I've been using both the Airpods Pro and Max(thinking of buying the Airpods 3), and I really liked the sound of them. I've been told that open-back headphones are even better.
If you have the right amplifier to supply power without distortion and noise (or a lot of the right kind of distortion for some subjective listeners, ie some tube amps) and a very quiet room they'll sound better.
Otherwise it's like taking a GT car with a very stiff chassis but is also larger (I mean, your regular's sedan is mostly built so it doesn't easily crush the occupants, plus airbags; not to pull 1.0g++ braking, turning, and going 75mph through a corner before flooring it near the end of that corner) ie heavier, plus all the leather inside (think Ferrari 599GTB Fiorano being heavier than a Honda S2000), then putting the engine from a Civic in it.
That and the sound can usually be more neutral, ie no artificial software bass boost or bass boosted response by design as in many mass market products. This kind of like setting a Fuji camera to Provia and viewing it on a calibrated 100% SRGB monitor. That said Apple is closer to that monitor and such headphones in that regard than your average earphones in most electronics stores (let alone the impulse buy rack near the cashier).
So I've tried the HD800s at a shop and was quite disappointed because the sound didn't seem to fit the music I listen to.
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Things I didn't like: Sennheiser HD800s(sound was too 'weak', if that's the correct word. It was kind of boring)...
If you mean you can't hear the beat enough, that's because the beat is in the lower freqs, and lower freqs are more affected by ambient noise, so if that shop isn't anything like a hi fi speaker shop with a dedicated room - or if your room at home isn't quiet - then the Sennheisers will be at a disadvantage.
The Airpods and Airpods Max have noise cancelling. The HD800S are wide open out in the back. That's kind of like comparing a 370Z coupe with a Bose system to a 370Z roadster with a custom sound system with the top down, as opposed to having it up in traffic and music is there to compensate for not using the car as it should be used (not that you can't do that on the Bose system) or when the car is parked at night and there's a party so the owner cranks it up to be heard outside before cops come and break it up.
If you hooked it up to your iPhone dongle there's another problem - the power output on that isn't exactly well matched to run a 300ohm, 98dB/1mW (or something) load in the way the Airpods and Max drivers were designed to have very high sensitivity and can run off a BT amp with a small battery (some EQ is possibly applied automatically by the software too).
...Momentum True Wireless 2(sound was not 'clear', it sounded as if it were veiled)
One way to make the bottom end more audible is to prevent auditory masking, where even if the top range and the bottom end are relatively even, it's harder to hear the bottom end due to it being more affected by ambient noise and the human hearing being more biased for midrange and high-midrange freqs (ie human voices; by contrast either pets hear an earthquake first, or humans just get a sense of dread from subsonic bass because they feel it rather than hear it, whether it's lava or a huge cat hiding in the savannah or jungle).
Similarly this is why some people like certain tube amps with certain headphones or speakers.
So I'm here for advice to get the right headphone for me. Someone noted that the HD660s/HD58x are quite similar to the sound of Airpods'...
If you're in a quiet room and driven by a good amp, probably true for some people.
In a noisy room, these will probably suck for you just like the HD800S did for the same reasons. Not to mention some people that like these don't necessarily love the response 100%, but they can live with the response (again, in a quiet room; and with a good amp) just to get the imaging capabilities that makes the soundstage wider
and, harder to do on headphones, deeper as well.
Back with the old wired earpods (which were good for earbuds, and only bad because Westone and Shure etc were a thing and have better isolation at the very least) I have friends that can't tell the difference between the HD600 (with a fairly flat response) and the Apple earbuds in a reasonably not loud room, but they can easily like my Grados. If you look at the response graph though the Grados are very, very strong from 75hz to 125hz, and that's what everybody that likes Grado likes about them: boosting that range emphasizes the beat. Pretty sure if the same people repeated this with the noise cancelling equipped Airpods and Max they wouldn't say they're similar, they'd outright say the HD600 sucks.
Somebody said that Focal Clear or the Elex might do the job, but they were too heavy for long-listening sessions.
I've spent an hour going back and forth between the Utopia and my HD600 (with HM5 angled earpads), and
1. Didn't really notice any difference in weight.
2. The HD600 was actually smoother in the treble and the increase in the Utopia's bass wasn't "tight," ie it's more of too long lingering bass guitar notes than a harder, louder "thud" on the bass drums.
These are the music genres I usually listen to:
Pop(ex. Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Adele, Sia, Billie Eilish, Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Charlie Puth...etc.)
EDM(ex. David guetta, Martin Garrix, Marshmello, Alan Walker, The Chainsmokers, Zedd...etc.)
R&B(ex. The Weeknd, Drake...etc.)
Hip-Hop(Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Chris Brown, Migos...etc.)
Rock(Fall out boy, Maroon 5, Coldplay, One direction...etc.)
My budget for the setup is not yet decided, so I would like to get suggestions from various price points.
Thanks.
Grado RS1i or GS1000i if you can find these and get a decent portable amp like a Fiio Q3 MkII to drive it. This assumes use in a quiet environment still, but at least the headphone response curve isn't geared towards a more objective, flat sound and just straight up boosts where the beat would be. One caveat: even in a quiet room you won't get the kind of bass out of Eminem etc that people who listen to Eminem in a tricked out Escalade would (this is not even a matter of physics ie headphones are smaller, it's just that this gets you the upper bass oomph but not loud rumbling bass).
If you can do IEMs there are a lot more options. Whether you'd use something like a Fiio Q3 MkII or just a dongle will depend on the particular IEM.
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