[Canadian Beacon]

After a while on here I see some of the favourites are

Audio Technica A50
Shure SRH750dj
Beyerdynamic DT-770

Are there any others I should consider? I will be buying a fiio e7 to drive them, I mainly listen to Hip hop, Classical, House, Reggae, and oldschool style dubstep. (weird combo of music I know) I'm moving up from the xb500 because I don't like the way the bass responds to classical and reggae, it's overwhelming and very loose, I've tried EQing but I can't get what I want, I love bass don't get me wrong but I wish it were more refined. any comments appreciated  

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Another alternative you can add to the list is M-Audio Q40 which can be had for $115 somewhere I saw as lowest price, MSRP is like $170 but streetprice usually around $120. I own/have used both XB500, M50, DT770.
 
Personally I prefer the M-Audio between these because compared to M50 it has slightly better soundstage and in my ear slightly more neutral sounding mids/highs and the bass response is a lot stronger, not quite XB500 levels (XB500 has like 15dB boost, M50 maybe up to ~5dB while Q40 has like up to 11dB at the highest peak) but while the bass is still very strong in the Q40 it's MILES better controlled, tight, punchy, textured (add whatever positive words about bass response you can add here) compared to XB500, I'd compare it to KRK Rokit 6" Studio monitor speaker bass, hard to find better in sub-$200 range.
 
Compared to DT770 for my taste the Q40 has these advantages; significantly less recessed/distant sounding mids, much more evenly balanced (the Beyers are fairly V-shaped, bass & highs emphasis while Q40 is only bass emphasized but fairly even/neutral mids & highs) and basswise the Q40 packs a lot more punch while the Beyers focuses mostly on deep rumbling subbass but it doesn't hit with a lot "tactile" feedback and it's not the tightest bass either. But the Beyers do have wonderful soundstage though no doubt and has an advantage there over Q40.
 
The Q40 hasn't got any really big weaknesses, the soundstage/imaging is about avgerage in a closed headphone which is perhaps one of its weakest sides and the pads are low quality shallow pleather pads and the headphones do have slightly above average clamping force to it but they haven't been uncomfortable to wear to me though. I did do a simple mod to mine which helped slightly with soundstage and tamed down the slight peak it has around 8~10kHz area which is very simple, just take a piece of papertowel and cut it in half, roll it into like 1cm wide paperroll and stuff underneath the pads and the cups will be deeper and cover some of the holes on the underside of the pads and this will help with soundstage and tame down the brightness just a tiny bit.

 

[Cakensaur]

Denon AH-D1100 
Ultrasone HFI-580 or 780
 
classical music is better represented through open back headphones cos they tend to have larger soundstage.. i noticed your current options are all closed. the ones above too are also closed. would you be willing to go forth into the realm of open backs?

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

D1100 like above suggested that didn't pop into my mind might also work very well for you I think, these handled classical very well IMO despite having a strong bass response (fairly close to XB500 but much better quality). I'd say D1100 or Q40.
 
D1100 didn't have quite my kind of sound signature, thought it was a bit laid-back sounding as in not very "engaging" and fun to listen to but it did handle classical especially great even for me. The D1100 has a noticably larger soundstage than Q40 and very good so for a fully closed can however the mids sounds fairly pushed back/recessed, even more so than on XB500 despite being clearer/crisper sounding, what you hear sounds like more silent and "distant" compared to XB500. The XB500 doesn't have the most crisp/clear sounding mids but they are still somewhat forward sounding compared to D1100 tho despite lacking in refinement. The very recessed/distant sounding mids bothered me greatly on D1100, not sure what you want though as every1 have different taste, I personally prefer more forward/in-your-face sounding mids/vocals so.

 

[Canadian Beacon]

Thankyou for the replies, very helpful, I'll be sure to look at the d1100 and q40s, My local music store carries pretty much every brand and will let me listen to them before I buy. Another thing I should mention although I'd hate to admit it, Style will be one on of the determining factors also, so the HFI-780s are looking like my top choice at the moment, my question is how versatile are they in regards to playing both classical smoothly and getting down low with dubstep? I believe the D1100 will be more versatile, but I'm not a fan of the styling. As for open headphones, I use my headphones in the library a lot and need them to be fairly quiet from the outside. 

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[Cakensaur]

thats open headphones off the list then
as far as i am awarreeee.... HFI-780 are good for classical, infact seeming to be a stronger point. they also have large, fun amounts of bass when its called for, so adapt well for any type of music.
whether its beautiful symphonies which require instrument separation or dubstep/hardstyle which require bass that fundamentally kicks you in the face.
 
i prefer the denon ah-d1100's to the hfi-780, style wise. but each to their own.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Yea HFI-780 is an option too but remember it improves quite a lot with burn in but you won't necessarily find it bassy enough for some music I could imagine being used to XB500 it might even sound a little bass anemic despite it's not that but yea if u can try it out first then that'd be great. I also agree on that D1100 doesn't look particularly great, at least I found it quite ugly in fact, Q40 is much much nicer looking and the cups looks cool in person but it's quite big though and it's not very suited for portable use due to it having wires sticking out from the cups that goes into the headband that I'd be afraid of getting damaged with time with portable use (u know accidents happen). HFI-780 on the other hand works great also for portable use. 

 

[Canadian Beacon]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm heading to the store in a few minutes to try them and hopefully buy