[OneSec]

I have seen you post many of them and obviously you have done much reading. I was in very close scenario with you and I now do have 2 pairs - 1 for travel and 1 for home proper listening.
 
I'm cant recommend you any model since I don't have 30 pairs of headphone like MOST people here do, but these are the things I ran into:
1. If you have nothing against IEM, try them out for your portable pair. I avoid this path due to personal discomfort. Best isolation, and this allows you to listen at VERY low volume level and protect your ears. (Otherwise if you listen very loud though)
2. Go for close / semi close, if you going for open phone, you might need to tune up the volume at times, and it may damage your ears, especially if you are fuzzy about listening all the details when you are in a noisy environment.
3. Home pair - without environment constraint, you should go for the pair that best suit your taste, and this setup will most probably end up with amps, re-cabling etc. So you should go for your portable pair as experimental and see if you like those sound signature and expand from there.
4. Go audit them - all forum opinion is subjective, and everyone has a different of ears...
 
David's post is a great start if you want to know what is most discussed around here.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/524569/review-20-headphones-compared#post_7077725
 
 
 
 

 

[EdChap]

Quote:

 

Yep, I meant mixed as in varied. Seems like these days 'mixed' means 'mediocre' on the internet! Anyhow, you will quickly run into the problem that it's very difficult to audition headphones in the UK. If you happen to be near one of the handful of stores that carries a wide range of hifi headphones, and lets you demo them, then consider yourself very lucky. Down my way, getting hold of a Sennheiser to demo is easy, but anything else is tough. The guy in Audio-T told me that Grado will let them sell headphones, but not give them any demo pairs. I had the privilege of listening to the only (!!) demo pair of RS2s in the country at the Sound and Vision show earlier this year, apparently. So I was told anyway.
 

Ha, that's crazy... how do I find out whether I'm near a store where I can audition some good headphones? I'm near Richmond, London, if that helps. 
 
I think I'm leaning towards the DT880s for some reason... or perhaps the HE-300s (although they look gigantic and may not be that suitable for a longer journey/short trip).
 

 

[EdChap]

Quote:

I have seen you post many of them and obviously you have done much reading. I was in very close scenario with you and I now do have 2 pairs - 1 for travel and 1 for home proper listening.
 
I'm cant recommend you any model since I don't have 30 pairs of headphone like MOST people here do, but these are the things I ran into:
1. If you have nothing against IEM, try them out for your portable pair. I avoid this path due to personal discomfort. Best isolation, and this allows you to listen at VERY low volume level and protect your ears. (Otherwise if you listen very loud though)
2. Go for close / semi close, if you going for open phone, you might need to tune up the volume at times, and it may damage your ears, especially if you are fuzzy about listening all the details when you are in a noisy environment.
3. Home pair - without environment constraint, you should go for the pair that best suit your taste, and this setup will most probably end up with amps, re-cabling etc. So you should go for your portable pair as experimental and see if you like those sound signature and expand from there.
4. Go audit them - all forum opinion is subjective, and everyone has a different of ears...
 
David's post is a great start if you want to know what is most discussed around here.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/524569/review-20-headphones-compared#post_7077725
 
 
 
 

Thanks a lot for the advice and link, very helpful!

 

[EdChap]

If I'm leaning towards the DT880s, which set would you guys recommend (ohm, pro/premium)? I don't have an amp, but I wouldn't be that averse to buying a portable one if the amped 600ohm set were noticeably better. If you guys would recommend the 600 set, what amp would compliment it? Would I be able to use a portable amp on my laptop at home as well as on-the-go?
 
I found a set here: http://www.iheadphones.co.uk/beyerdynamic-dt880-600.html which seem to be the cheapest.
 
Thoughts?
 
Thanks again.

 

[Tilpo]

I wouldn't get a portable amp. They sound inferior for their price, and they are less practical for home use.
I don't think the DT880 is a good portable headphone in any case.

