[Shabda]

Hi All,

I just stole a set of akg k533 mkii’s for 100 bucks and now i’m a believer, but they arent the most comfy for me. Too heavy, loose fitting. Can anyone recommend other closed backs that are surprisingly open sounding? Not really too concerned with good isolation. I hear srh 1540s are like this too

thanks!

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Hi.
Depends on your budget, i'd say.
Never heard the Sure, but for open sound i can recommend the Ultrasone Performance 880.
Best open sounding reference headphone that i'm familiar with is the Pioneer Monitor 5.
But as you know, there're a lot headphones out there i can't judge.

 

[PointyFox]

Sony MDR-Z1R, ZMF Eikon, and Sennheiser HD820. If you're just looking at cheap stuff, Meze 99 Noir/Classic.

 

[Shabda]

Ugh I want the z1r so badly seems so perfect but thank you very much for all the recs i hadnt heard of a bunch of these!

 

[bland125]

Dan Clark Audio Aeon RT closed are surprisingly open/wide sounding. I own both opened and closed versions of the RT and with the added isolation of the closed version, I don't feel I'm missing anything on the closed and they are my go to headphones now.

 

[Shabda]

Awesome these are all good recs, can anybody pit them against eachother? Something that can handle complex rock music would be ideal. Bass extension is a must. I like the treble of the 6xx, sundara is slightly on the bright side

thanks again everyone! What an awesome community!

 

[Shabda]

My budget is like 350 but i feel like i should be satisfied with something more around 200, i dont need the clarity of the sundaras, insightful as it is, i’d trade the perfect frequency response for micro details any day

edit: i’m seeing now that all of these are pretty expensive but very educational actually. I’m starting to wonder how the hell these headphones sound so open. The k553’s cups arent even that big!

 

[PointyFox]

The best option I think would be the Meze 99 Noir at $200.

 

[Shabda]

Eyyy noir’s look way better than the neo/classics imo, i hated the flashiness when i was first looking into these. At the time i opted for the 1am2’s but found the symbols on drums to be unaccetably unnatural. Do you think that’s a result of their warm/dark freq response or their soundstage? I suspect a bit of both but I feel like soundstage is the bigger player (at least i hope).

thank you!

 

[SilverEars]

Awesome these are all good recs, can anybody pit them against eachother? Something that can handle complex rock music would be ideal. Bass extension is a must. I like the treble of the 6xx, sundara is slightly on the bright side

thanks again everyone! What an awesome community!

Do you like 6XX for classic rock? It does classic rock well IMO and cut off potential peakiness of the highs which I prefer. Perhaps Argon would be of your taste? Meze 99 is bright. But DCA Ether C Closed seemed to do a good job of not sounding too closed.

Z1R and HD820 seems to be the ones for larger spatial sounding, but the tuning is another issue.

 

[Mhog55]

For 200 dollar rock n roll closed backs, you can't beat the 99 Noir.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

Sounds like you are describing the Mod House Argons. They have great sound stage for a closed back. I think you can find them for around $350 used if you are patient. You’ll definitely need a headphone amp with them though.

 

[Shabda]

Thank you all i decided to get the srh 1540’s though i definitely want to try all these headphones!