amps for fairly inexpensive looking around; Schiit, Audio-GD, and others (just cannot think of the names right now).  Reasons are that high impedance is harder for computers, phones, and ipods to drive (just no getting around electrical properties); and that planar's usually take a lot of power at lower impedance (limits of the the design it just takes more power), but are getting better like the HE-400s.  
 
As far as looking at headphones there are options and they will vary depending on where you live.  Oddly enough Best Buy Magnolia Design Centers actually have a decent selection to possibly get you started.  Other times audio stores might have ones for you to try, Guitar Center doesn't, but look at the manufacturer website and see if there are any dealers in your area and call and see.  Another great option is to see if there are any meets going on in your area as people will usually have a fairly varied selection of headphones and if you find ones you like they can usually make recommendations on others that are similar to start looking at.

 

[cel4145]

Apple stores often have a few decent models to try, too. Even if they are not ones you are interested, simply demoning and sharing your observations here will help people to help you focus in on a pair more suitable for you.