[risenfallen]

Quote:

Do you know if Denon AH-D600 and D-400 need an amp and what about Momentums?
 
I listen to rock, pop, hip hop, rap, rock, rnb, techno.Modern music. I like booming bass

 
 
SO they work right, say, out of a Galaxy S3?
 
Just to be sure, they do sound better and isolate better than Beats Pro out of a smartphone WITHOUT an amplifier?

 
Those that are designed for portable use often don't need an amp to "start to sound good", it also depends on your source (what you plug it in, ie ipods, cellphones...). But some of them probably benefit from amping (that is to say, a good amp may help to get the best out of them - there won't always be day-and-night differences though). If you travel a lot, I'd suggest to just skip the amp.
 
From your music preference, I'd just pick the Ultrasone HFI-580 (it should have the type of bass you want and more) or Ultrasone HFI-780 for better overall clarity. They isolate pretty well and are well-built IMO.
 
Spending more doesn't always mean you will get better SQ. But I guess it's your choice. When it goes past a certain price point, the difference is more marginal, it then comes down to a matter of taste.  
 
GL with the purchase.

 

[briskly]

The Ultrasone Pro 900 is a very particular sounding headphone, as are most Ultrasones. Some people love it to death, I seriously recommend against them without a demo beforehand.
 
Beyer's DT770 is not really impressive even for its price. Pretty big, reasonable isolation. The significantly more expensive T70 is even less impressive, and more shrill sounding, given its higher price. Pretty comfy, both of them.
 
The K550 is a variable thing. First pair I heard was okay sounding, but kinda irritating to listen to loudly. Second pair I tried was an acoustic weapon of death. The pads fit fine on my head; I got a balanced amount of bass from both pairs. My head is a bit large though.
 
Will echo the M50 suggestion from earlier in the thread. They're a good value and well-rounded, sealed, collapsible headphone with some bass emphasis. ?What's with the opposition to in-ears?

 

[Unleaded91]

I would love to try the A900X's out, man...

I just don't know where to try them, that's why I need a broad range of noise isolating/cancelling headphones.

Does anyone know of other good headphones and of heaphones which isolate you from outside noise without a noise cancelling system?


I am really peculiar about ones that have a good sound quality  too, because I don't want to pay just for the noise cancelling, I would prefer it to be passive and have a nice sound clarity.

I got mine from best buy.. Just buy it if you can to try them out and return them If you didn't like them.. This is what I did.. I bought both the k550 and a900x from there to help me decide

 

[obobskivich]

I'm not sure about isolation vs beats pro, because I've only heard the beats pro a few times. Personally I'd just for the D600 or the K550. The K550 will have a lot of bass, that will be deep and powerful, but also controlled. The D600 have about the same amount of bass, but it's really uncontrolled (Like a cheap subwoofer). I believe there might also be a pair of AKG K551 coming out, which is the same as the AKG 550, but has a remote built into the cable (although I wouldn't recommend it). Ultrasones will have a little brighter top. You may find the ultrasones sound 'zingy' to some extent. I personally found them irritating over a long period of time. 

The momentums are still pretty early on, but from what I understand they aren't that great of a headphone when compared to their price. 

Any headphone listed above will work out of your smartphone/laptop/pc without a 'amplifier'. Later on if you really get into your headphones you could consider getting more audio equipment to drive them, but for now I wouldn't worry about it. 

Isolation is measurable:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/UltrasonePRO900.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsPro.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/DenonAHD600.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AKGK550.pdf

To save anyone going through all four PDFs: the Beats isolate the worst, Ultrasone is better, the K550 and D600 have better averaged values, but I would say the PRO900 and D600 will probably be best for isolation overall based on the measurements.

I feel like saying anything else is repeating myself, and that most of the recent posts are just repeating what has already been said (but by different people). No offense is intended, I just don't think there's much more we can do here until the chap goes and buys something.

 

[tino96]

Quote:

 
 
 

I'm not sure about isolation vs beats pro, because I've only heard the beats pro a few times. Personally I'd just for the D600 or the K550. The K550 will have a lot of bass, that will be deep and powerful, but also controlled. The D600 have about the same amount of bass, but it's really uncontrolled (Like a cheap subwoofer). I believe there might also be a pair of AKG K551 coming out, which is the same as the AKG 550, but has a remote built into the cable (although I wouldn't recommend it). Ultrasones will have a little brighter top. You may find the ultrasones sound 'zingy' to some extent. I personally found them irritating over a long period of time. 
 
The momentums are still pretty early on, but from what I understand they aren't that great of a headphone when compared to their price. 
 
Any headphone listed above will work out of your smartphone/laptop/pc without a 'amplifier'. Later on if you really get into your headphones you could consider getting more audio equipment to drive them, but for now I wouldn't worry about it. 

I think at this point I'll definitely consider getting more audio equipment but, you know, in the future.
 
Thanks for the reply. Today I am going shop-hunting. I have identified a shop where they have AKG, Ultrasone and Sennheiser. I don't know what range and models they have and that's what I'm going to find out.
I'll go try them and report back.
 
Quote:

The Ultrasone Pro 900 is a very particular sounding headphone, as are most Ultrasones. Some people love it to death, I seriously recommend against them without a demo beforehand.
 
