Looking at upgrading from el cheapos (finally) and need help.

[sml1226]

I'm looking for something to listen to with my iPod. I'm definitely getting an amp if I get any decent phones, almost definitely LOD as well. All of my music is either 320Kbps MP3 or in the process of being re-ripped/re-downloaded. Actually it's all being done as FLAC and then converted in iTunes until Apple supports FLAC or figures out a better compression of ALAC (my entire FLAC library doesn't take up nearly as much as what the ALAC one was starting to become).
 
Anyway, I'm not particularly good at differentiating between good and great (I can tell that the $300 phones destroy the $60 ones, but not the more subtle differences) but I can pick out bad fairly well. So I'm looking for something to get me to "good" phones.
 
I usually listen to anything from soft-rock through thrash metal. I'm currently using some slightly-above-garbage level closed back Sony's (I'll look up the model number later if anybody cares) but they are bass heavy for me. I am in no way a basshead. Some of my songs are just too bass heavy, I understand that, but I would still classify these phones as overly bassy, I have seen that as Sony's target audience lately, for it's mainstream stuff anyway.
 
So can anybody recommend any phones for me?
 
So far, I've looked (reviews, specs, photos, no listening yet) at AKG K240S and Sennheiser HD555 phones. As you can see I'm looking at semi-open and open circumaural phones. If anybody thinks I should go closed, or supra-aural with the stuff I've said, let me know, I'm just not sure where to start for this. Most of my stuff is relatively low-end (or really low mid-level) equipment, but I figure I'm better off starting my upgrades to higher-end equipment with phones rather than speakers as that gets a lot more expensive, a lot quicker.
 
Btw, I'm planning on building a CMoy regardless of where I go with the phones. (Any specific Op-Amp recommendations are welcome) and I'm at least going to be using my official Apple dock for home listening, but will likely have a LOD with the new phones.
 
If the two phones I've listed don't show it already, I'm looking for phones that don't run much higher than $100. The AKGs are actually sub-$80 from some places now, and the Senns are staying around $120 at a few places I've seen.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Get ATH-M50's!  Every new head-fier should get a pair of M50's in my opinion before messing with anything else.  There's a great chance they'll be all you need and though you don't seem to want closed, it's very good to have if you only have one pair of phones because you can take them outside, in public, etc.  Just do it and don't look back. 

 

[Proglover]

as entry, when listening to rock related music, consider Grado's SR60/80
 
AKG 240S are actually very nice cans. Best bang for the buck I've had. They beat some cans that cost twice that price for me

 

[Arctia]

Every head-fier should at least try something in the $15-30 range first. Diminishing return kicks in quickly, and everyone's hearing is different. You may decide that anything over $100 simply isn't worth it.
 
I'd recommend a pair of KSC75 or PortaPros first, then you can decide if you want to go higher.

 

[sml1226]

Quote:

Every head-fier should at least try something in the $15-30 range first. Diminishing return kicks in quickly, and everyone's hearing is different. You may decide that anything over $100 simply isn't worth it.
 
I'd recommend a pair of KSC75 or PortaPros first, then you can decide if you want to go higher.

My current Sony's are probably $30 phones and they're just not cutting it for me anymore. I can listen to them when I want better sound than my junk earbuds, but they usually get ignored because my speakers are somewhat better for at home listening than the Sony's. I'm definitely looking for more than what I have. And the $100 phones will probably be dragging me from my speakers a lot more often than the Sony's ever have. And like I said, I can tell a lot of the higher end phones sound  considerably better than my Sony's as it is.

 
Quote:

as entry, when listening to rock related music, consider Grado's SR60/80
 
AKG 240S are actually very nice cans. Best bang for the buck I've had. They beat some cans that cost twice that price for me

The SR60/80 were also considerations I had, and for basically the same price I'm stil torn there between those and the K240S. I've heard good things about both of them, never listened to Grados, but I've only barely listened to AKGs, and it's been awhile so I can't even really remember how the ones I used were. There is one place that carries Grados around me (I think) but I don't think they carry AKG so I really have nowhere to test those for comparison.

