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Thanks for the reply mate, i checked out the denon's and yeah they dont have phone controls but cheers for a more detailed response. I think i'll go for the Grado's, they seem to have the quality part down and they look pretty slick too (especially considering the price) perhaps in a year or 2 I can return to this with more success (although i still find it amazing that there arent any options for people who dont like in ear headphones)
Thanks again
P
The D7100 will be something of an experiment with that idea. Reactions are mixed as to how well it will go over.
I think the general reason behind that is that the full sized circumaural headphones tend to require much more power to adequately drive than IEMs. Sure many will boast that they can even be driven from an iPhone, but it's only partially true. They'll be driven to ok loudness, but they generally need a dedicated amplifier to perform at their best. And since the idea of folks buying $300-2,000+ headphones is to extract every ounce of detail and clarity, making them efficient enough to play from the somewhat questionable headphone jacks and what most people have as lossy audio on their phones isn't much of a priority, especially since high end IEMs already do that job pretty well and are much more portable for when toting an amplifier, even a portable one, is too much.
Plenty of folks are using full size headphones in a portable way, with small portable amplifiers, but it isn't all that common. And of course once you throw in a portable amp, inline controls don't matter anyway.
Current Denon models are very sensitive and can be driven well enough from a phone, but they still have even better performance with a dedicated amp. Most high-end IEMs (even ones that do come with phone controls as an option, like Sure SE535, UE Triple.Fi 10, Klipsch X10) also tend to perform better with a dedicated amplifier. So the ultimate question is portability vs performance. Most of the portability crowed is willing to give up performance, and most of the performance crowd is willing to give up portability.
The up-coming Denons, replacing the old models, are said to cater toward the "full size headphone for portable use" crowd and will have phone controls inline. But the ultimate question that nobody is sure of is who is going to spend $500+ on a full size headphone, only to drive it to partial performance from a phone? You're the closest I've seen around here to someone that may have an interest in it....but your budget was set lower than that, which is exactly what I would expect for someone looking for portability, nobody spends fortunes on a breakable item to be worn on-the-go. We'll see if that idea takes off or not, but for now, those Grados may be the best bet for you
FWIW: For home use I have my full size headphone collection and dedicated source/amp equipment. For portable use I have my IEMs running off a portable battery operated amp connected to an iPod Touch with a Line Out Dock connector cable. The sound is as good as I could hope for on the go. But it's bulkier than just the phone, and of course, inline controls are a no-go. And yes, IEMs do benefit from external amping as well. The soundstage is much larger with a lot better instrument separation on my TF10's on the Fiio E11 with LOD to the iPod than straight out of the iPod. They sound ok with the iPod, but they jump in performance beyond that. It's something to keep in mind if you're committed to portability but want a bump in performance. It won't help intercept calls though!
