[crossidmary]

Greetings,
Please advise. I'm new to the "cans" department of headphones so these will be my first. Just sold all my amp/cdp/speakers. Sadly, life is very busy and my gear just sat - collecting dust. Impossible for hp to replace that, I know. Hopefully, with your help I can find some decent entry cans to make the transition a little less painful. These are the two I'm looking at - seem to be the best bang for the buck. My budget is = $150 USD or so. Feel free to add to my choices if you think something in that range is better than both of those. There is a wealth of information here that I have greatly benefitted from. Hoping to hear from some with experience to guide me through.
Much thanks,
Kind regards -
Todd

 

[alynx]

From my experience those two cans are not comparable. What I mean by that ist that the m50 and the HD 5x8 line of headphone are genuinely different cans. Thats why I will never understand why these two cans are compared against each other so often.
First thing is the one is closed and the other is open back. Second the m50 is portable, the HD 518 is not. Comfort on the HD 5x8 line is great, not so great on the HD 518 because of ther stiffer pads, but still good and leaps and bounds better than the m50. Those will get hot and heavy quickly. They sound vastly different too. The m50 is highly v shaped with treble that, altough sparkly, is just too much and has a metallic shimmer to it. The bass is overpronounced, but not boomy... not to my ears anyway, but punchy. Bass texture isnt the best though, No matter what you are listening to, the bass will always almost sound the same. The 518 could actually be described as bass light compated to the m50, altough they are not. They are not a bass cannon, but they provide still some rumble down there. I found the rendition of bass texture better too. Voices sound fairly natural on the 518. On the m50 they are a little shouty (I guess thats the word to describe it, not sure though ^^) Treble, again, is failry natual sounding, maybe a little subdued. The m50 has like zero soundstage. Its all foward and in your head. Like a punch to the face. Not the 518 though. I mean, I dont like the soundstage on the 5x8 line of cans, but against the m50, the 518 actually has some width and depth to the sound, the 598 even more so, but just a touch.
 
Well overall the HD 518 is the better can, imho. But I would step it up a notch and get the 558 for comfort reason. The pads on the 518 are **** if u ask me ^^

 

[crossidmary]

Thank you VERY much. That helps alot. I guess I didn't see all the data pointing to the v sound sig. Hate that.
I will consider the 558. What are your thoughts in the Urbanite XL?