 
Quote:

Get ATH-M50's!  Every new head-fier should get a pair of M50's in my opinion before messing with anything else.  There's a great chance they'll be all you need and though you don't seem to want closed, it's very good to have if you only have one pair of phones because you can take them outside, in public, etc.  Just do it and don't look back. 

I can always go back to my decent (not really good, but acceptable if I'm taking them outside and it's too noisy for the more open ones) Sony's I already have for the closed option. So I think that's most of my reasoning behind the open/semi-open ones. But like I said, any reasons that I should go closed are welcome. I'm still thinking about the options.

 

[shipsupt]

I listened to my SR80's happily for years with some similar genre of music you've listed.  If open cans will work for you they are an affordable option you couldn't go wrong with.  If you did have a chance to audition that would be a bonus as the "Grado sound" is not for everyone.

 

[sml1226]

Quote:

I listened to my SR80's happily for years with some similar genre of music you've listed.  If open cans will work for you they are an affordable option you couldn't go wrong with.  If you did have a chance to audition that would be a bonus as the "Grado sound" is not for everyone.

I've constantly heard people say that... how would you describe the "Grado sound" I've never really got a good description of it, yet I always hear about having the "Grado sound" when they change something or "improve" something. Like reading about SR60i/80i. Everybody says it still has the Grado sound of the originals.

 

[Proglover]

high on treble, bright, exciting sound. They are very forward sounding (as opposed to laid back).
 
people could tend to find them more fatiguing in stead of relaxing, but exciting in stead of boring.
 
rock (f.e. distorted) guitars benefit extremely by this sound, according to Grado lovers
 

 

[sml1226]

I normally prefer the warmer sound, despite my musical tastes. Screeching metal isn't really interesting to me, I prefer analog recordings to most modern stuff (f.e. Metallica did Death Magnetic in digital recording and it sounds terrible compared to older recordings). This warmth is somewhat negated by being a CD rather than an LP. But digital recordings have the harsh sound brought out more on a CD IMO. So, I'm somewhat interested in warmer phones. But I could also get that more laid back sound through a warmer amp, so I'm not sure where to go there.
 
I've heard some people say that Grados are terribly uncomfortable, any opinions on that? I'd really like something that I can put on and listen to for extended periods of time. So fatiguing sound (not sure what extent, my current ones are really bad about that) and uncomfortable really does not sound like something that really fits.
 
But I'm going to go try some Grados and maybe some Senns (if they have one I can afford) regardless sometime in the coming week. I have nowhere to try out the AKGs or ATs though.

 

[Proglover]

Sounds like you wouldn't like Grado, but if you can, try them. 240S could be a good choice, maybe look into Senns 598, they're pretty new but if I'm correct they get pretty good reviews

 

[sml1226]

Well since I can try the Senns and Grados at the same place, I'll check them out just to see how it is with my music. I'm disappointed that nobody carries AKG or AT around me to try those out though.
 
Btw, how's that Fiio E5? I'm thinking I might just do that for a portable amp if they are any good (Especially interested in how it helps the K240S you have). Otherwise it's a (much larger, non-rechargable, non-USB) CMoy setup for a portable amp.

 

[WhiteCrow]

Quote:

as entry, when listening to rock related music, consider Grado's SR60/80
 
AKG 240S are actually very nice cans. Best bang for the buck I've had. They beat some cans that cost twice that price for me

Grados 60/80
X2

 

[Proglover]

Quote:

Well since I can try the Senns and Grados at the same place, I'll check them out just to see how it is with my music. I'm disappointed that nobody carries AKG or AT around me to try those out though.
 
Btw, how's that Fiio E5? I'm thinking I might just do that for a portable amp if they are any good (Especially interested in how it helps the K240S you have). Otherwise it's a (much larger, non-rechargable, non-USB) CMoy setup for a portable amp.

I mentioned the K240S to be a great bang for the buck, that's AKG isn't it?
Rhythmdevils mentioned the M50's in post2, those are AT.
 
Nothing is holding you back to try those too. At the end, you have to chose for yourself and best thing is to let your ears decide in stead of us, if you have possibilities of trying different cans.
 
