[ucsfprds]

Hey guys, I've been lurking on these forums on and off for the past 3 years after discovering it when I broke my old pair of Sony mdrs.  But now, having Christmas rolling in and me having a bit of spending cash I figured I should finally get an audiophile quality headphones.  So I've been checking on the forums to see which to buy.  They all sound great, but honestly I'm torn by hearing all the cons of almost every headphone out there. 
 
But first, what I'm looking for is a pair with detail enough to vividly capture the mids and highs of indie songs from radiohead, yeah yeah yeahs; and drops the bass with drum n bass music and a bit of electronica.  So naturally I scoured the search forums button and I found recommendations for rock music heavily leaning towards the "Grado" sound, which to me sounds great for rock music, but leaves me anxious about its signature sound and I heard it wasn't well suited for electronica or drum n bass.  While Sennheisers sound good on paper, I read that some audiophiles dislike the "sennheiser veil" or from what I read on Sennheiser hate boards that they sound more for classical music and lack a certain je ne sais quoi that keeps certain people happy.  To be honest, I just want a pair of headphones I'd rock my head out to.  For my budget I have roughly $2,000 to spend on headphone or headphones plus an amp.  So if you guys could please help me out with some recommendations I would be greatly appreciative.  I look forward from hearing back from you guys.  Thanks.

 

[Mysteek]

$2000?!
 
I will be highly envious if you spend anywhere near that, as your starting setup would be vastly superior than everything I've gained in my past 4 years here.
 
In my opinion, the Beyerdynamic DT880's are -perfect- for drum and bass + indie rock.  I use these headphones with the Maverick Audio D1 DAC (tube-preout) and A1 Tube amp, and love the sound.  With your budget, you can go even further with the DAC and amp.

 

[apatN]

Mysteek is right: the DT880s are a good choice but with that budget why limit yourself to one pair of phones? ;p
 
I feel that my amp does a great job driving all kinds of headphones. Both high and low impedance impedance headphones sound great to my ears. I think this is because the solid state design so my advice would be to get a proper solid state amp, a nice quality DAC and a two or more headphones. Get a Grado SR-225 for your rock for example and a Beyerdynamic or Sennheiser for your mids.

 

[JFroese]

Grados are great for rock, not so good for electronic (at least in my opinion). I'm a Sennheiser Fanboy so I'd say see what they have to offer, with a budget like that the possibilities are endless...

 

[ucsfprds]

Thanks for the feedback!
 
Yeah I've been worried about what amp to get, I don't know much about amps and I would like a nice versatile amp that can power low and high impedance headphones.  Also as for headphones go, I'd be mainly listening to mp3s, maybe a few flacs, and would love to get some high quality audiophile grade music but I'm not sure where to download/buy from online.  So will high end headphones cater to lower quality mp3s?
 
So Beyer, Senn, Grado...Man I can't choose, I'd hate to buy a bunch and have one favorite that I listen to all the time making the other headphones obsolete.  Has this ever happened to anyone?

 

[2enty3]

Quote:

So Beyer, Senn, Grado...Man I can't choose, I'd hate to buy a bunch and have one favorite that I listen to all the time making the other headphones obsolete.  Has this ever happened to anyone?

Happened to me last week. I just decided to return the one I didn't use as often. Then you go look for another pair. And the cycle continues.

 

[Mysteek]

To be honest I'd rather have one ''favourite'' that I always listen to than being indecisive and having 3,4 or 5 different pairs depending on the genre and my mood @_@.
 
If you buy used, you won't lose too much be reselling and trying new pairs.

 

[Eric_C]

Quote:

To be honest I'd rather have one ''favourite'' that I always listen to than being indecisive and having 3,4 or 5 different pairs depending on the genre and my mood @_@.
 
If you buy used, you won't lose too much be reselling and trying new pairs.

So much wisdom and win in this one post.