[RubberDuk]

Another newbie says hi, and here's my own shameless "everyone, be interested in my headphone purchase" -thread.

I've been a relatively happy owner of a pair of Sennheiser HD 25-1's for a few years but now my need for isolation is gone and I am thinking of upgrading. I've done quite a bit of reading (and listening) and gained valuable insights but I still wanted to start this thread in order to get some more suggestions or just opinions. I know there are a lot of posters around who put great detail and effort in their posts and make them lively and interesting to read. I was never good at expressing my thoughts in writing anyway. Therefore do excuse my lack of precise terms, I will do what I can in describing my feelings in this field.

My musical tastes vary quite a bit, I thought I'd link my Last.fm profile here - maybe some of you will share musical interests with me(if you aren't familiar with artist names, there are a few genres listed in my head-Fi profile). I listen to a lot of metal as well as various types of electronic music (including for example EBM which can be very harsh). I really don't feel I would like to have multiple sets of headphones for different types of music so I am willing to sacrifice in certain fields in order to get cans I can hopefully use with everything I throw at them at least satisfyingly. My primary source is the computer and I also use my headphones for gaming. Thus I'm hoping to get an amp with USB when the time comes.

I have rarely had the chance to do much listening on different headphones. I did, however, go to the city last week and listened to the following headphones:

Grado:
SR-125
SR-325
RS-1
RS-2

Denon:
AH-D5000

Sennheiser:
HD-650

Beyerdynamic:
DT-880
DT-931

AKG:
K-701

Stax:
Lambda Nova Basic (with its own amp of course)

All the pairs I listened to were amped by a Lehmann Audio Black Cube amp except for Stax. I will go back next week for another listening session but I'm also interested in your opinions and suggestions. Of the list above I found the RS-1 to be ones that left the best impression. I need to definately listen to Stax again because it took more hassle with cords while the rest were easy to compare as the Cube could be used with two pairs of cans. I tried to listen to very different types of music but I had a limited time and I tried to get some kind of an impression of many phones in order to know better what to focus on next time.

I didn't take any notes but here's a very brief summary:
I hated the SR-125 and SR-325.
AKG, Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser all sounded kind of clogged (possibly because I mostly kept a Grado in the other plug as a reference so it might have been too much of an extreme). My overall favourites after the session were the RS-1 (and I found RS-2 to be quite similar). The RS-1 & 2 felt quite balanced and handled most of what I threw at them quite well. I do, however, worry about how they will handle the harsher types of music with distorted vocals, heavy bass lines etc. I also worry about comfort, though many here have mentioned adapting to Grados quite well, given enough time. Sadly I did not have my HD 25's with me and they didn't have those so I could not compare them.. I will next time though!

Thanks for those who made it all the way to the end of the post and I'm looking forward to hearing your input. Oh, and I'm prepared to spend up to $1000 (although that's going to affect my diet for months as I'm a student

Also it needs to include the amp).

 

[d-cee]

Welcome to head-fi sorry about your wallet.

You're actually in a very good situation if you can try all those phones, really only you can decide what you like best

Spend some more time comparing, maybe bring your own CDs that you're familiar with and have a good listen once you narrow your list down

 

[RubberDuk]

You're right of course. I'm mostly interested in people (if such exist) who use a single pair of cans for a wide selection of music. Some people here have obviously found what they are looking for but often for a rather narrow field only.

That's only the selection of a single store I went to, there are a few other ones I can think of off the top of my head that might have something different, although most likely it's more of the same.

 

[Televator]

I'm actually pretty happy with my MS2i for a (pretty) wide range of music (have a look at my profile page here for an example of genres/bands)...

but then again I haven't heard that many models (didn't like Senns and the ATH-A900). I am intrigued by the Beyerdynamic 600Ω DT880 (and that is often said to be a good allrounder)

 

[Chri5peed]

Using the amp to drive two cans might change a few things.

 

[earwicker7]

YGPM