A cMoy's amping abilities are usually better than E5, although the FiiO is always a fantastic bang for the buck and is nice and small. K240S benefit.
 

 

[sml1226]

Quote:

Quote:

Well since I can try the Senns and Grados at the same place, I'll check them out just to see how it is with my music. I'm disappointed that nobody carries AKG or AT around me to try those out though.
 
Btw, how's that Fiio E5? I'm thinking I might just do that for a portable amp if they are any good (Especially interested in how it helps the K240S you have). Otherwise it's a (much larger, non-rechargable, non-USB) CMoy setup for a portable amp.

I mentioned the K240S to be a great bang for the buck, that's AKG isn't it?
Rhythmdevils mentioned the M50's in post2, those are AT.
 
Nothing is holding you back to try those too. At the end, you have to chose for yourself and best thing is to let your ears decide in stead of us, if you have possibilities of trying different cans.
 
A cMoy's amping abilities are usually better than E5, although the FiiO is always a fantastic bang for the buck and is nice and small. K240S benefit.
 

By that I meant nobody around me carries AKG or AT to try. I'd have to buy it to test it. There's no try-before-you-buy option here for those brands. I'd have to order them from somewhere since the one place that sells nice stuff is mostly speakers with a small-ish selection of higher end headphones. That's all. Otherwise I'd go test out Grado, AKG, AT, Sennheiser, etc. to find out what I liked best. Right now, the only try-before-you-buy option for me is Grado and Sennheiser. But from what I'm hearing, AKG has the warmer sound I'm looking for so I might just go ahead and buy those if the Grados or Senns don't amaze me when I get to try those out.
 
That's the only reason for the Fiio for me, size and good bang-for-the-buck. I'd kinda like something small, but for nearly the same price and "usually better" performance I think I'll go ahead and build my cMoy anyway.

 

[disastermouse]

Quote:

I'm looking for something to listen to with my iPod. I'm definitely getting an amp if I get any decent phones, almost definitely LOD as well. All of my music is either 320Kbps MP3 or in the process of being re-ripped/re-downloaded. Actually it's all being done as FLAC and then converted in iTunes until Apple supports FLAC or figures out a better compression of ALAC (my entire FLAC library doesn't take up nearly as much as what the ALAC one was starting to become).
 
Anyway, I'm not particularly good at differentiating between good and great (I can tell that the $300 phones destroy the $60 ones, but not the more subtle differences) but I can pick out bad fairly well. So I'm looking for something to get me to "good" phones.
 
I usually listen to anything from soft-rock through thrash metal. I'm currently using some slightly-above-garbage level closed back Sony's (I'll look up the model number later if anybody cares) but they are bass heavy for me. I am in no way a basshead. Some of my songs are just too bass heavy, I understand that, but I would still classify these phones as overly bassy, I have seen that as Sony's target audience lately, for it's mainstream stuff anyway.
 
So can anybody recommend any phones for me?
 
So far, I've looked (reviews, specs, photos, no listening yet) at AKG K240S and Sennheiser HD555 phones. As you can see I'm looking at semi-open and open circumaural phones. If anybody thinks I should go closed, or supra-aural with the stuff I've said, let me know, I'm just not sure where to start for this. Most of my stuff is relatively low-end (or really low mid-level) equipment, but I figure I'm better off starting my upgrades to higher-end equipment with phones rather than speakers as that gets a lot more expensive, a lot quicker.
 
Btw, I'm planning on building a CMoy regardless of where I go with the phones. (Any specific Op-Amp recommendations are welcome) and I'm at least going to be using my official Apple dock for home listening, but will likely have a LOD with the new phones.
 
If the two phones I've listed don't show it already, I'm looking for phones that don't run much higher than $100. The AKGs are actually sub-$80 from some places now, and the Senns are staying around $120 at a few places I've seen.

Based on your music preferences, strict 'just the recording, please' phones may bore you at first compared to some of the 'fun' cans - but I'd still recommend going that way.
 
I like the HD 650 with either E7/E9 or HRT MSII+/E9....
 
But then, I'm like a crazy Doctor whose prescription pad will only allow me to write 'HD 650' - so take it with a couple grains of NaCL.