You can get the Little Dot I+ or the FiiO E7/E9 combo. They are good budget amps, and should have plenty power to run the 600Ω DT880's.

 

[suzz0]

I also recently bought the DT880 600ohms version (and using fiio e7/e9) but I certainly wouldn't use them for portable use. They leak far too much sound for that. On top of that, I'm totally in love with the metal frame and I wouldn't want to risk damaging it by carrying them with me all the time, but that's probably more of a personal issue

 

[Elysian]

 
Quote:

Awesome, I'll go dig through some reviews. How do you think they compare to the HE-300s or DT880s? Cheers.

 
Grados are a great starter pair which sound good, even without an amp or discrete DAC.  I'd recommend looking at some reviews between the 225i vs 325i, as the higher model number doesn't necessarily mean better.  The 225i and 325i occupy the same tier and offer different sound signatures.
 
That said, I wouldn't take any Grado headphones (goes for both the SR and MS series) outside of the house.  The Grados don't withstand abuse very well, open-ear headphones are better in quieter environments, and you're going to really annoy anyone around you who doesn't want to listen along to your music.  I personally feel that portable media players (PMPs), without the help of an amp, do a poor job driving any sort of headphone.  Impressions vary, but I always find headphones driven by PMPs to sound thin and weak comparative to a properly driven setup.
 
I'd get some decent IEMs or closed-ear headphones for outdoors listening (such as the Atrios or UEs) and keep an open-ear pair for home. 200USD for a SR225i won't break the bank, and there are many good options at 200-350USD.  You can spend 100-150USD of the remainder on some good IEMs, and pocket the rest for a DAC or amp when you're ready to make the plunge.

 

[EdChap]

I realise I'm being super flaky/annoying... but I may just have had a change of heart in terms of what I want. I was just checking out some of the earlier recommendations in this thread and looked a bit at the Beyer T50p, which lead me to look at the ATH-M50s. Obviously the latter, being slightly older, are much cheaper now (circa £70) and have some favourable reviews. 
 
What I've settled on now is a pretty portable pair of phones. I think I'll still get the KSC75s for the shorter journeys, but for the slightly longer trips I'd like to be able to take a really good pair with me, and am pretty set on not having to amp them. Am I foolish to pass up the M50s when they're so much cheaper than the T50ps? Are there any others that I should consider in the portable range? Again, happy to spend roughly £250 if there's a really good pair (but don't have a problem dropping 70 for the m50s if they're up to it, ha).
 
I realise I've been inconsistent in what I've asked for, but I have been reading up on all your recommendations and learning, so your advice hasn't been wasted! Thanks again.

 

[EdChap]

Quote:

I'd get some decent IEMs or closed-ear headphones for outdoors listening (such as the Atrios or UEs) and keep an open-ear pair for home. 200USD for a SR225i won't break the bank, and there are many good options at 200-350USD.  You can spend 100-150USD of the remainder on some good IEMs, and pocket the rest for a DAC or amp when you're ready to make the plunge.

Thank you very much for this. I think you've reached the same conclusion as I have as to what I should be wanting, haha. 
 

 

[Elysian]

Quote:

Thank you very much for this. I think you've reached the same conclusion as I have as to what I should be wanting, haha. 
 

I think you'll be fine   You seem like you're getting into the hobby with the right attitude, and re-discovering your favorite music through different hardware is probably the best part about reading about and trying new headphones/speakers, amps, and sources.
 
Since you don't have easy access to audio shops or friends with a diverse collection, you might want to put a call out on the forums and see if you have a Head-Fi'er in your area who wouldn't mind meeting with you over the weekend and share their setup with you.  If you're shy and would prefer to journey alone, I wouldn't spend more than 200-350USDish (or whatever that comes out after the international conversion, VAT, customs, etc. on Amazon, HeadRoom, HF trade forums, Audiogon, etc.) until you have a better idea of what you like.  Grados have very different sound signatures than AKG, Audezes, Audio-Technicas, Beyerdynamics, Sennheisers, Stax, and any other brand you'll easily find hundreds of devoted fans of on HF alone. 
 
