Hi,
As you can see I'm definitely new to the forums here, but this whole year, I've been really digging into all this audiophile business, especially this past month. While I myself only have a pair of M50's I have tried many headphones. What it seems to me that your looking for, is the same thing I'm looking for. At first I was confused and by many, thanks to my pitiful way of describing music, I was labeled as a basshead. Though this is definitely not the case, as I later found out, though thats a different story.
Ideally where all looking for that perfect sound, which comes from the perfect combination of all instruments, but its more than just being able to hear everything, there has to be a space, between everything, sound must become in all its graces 3 dimensional, every sound must be distinguishable from every other. And yes, definitely not looking for headphones that put music right in your face, but offer distance. This was were i stood, a dilemena I'm sure many have faced here, and while I'm sure everyone has a different opinion and everyone a different solution to thier problem. The way you describe yours, is the way I view mine. To cut the story short I just recently used a pair of sr225i's, it was brief, three hours tops. They were great headphones, I listened to the whole audioslave self titled album, it was just a great experience. Then just three days ago, another good friend of mine ended up loaning me his pair of DT880 for two whole days, my god, I sat on my bed baffeled for who knows how long, it was just amazing how well everything sounded, I knew that was the end of it, that was all I needed. The sound coming from those cans was, PERFECT, especially the bass (it was strong but non-intrusive, it was exactly what bass needs to be). They were everything I expect from top of the line headphones. My friends set up was most responsible to a gread degree too I imagine. And I know I shouldn't be recommending headphones I don't own, but I figured I would just put it out there. Because as soon as I rack up the cash, I'm gonna be blasting music on some DT880 till I'm either deaf or dead.
Also, IMO, you should really invest in a better source, the sound from your laptop isn't gonna help much, especially straight from the headphone output, though I'm sure your amp helps tremendously. And from what I read here and what I've experienced the source plays a very vital role on SQ, you should definitely look into that, as I'm sure you'll be able to get a better sound.
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