[leonzill]

I originally posted this here, but realized that since I'll almost certainly be using whatever new headphones I get on-the-go until I pull the trigger on some IEM's later (read: I'm not looking for IEMs just yet) I should post it here as well.
 
 
 
I'm saving up money for 'phones. The problem is...I don't know what I'm saving up for. I'd been set on the Ultrasone 780's, but now, I'm just not sure. I've added a lot more downtempo stuff to my library recently, and I'm not sure how good the 780's are with that kind of stuff.
 
What I know about them
+Good all-arounder
+Good bass
+Short cable
-Uncomfortable for long periods (bad earpads, get hot during extended use)
 
...that's about it.
 
My musical library consists primarily of alternative rock (Relient K, Tokyo Police Club, Coldplay, things like that) with a few different electronic genres (primarily experimental/IDM but with drum & bass and a few dubstep songs which I listen to religiously thrown in there). As I said before, I've recently gotten into some more downtempo music as well as instrumental music. The new stuff ranges from nu jazz to acoustic, ambient to instrumental, and to say the least, I'm currently at a complete loss.
 
Sometimes I like to rock out to my music, while other times I prefer to relax and wind down. I'm listening to music constantly so I'd like something comfortable and relatively easy to carry around with me, whether I'm going out for a walk or just heading to another room in the house.
 
Whatever I end up getting will be run out of a Nationite S:flo 2, so I'm not looking for huge, juice-sucking cans. A pair of headphones with a detachable cable or a shorter stock cable with an extension (like the 780's have) would be optimal, although I suppose if need be I could get them re-cabled. However, I'd really rather not.
 
New headphones will need to be at least semi-closed, and I'd really prefer circum-aurals. Supra-aurals tend to get uncomfortable pretty quickly for me.
 
 
As you can probably tell, I'm not against carrying around full-sized headphones as long as they're not HUGE. The only thing that's different than the original post is that I'll be willing to go circumaural if the headphones sound good, and that I've added a lot more electronic music (IDM, Experimental, that kind of stuff) to my library.
 
Thanks in advance for the advice and for reading through my giant post.

 

[leonzill]

Bump...
 
EDIT: Ah, I also forgot to mention, something $300 or below would be preferred, but I am willing to go to $450 max.

 

[Young Spade]

I'm going to say to read up on the ESQ9As and see if they're right for you.... you could also check out the Sennheiser HD 25s... both of those phones are closed and supra aural; they clamp on your head/ears so they won't be the most comfortable cans out there.
 

 

[leonzill]

Will do for the HD 25s. However, I can't find anything on "ESQ9A's". Nothing shows up from searches.

 

[Surreal.]

ESW9As, I believe is what he meant.
 

 

[leonzill]

That clears it up a bit, thanks.

 

[Young Spade]

Oops yea I meant W9A Very beautiful phones that sound great as well. 

 

[mvw2]

What do you want to hear from the phones?
 
What don't you want to hear from the phones?
 
By this I mean sound signature.  "good all-rounder" is very generalized.  There are a LOT of well rounded earphones on a general scale.  "good bass" is also generalized.  Good how?  How much, what kind of presentation?
 
Details, details.  We need them.

 

[Sumflow]

Quote:

until I pull the trigger on some IEM's later

 

​

You can get top-tier Universal 3 way IEM's for that much now, why wait?
Quote:

leonzill /img/forum/go_quote.gif  something $300 or below .. t I am willing to go to $450 max.

 

[wind016]

 
Quote:

What do you want to hear from the phones?
 
What don't you want to hear from the phones?
 
By this I mean sound signature.  "good all-rounder" is very generalized.  There are a LOT of well rounded earphones on a general scale.  "good bass" is also generalized.  Good how?  How much, what kind of presentation?
 
Details, details.  We need them.

Exactly what he said. Ultrasones would definitely let you "rock out." You could also make your headphones sound more relaxed by rolling down the lowest lows on an equalizer. If you want headphones to relax, maybe you should search for headphones by making comfort the priority.

