[Chris Kaoss]

Gotcha, thanks! Looks like all the places near me are sold out, so I'm out of luck on the Elear. Oh, well, if it really comes down to it there are several for sale on the forums here.

Thanks for the feedback, Chris! I'll definitely keep an eye out for the SE-Master 5 and Monitor 1.

You are welcome, Mamza.
Its worth to take a look into the sales thread.
There're some special offers out there.

As Monsterzero mentioned the Aeon Flow Closed is a nice one, too.
Very comfordable.

 

[Mamza]

I would suggest a pair of used / discontinued Focal Elear (there was also a Massdrop version called the Elex. Very transparent and dynamic headphone with good comfort, excellent build quality and in your price range.

They are open back however.

If you must have closed back - then some kind of Beyerdynamic or AKG headphone probably makes sense. It’s hard to beat the openness and transparency of an open back headphone though.

I've been looking at the different suggestions people have put out there, and I happen to have come across a decent deal on the Elear. I noticed that a lot of the reviews for it suggest an over-emphasized bass, which I don't like the sound of personally. How would you describe the bass for these?

 

[jarcher]

Bass is fantastic on all high end Focal headphones. So whoever said bass is over emphasized is either a Grado lover or doesn’t know what they are talking about.

 

[Mamza]

Excellent. I have just ordered the Elear + Utopia pads + hard shell case for $599 off headphones.com. Only other decent price I've come across for new was $699, and that was without the extras. Thanks for all the help everybody!

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Really nice catch.
I'm a bit curios to see you've changed your mind about open backs.

So i've to throw the bell for the Quad Era-1.
Got its own unique sound signature, which you've to discover, imo.
"The closest approach to the sound" isn't a senseless statement, Quad've mentioned in tje past.

Hope you'll enjoy all the sets you'll head to.

 

[Mamza]

Well, closed back is just a preference, not really a necessity. I actually already have open back sennheiser game zero's that I use for most pc activities and enjoy them a lot. I veered toward closed back in this thread just because it would be nice to have something that wouldn't disturb others....but in the end I'm selfish and gonna get the best deal I can, lol. I'll look into the Quad Era-1... maybe I'll change my mind on what I got after I get them so it doesn't hurt to have backup ideas!

 

[Mamza]

I got the headphones yesterday, and I am loving them! My only complaint is that the cable (impressive as it is) is about 4 million feet long. I'll have to do some digging on an alternative cable later tonight so I can make these a little more portable. Thanks for all the recommendations, folks! Definitely not too bass-heavy (not even remotely). The level of clarity and the separation of the instruments is very impressive.