[Iskra]

Hello, everyone,
 
I've just recently finished my home theatre set-up. It's a great sounding system, both for music and for movies. Still, I feel the need for a pair of decent headphones for different reasons; (1) we live in an apartment which has it... restraints if you will, (2) at times, I'd like to play some PS3 while listening to music, but I don't really want another integrated amp, wires and what not (3) girlfriend doesn't always want to listen to music or the same music as I do.
 
My main source will be Spotify from a MacBook Pro, but at times I might use my Marantz AVR (not alot though). Discusions about how good or bad Spotify is as a source we can leave for another day and time. Or atleast another thread.
 
My budget isn't huge - around €75 but I can probably stretch it abit further if needed. Not sure if I'll need an amp and/or DAC. If I do, I cannot stretch the headphone budget any further.
 
The problem I have is that I listen to quite different genres of music. Lately, I've been listening to alot of ragga, raggae, hiphop and abit of dancehall. Yet I've always enjoyed punk, sing and song writers and on occasions drum n bass.
 
I had my eyes set on Sennheiser HD650, but I do have some reservations. First the obvious, it's quite pricy by my standards (the home theatre blew holes in my pockets

) and I've heard that they're quite "laid back". I had a pair of B&W DM685 loud speakers, which also can be described as "laid back". I grew very tired of the sound that didn't really engaged the listener. Hence my reservations about the HD650.
 
I do however enjoy good midranges and tight, quite dry bass. The highs, well, I don't like them to be too high as my ears are quite sensetive about those (I suppose you can say my ears distord high frequencies due to tinnitus). I also like engaging sound, not too laid back. Call it fun, if you will.
 
Any pointers on headphones, amps, DACs and so forth will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Hooster]

Congrats. A great sounding system for both music and movies is far beyond my budget. I have to be content with a system that sounds good for music and can be used for movies. You did all that and still have 75 euro left over for cans! I would be deep in debt.
 
I am not surprised you feel let down by the B&Ws. Wonder why you got them in the first place..
 
Some kind of Beyerdynamic can might be what you are looking for. I hope some expert on those contributes with his or her 2 cents. If you have such a limited budget, then I think you should use it all for the cans. Amps and dacs can come later.

 

[Iskra]

Quote:

Congrats. A great sounding system for both music and movies is far beyond my budget. I have to be content with a system that sounds good for music and can be used for movies. You did all that and still have 75 euro left over for cans! I would be deep in debt.
 
I am not surprised you feel let down by the B&Ws. Wonder why you got them in the first place..
 
Some kind of Beyerdynamic can might be what you are looking for. I hope some expert on those contributes with his or her 2 cents. If you have such a limited budget, then I think you should use it all for the cans. Amps and dacs can come later.

 
Thank you
 
Currently running a set-up with KEF Q700 and Q200c driven by a Maratz sr6006. I would ofcourse like if the headphones were comparable (sound character) to the Q700s.
 
Reason why I got the B&Ws? Well, I liked them when I auditioned them. B&W can be quite enchanting when you listen to them the first few times. After a while, they just got so increadably boring and flat

 

[nicholars]

If you find B&W speakers too laid back then you definately wont like the HD650... I have some B&W 602s3 and I find them relatively exciting compared the the HD650... I would not call the B&W laid back personally. The HD650 are VERY smooth and laid back compared to B&W speakers... "slow" if you want to call it that.

 

[Iskra]

Quote:

If you find B&W speakers too laid back then you definately wont like the HD650... I have some B&W 602s3 and I find them relatively exciting compared the the HD650... I would not call the B&W laid back personally. The HD650 are VERY smooth and laid back compared to B&W speakers... "slow" if you want to call it that.

 
Thanks for the input.
 
I've never listened to the 602s, so you might be right. I've listened to 683, 684, 685, 686 and the new CM-serie. While the CM-serie were, in my opinion, way better than the 68x-series.
I'm not really fair either, since I'm comparing my previous 685 which are about €620 to a floorstanding speaker that cost almost tripple that amount.
 
To get back on topic for abit. I've been looking into the AKG K242 HD's. I've heard that some other AKG-series (can remember which) excells at classical music, a genre I've never listened to. So how about the K242's, same with those?

 

[nicholars]

I dont think there is a massive difference between the 602s3 and the 68x series... I think they have slightly better treble but less bass than the 602 s3 (the 68x)