Newbie - moving up from Sennheiser HD212 Pro

[thepineapplehead]

Hi all, another newby here asking for headphone advice.

Not looking to dive right in and spend thousands on headphones, amps, speakers, etc, but I do want a nice quality pair of headphones.

I will use them almost exclusively with my PC, using an X-FI Extreme Music card (I think that's the one I've got, so many different X-FI versions!), for listening to music (MP3, ripped from CDs at around 240-320kbps) and gaming - I'm big on FPSs.

My last pair was a Sennheiser HD212 Pro, which I thought were excellent but they were the first proper pair of headphones I owned.

On the gaming forums I frequent I've been recommended:

Senn HD280 Pro
Senn HD555, 580 and 595
Shure SE530
Beyer dt-770 and 990
Sony MDR-XD200
Sennheiser PX180 & CX300
Panasonic RP-HTX7

As you can see quite a lot of variation. I don't as yet have an amp, should I get one or would a good pair of cans be fine without?

Budget of around £50-£150, but if there are some great 'phones that cost more eg £200 I'll look into them.


Cheers

 

[thepineapplehead]

<bump>

 

[Zarathustra19]

Senn HD 555's are a good step up if you like the sennheiser sound. Same with the 595's. Shure is also a great brand. I'm not sure about the newer models, I have the e3c's, and they give me very good results even with a crappy source.

 

[carlineng]

The HD212s have loads and loads of bass, and are rather different from the typical Sennheiser sound. If you really enjoyed that, maybe try the DT770s?

 

[thepineapplehead]

I'm not particularly looking for a like replacement (eg another pair of bassy headphones), I just want some headphones that sound great and are good quality, that would be good for gaming and music - an all-rounder, if you will.

Another thing to mention is open/closed phones - my PC is just off the kitchen in my house and the two family PCs are right next to me (and used a lot!) so would I be better looking at closed headphones?

 

[derek8555]

Off your list I'd say HD280 pro. Excellent isolation, only outperformed by mostly IEMs. And they have a very accurate 2D (horizontal) representation, meaning you won't be disappointed with them in FPS. However they are not all that comfortable for some people. Personally I have no problem with mine, but the clamping is real tight (that's how you get the excellent isolation) and is something you either can or cannot adapt to.

You can pretty much ignore the SE530s... or any IEMs. Value-wise they are not real options for use at home, fullsize headphones would tromp them badly.

 

[captian73]

get a pair of Sennheiser HD25-1's which have been dropped from around $200 to $100.

[size=medium]Do Not Buy Anything Else[/size]

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showpo...4&postcount=19

 

[derek8555]

Quote:

Originally Posted by captian73 /img/forum/go_quote.gif get a pair of Sennheiser HD25-1's which have been dropped from around $200 to $100. [size=medium]Do Not Buy Anything Else[/size] http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showpo...4&postcount=19

Mind I ask you where you can get it for that cheap? I was going to get a pair for my friend.

EDIT: nvmd... didn't see the link....

 

[thepineapplehead]

Okay, so now I'm looking at the 280, looks like the kind of thing I'd be after.

Going for a random supplier (I'm in the UK by the way) - Amazon - there seems to be a few different versions (clicky):

HD280 Pro
HD 280-S (silver version?)
HD 280-13
HD280

are they different? Which one should I go for?

/edit

found that the -13 is a 300 ohm version. Guess I won't be going for that

 

[derek8555]

I believe pro, silver, and non-pro version are all the same technically.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong...

 

[thepineapplehead]

I'd like clarification, it seems to me that the Pro would be a better version than the 280, but then again the 280 may not exist, it may just be called the 280 pro, and it's just labelled badly on Amazon.

But I'd like silver ones

 

[jgonino]

for fps games, IMO the dt770 would be a good choice. I think someone did a mod for putting a mic on them with relative ease.

 

[captian73]

please don' get the HD280's over the HD25-1's, especially since the HD25-1 are going for such a good price.

 

[ranz_blacker]

these are like out of stock for last 15 days.. i dont see them coming back.. so stop recommending unless they come back for tht 100$ !