Beyer's DT770 is not really impressive even for its price. Pretty big, reasonable isolation. The significantly more expensive T70 is even less impressive, and more shrill sounding, given its higher price. Pretty comfy, both of them.
 
The K550 is a variable thing. First pair I heard was okay sounding, but kinda irritating to listen to loudly. Second pair I tried was an acoustic weapon of death. The pads fit fine on my head; I got a balanced amount of bass from both pairs. My head is a bit large though.
 
Will echo the M50 suggestion from earlier in the thread. They're a good value and well-rounded, sealed, collapsible headphone with some bass emphasis. ?What's with the opposition to in-ears?

The Ultrasone really fascinates me. I hope I get to try it today.
 
I don't think I'll consider the DT770 any more, got already suggested against it. Preferring definitely the HP100.
 
Acoustic weapon of death 

... is that good or bad?
 
Do you mean the Audio technica M50?
Quote:

 
Those that are designed for portable use often don't need an amp to "start to sound good", it also depends on your source (what you plug it in, ie ipods, cellphones...). But some of them probably benefit from amping (that is to say, a good amp may help to get the best out of them - there won't always be day-and-night differences though). If you travel a lot, I'd suggest to just skip the amp.
 
From your music preference, I'd just pick the Ultrasone HFI-580 (it should have the type of bass you want and more) or Ultrasone HFI-780 for better overall clarity. They isolate pretty well and are well-built IMO.
 
Spending more doesn't always mean you will get better SQ. But I guess it's your choice. When it goes past a certain price point, the difference is more marginal, it then comes down to a matter of taste.  
 
GL with the purchase.

Thanks for that, definitely consider them. I also hope they are there in the shop to try!
From what I see they are a good bang for the buck aren't they?
Quote:

I got mine from best buy.. Just buy it if you can to try them out and return them If you didn't like them.. This is what I did.. I bought both the k550 and a900x from there to help me decide

I think I'll just choose two to buy and then return one, thanks.
Quote:

Isolation is measurable:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/UltrasonePRO900.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsPro.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/DenonAHD600.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AKGK550.pdf
To save anyone going through all four PDFs: the Beats isolate the worst, Ultrasone is better, the K550 and D600 have better averaged values, but I would say the PRO900 and D600 will probably be best for isolation overall based on the measurements.
I feel like saying anything else is repeating myself, and that most of the recent posts are just repeating what has already been said (but by different people). No offense is intended, I just don't think there's much more we can do here until the chap goes and buys something.

Alright, alright.
 
Yeah not that I am considering Beats, but they are the only decent headphones I have tried so I am based on that sound.
The measure wasn't done with an amp was it?
 
 
Thanks for the replies and the patience. The final verdict will come today when I shall try them (hopefully).

 

[dwatanabe]

amping has nothing to do with isolation... amping allows you to increase the amplitude of the signal coming out of your headphone. isolation for non ANC headphones is purely physical, ie the clamping force that the pads put on or around your ears to create an acoustical seal but I guess the louder you put the headphones(which is what the amp will let you do) the less you'll hear noise from the outside but that's not a very useful observation...

 

[tino96]

^
It increases the current from the source of power to the headphone. So in ANC headphones that have an electronic/digital system to cancel the noise, it's going to have some kind of effect, unless they have batteries for noise cancelling...

 

[briskly]

^ That is in fact how ANC is implemented in cans, so no, the amp won't be helpful in this matter.

 

[tino96]

Ok guys,
 
so I went to check out the shop.
 
They had K550's and I listened to them unamped and they were really good. They had a nice fit and were comfortable.
The sound quality was superb: The bass wasn't spoiling the song and overall the sound was crisp.
Although a bit more presence of the bass would have made it better.
I also found that a good amount of instruments (which were percussions in particular), had a slight weakness in sound and didn't come out very well. But they were nice headphones for the music I listen to.
Unfortunately they cost 350 Euro
 
 
Next up I tried the Ultrasone Pro 900 headphones.
They were quite good at isolation, better than  the AKG ones probably. I really like the material the pads are made with, it's a velvety kind of material which is very soft.
However the headphones are not as comfortable as the K550. I tested them for about 20mins and already started to be at my unease.
 
But oh well...
 
On to sound, the bass was really booming but to the point where it just becomes too much. Thus the  sound of the other instruments is slightly covered and distant. 
I do think however, that the sound was more detailed than the K550's. Also the songs/tracks/tunes had a better tone.
 
Of the two headphones the AKG performed better unamped but there was no biggie.
 
 
In the shop they also sold Beats so I could easily compare with them and there was no match as expected.
It gave me a smile in hearing SUCH a big difference between Beats and the AKG and Ultrasones. I mean, AKG and Ultrasones were just about competing head-to-head, but Beats were just so poor compared to them (oh, they were Pro).
 
 
To recover from the 'Beats test', I 'treated' myself to a shot at the Sennheiser HD700 headphones (the best model they had).
 
And to them, I could just say WOW.

 

[tino96]

Do you know if Denon AH-D400 and D600 have a good clamping force, more or less than teh AKG K550, and what about the Vmoda M100?