 
Quote:

ESW9As, I believe is what he meant.
 

I have the ESW10JPNs and I absolutely LOVE them.  I have heard that the ESW9 and 10 sound similar. They sound amazing. It has a very spacious sound while the vocals are very upfront. Instruments sound like they are at a distance but vocals are so intimate and personal. I don't how they did it but it is exactly what I like to hear. However, I still have other headphones when I want more spaciousness and details (K701) or more bass impact (Denon D7000).

 

[Young Spade]

^ That sounds like a future upgrade for me. Right now I only have the K702s for dorm use and the ER4Ss for outside; I need something that brings some excitement to the table when I want to listen to hardcore/alternative and rap/hip hop and stuff. 

 

[leonzill]

I suppose by "good all-arounder" I just mean neutral. There will be a lot of different kinds of music running through these and I don't want to sacrifice anywhere because they're geared towards different genres. Something like what people say playing rock and metal through some K70x's or classical through Grado's. I don't want a situation where a type of music just *won't* sound good.
 
Bass. To be honest, I left it so general because I don't quite know what I'm looking for (probably because I haven't heard a decent setup). I don't think I'd want punchy bass because to me that seems like it'd be odd and out-of-place in slower songs. Again, it just needs to be good in whatever genres I play through it.
 
The ESW10JPNs sound really nice. Any major difference between them and the ESW10s besides aesthetics?
 
I suppose I could look into IEMs. They'd need to be durable though as I'd probably end up sleeping and working out with them. I've always thought custom molds are quite sexy as well.

 

[Young Spade]

 
@leonzill: The AT 10's are very nice, high quality phones but I wouldn't really call them.... neutral. That doesn't mean they don't sound great with many genres however.
 
IMO..... you don't have to have a neutral can to enjoy many types of music; a slightly colored can can make different genres sound great as well. The AT 10s have some emphasis in certain areas but they can handle a lot of things thrown at them.
 
And.... on the other end; the K701/2s are pretty neutral but that doesn't mean they're great with all genres; with stock cabling, I don't like listening to rock or electronic music because they don't portray excitement and energy that I might be able to find with other phones.
Neutral is good but there are pluses and minues with each type of phone. @leonzill: The AT 10's are very nice, high quality phones but I wouldn't really call them.... neutral. That doesn't mean they don't sound great with many genres however.
 
IMO..... you don't have to have a neutral can to enjoy many types of music; a slightly colored can can make different genres sound great as well. The AT 10s have some emphasis in certain areas but they can handle a lot of things thrown at them.
 
And.... on the other end; the K701/2s are pretty neutral but that doesn't mean they're great with all genres; with stock cabling, I don't like listening to rock or electronic music because they don't portray excitement and energy that I might be able to find with other phones.
Neutral is good but there are pluses and minues with each type of phone. @leonzill: The AT 10's are very nice, high quality phones but I wouldn't really call them.... neutral. That doesn't mean they don't sound great with many genres however.
 
IMO..... you don't have to have a neutral can to enjoy many types of music; a slightly colored can can make different genres sound great as well. The AT 10s have some emphasis in certain areas but they can handle a lot of things thrown at them.
 
And.... on the other end; the K701/2s are pretty neutral but that doesn't mean they're great with all genres; with stock cabling, I don't like listening to rock or electronic music because they don't portray excitement and energy that I might be able to find with other phones.
Neutral is good but there are pluses and minues with each type of phone. 

 

[wind016]

 
Quote:

I suppose by "good all-arounder" I just mean neutral. There will be a lot of different kinds of music running through these and I don't want to sacrifice anywhere because they're geared towards different genres. Something like what people say playing rock and metal through some K70x's or classical through Grado's. I don't want a situation where a type of music just *won't* sound good.
 
