[shadowdude77]

Okay you guys, I've made some threads before but I think I'm just about ready to go out and pick something. And if I don't like it, J&R has a 30-day return policy.

I sampled some headphones at J&R using my Acer Aspire One (with the omnipresent integrated Realtek sound), so I guess this can be counted as SEVERELY lacking power. My main machine has an X-Fi XtremeGamer in it though, so at least I have a little bit more drive normally, but that's still unamped. I listen mainly to metal, but I'm not a basshead in the slightest. I like my guitars nice and pronounced, and highs that are pronounced but aren't sibilant (which I'm rather sensitive to). I'm looking for this purchase to last me a LONG LONG time, and I hope that at about halfway into their life cycle which is when I'll feel like splurging again, I can get a decent amp and use them for the next half of their life. So I need the one that I pick out of these two to be good, both amped and unamped.

I thought the HD555s sounded really nice for their price point and so I'm sort of leaning towards them. Especially cause I hear there's some mod involving removing a piece of foam that makes them sound very similar to the more expensive HD595s? I wouldn't mind them versus the SRH840s and they were a lot cheaper, so unamped, the HD555s win for me. Can anyone tell me how they stack up against the SRH840s when they're both driven by a decent amp though? Thanks in advance.

 

[Acix]

You can check out the Ultrasones as well.

 

[xkRoWx]

Get a Grado. The Sennheisers are too laid back and unengaging for metal.

Plus their high sensitivity and low impedance makes them sound good out of any source (even iPods), and even better when they're amped.

 

[Uncle Erik]

x2 for Grados. You can run them just fine from an iPod, but they improve with an amp. And nothing does guitars better than a Grado.

If you're worried about the highs, try an Alessandro. They're similar to the Grado line but a little more balanced overall.

 

[shadowdude77]

I tried out a few Grados while I was at J&R. I find them to just be uncomfortable. I hate supra-aural headphones. And I actually preferred the sound of the Sennheiser HD555 and the Shure SRH840 over the Grado 80 and 225 models (they have a weird naming scheme... all I remember is that those were the numbers on them and that should be enough for you guys to know what I'm talking about, right?). I tried to love the Grados, but I personally found that I even preferred the HD555 to the higher end Grado I tried. The songs I used in my testing were Waking the Demon by Bullet For My Valentine and Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr by Trivium. I guess they're not your regular head-banging, bass-heavy songs (though the Trivium song is pretty drum-heavy) that you'd expect in the metal genre, so maybe that just doesn't work right with Grado headphones?

I'd love to try out the Grados at home for a week or so with my better sound source and see how I really feel about them because everyone says that they're what I should go for. I may even go pick them up from J&R for a week or two and return them if I don't like them. But the only thing that I'm worried about is that they're supra-aural and I really can't stand that form factor. It's either IEMs or circumaural cans for me. I need them to stay on my head for extended periods of time, and that weird, low-density foam on the Grados was just uncomfortable and I'd assume it's gonna get very sweaty after hours of listening in the summer.

EDIT: Hmm, I'd seriously consider picking up a Grado for a week if there are any comfort mods that I can do to them if I decide I like the sound and hate the feel. Anyone know of any?