Once you get past that 200-350USD headphone tier, you need to go to 800-1000USD to get to the next tier in sound, then 1500-6000USD for the highest tier.  Each tier has significantly diminishing returns (inversely proportional to increase in cost), and you'll honestly get a lot more out of top-tier gear after you've trained your ears and have a better appreciation of what's out there.  You can put together an extremely competitive setup with as little as 1000USD on headphones, DAC, and amp if you don't mind starting with used gear that was top of the line 8-10 years ago.  DIY (or other peoples' DIY) is also an extremely effective way of getting the most bang for your buck.
 
If you can identify some of your favorite albums/genres and what you like in sound (and you might not even be sure what you like until you've been listening for awhile), that might help people steer you towards your first set, but I think your best option is just meeting up with people if you can't go to a proper audio store, and find that first headphone brand that makes your favorite music sing in a way you've never heard.  I'd reach out to people here as HFers have a reputation for being very nice and friendly.

 

[EdChap]

Quote:

If you can identify some of your favorite albums/genres and what you like in sound (and you might not even be sure what you like until you've been listening for awhile), that might help people steer you towards your first set, but I think your best option is just meeting up with people if you can't go to a proper audio store, and find that first headphone brand that makes your favorite music sing in a way you've never heard.  I'd reach out to people here as HFers have a reputation for being very nice and friendly.

Awesome. Thank you for all the information... I will think about reaching out, although given how little I know I may be better just plonking for a 'best-guess' pair and going from there in time based on how I react to them. I heard some BW P5s briefly the other day and thought they were pretty cool, and there's something about the Grado line that draws me to them, but given I listen to people like Tom Waits and The National, they might be a bit bright. Tom Waits obviously has quite a deep, very gravelly voice; The National a quite muted, sombre tone. But then I also listen to the bright and perky Josh Ritter, as well as Bon Iver.
 
Those are my favourite artists (all male singer-songwriters) - and I also enjoy a bit of rock (AC/DC) - so I guess I'm looking for a portable, un-amped set that can deliver through a laptop/iPod in those areas.

 

[Elysian]

Easy answer here, then, though I'm sure there are plenty here with more good ideas
 
Go for the Grado SR225i and pick up either a gamma2 or pico USB as your DAC: http://www.headfonia.com/headamp-pico-amb-gamma2-with-other-comparisons/
 
I don't really think you can go wrong with the SR225i, and they will perform well even without a DAC or amp.  The only downside with the SR225i is that they're open-air so they're not really appropriate for public listening.  For portability, I'd just get a quality set of IEMs around $100-200 (Atrios, Shure, UEs, etc.).
 
The SR225i and gamma2 or pico will give you a quality core, and then you can pick up a quality solid-state or tube amp for a couple hundred bucks when you're ready to complete your chain.

 

[EdChap]

Quote:

Easy answer here, then, though I'm sure there are plenty here with more good ideas
 
Go for the Grado SR225i and pick up either a gamma2 or pico USB as your DAC: http://www.headfonia.com/headamp-pico-amb-gamma2-with-other-comparisons/
 
I don't really think you can go wrong with the SR225i, and they will perform well even without a DAC or amp.  The only downside with the SR225i is that they're open-air so they're not really appropriate for public listening.  For portability, I'd just get a quality set of IEMs around $100-200 (Atrios, Shure, UEs, etc.).
 
The SR225i and gamma2 or pico will give you a quality core, and then you can pick up a quality solid-state or tube amp for a couple hundred bucks when you're ready to complete your chain.

Thanks for this. I've been leaning towards a Shure SRH880 or ATH M50, but as above the Grados do appeal... especially the 225s if they're particularly good for my purposes. I wonder whether they would be the next step after an entry can like the 880/M50...