Bass. To be honest, I left it so general because I don't quite know what I'm looking for (probably because I haven't heard a decent setup). I don't think I'd want punchy bass because to me that seems like it'd be odd and out-of-place in slower songs. Again, it just needs to be good in whatever genres I play through it.
 
The ESW10JPNs sound really nice. Any major difference between them and the ESW10s besides aesthetics?
 
I suppose I could look into IEMs. They'd need to be durable though as I'd probably end up sleeping and working out with them. I've always thought custom molds are quite sexy as well.

ESW10JPNs are ESW10s.  if you mean ES10s, then they are a bit different.  i heard ES10s have more powerful bass with a sound character more similar to ES7. Bright and powerful bass. Sort of a V sound. Great for rock and many genres. The ESW series sound great with more natural music from real instruments, especially wood instruments. They have a tube sound and still very good for all genres. You can't really go wrong with either if you are looking for a portable superaural headphone.


 
Quote:

 
@leonzill: The AT 10's are very nice, high quality phones but I wouldn't really call them.... neutral. That doesn't mean they don't sound great with many genres however.
 
IMO..... you don't have to have a neutral can to enjoy many types of music; a slightly colored can can make different genres sound great as well. The AT 10s have some emphasis in certain areas but they can handle a lot of things thrown at them.
 
And.... on the other end; the K701/2s are pretty neutral but that doesn't mean they're great with all genres; with stock cabling, I don't like listening to rock or electronic music because they don't portray excitement and energy that I might be able to find with other phones.
Neutral is good but there are pluses and minues with each type of phone. @leonzill: The AT 10's are very nice, high quality phones but I wouldn't really call them.... neutral. That doesn't mean they don't sound great with many genres however.
 
IMO..... you don't have to have a neutral can to enjoy many types of music; a slightly colored can can make different genres sound great as well. The AT 10s have some emphasis in certain areas but they can handle a lot of things thrown at them.
 
And.... on the other end; the K701/2s are pretty neutral but that doesn't mean they're great with all genres; with stock cabling, I don't like listening to rock or electronic music because they don't portray excitement and energy that I might be able to find with other phones.
Neutral is good but there are pluses and minues with each type of phone. @leonzill: The AT 10's are very nice, high quality phones but I wouldn't really call them.... neutral. That doesn't mean they don't sound great with many genres however.
 
IMO..... you don't have to have a neutral can to enjoy many types of music; a slightly colored can can make different genres sound great as well. The AT 10s have some emphasis in certain areas but they can handle a lot of things thrown at them.
 
And.... on the other end; the K701/2s are pretty neutral but that doesn't mean they're great with all genres; with stock cabling, I don't like listening to rock or electronic music because they don't portray excitement and energy that I might be able to find with other phones.
Neutral is good but there are pluses and minues with each type of phone. 

This is definitely true. My studio monitors are very neutral, but I'd only use them for well... studio montioring...  The K701s are great for acoustic music, but it's ability to separate all the sounds makes it great for studio use too. My Sony CD900ST monitors, I do not really use them. Music is just not fun with them. However, I did use them in my band for making music or stage-hand stuff. I generally do not use studio monitors for music and stay away from them. Studio monitors are used for reference to previous recordings or monitoring live sound. Coloring=good for music listening though

 

[leonzill]

Quote:

 
ESW10JPNs are ESW10s.  if you mean ES10s, then they are a bit different.  i heard ES10s have more powerful bass with a sound character more similar to ES7. Bright and powerful bass. Sort of a V sound. Great for rock and many genres. The ESW series sound great with more natural music from real instruments, especially wood instruments. They have a tube sound and still very good for all genres. You can't really go wrong with either if you are looking for a portable superaural headphone.


 

Ahh I see. I was under the impression that the ESW10JPNs were a special edition only released in...well, Japan. What exactly do you mean by a V sound?
 
I'm currently deciding between the ESW10JPNs and Ultrasone PRO 650s. Do you know how these two compare?