[WhiteCrow]

Grado and sennheiser are like.....fire and water.

 

[Melvins]

huh. well a little dot would sound good when paired with my grados....right

 

[Melvins]

and grado and audio technica are like what and what

 

[maverickronin]

Fire and a hot desert wind.

 

[Melvins]

damn. i have a pair of sennheiser 238's though. I want a grand sound stage and something that sounds good when paired with the PA2v2 and molds well wiith rock and ambient, my budget is around a hundred bucks but a little less. What sennheiser should I get based on these needs/wants

 

[maverickronin]

Well the AD700 will have the soundstage, but they're treble tilted with colored mids like the Grados.
 
The XB700s have a very wide soundstage (unless you crank them beyond your amps capability) but little depth.  It sounds pretty good with spacey stuff.

 

[Melvins]

so which one would you recommend? Think I'd just going to go with the AD700. They seem like they will have a good resale value when that day comes, and I really do want an over ear movie watching can.

 

[maverickronin]

It depends what kind of movies you watch.  With the AD700s explosions will probably sound extraordinarily weak and fake, but you'll be able to hear what direction everything is coming from. If you don't watch anything with action, then it won't bother you at all though.
 
The XB700s will likely be completely reversed, but I don't know for sure.  I've never watched a movie with mine.  I'll try one later tonight and see how it sounds.

 

[maverickronin]

I tried my XB700s with a movie and they worked out pretty good.  Very nice soundstaging with the Headphone virtualization built into ffdshow.  They had a wide and 3D soundstage along with a very satisfying low end.
 
Whatever headphones you end up getting, I'd recommend you use some sort of virtual surround DSP, software or hardware depending on your set up.

 

[Melvins]

I have a macbook with snowleopard. Thanks man.

 

[Melvins]

wjats a virtual surround dsp

 

[Melvins]

http://www.amazon.com/Force-Channel-Dolby-Surround-Processor-Mac/dp/B003O0KICS/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_2_1
 
would this be good

 

[maverickronin]

That's a hardware one, meant for gamers.  There are other similar models and many receivers have them built in as well.
 
Since you're watching movies off of a computer you should look around for a software solution.  Unfortunately I can't help you with that since I know next to nothing about Macs.  I've heard that some DVD player programs have the Dolby Headphone DSP built in but I don't know if any of those are available on Macs.
 
Basically what the DSP (digital sound/signal processor) does is apply a specific EQ curve along with frequency dependent crosstalk according to a HRTF to create the illusion of listening to speakers instead of headphones.  It makes the sound seem to actually come from the screen and not inside your head.  Many versions are multi-channel and can simulate 5.1 or 7.1 surround systems.
 
The cheap/free ones aren't perfect and can give a slight decrease in overall audio quality but they more than make up for it by improving directionality and localization.  You can even hear things behind you.  Here's a demo with preprocessed audio.  Make sure to listen to it with you headphones.  It'll sound really weird over speakers.
 
Since everyone's ears are different these un-personalized HRTFs don't alway work for everyone but I strongly recommend you try it out for watching movies with headphones.

 

[Melvins]

bump

 

[Melvins]

Ok I want some hip hop listening headphones, you think the XB700's would be better for this?