[kbal]

Looking through various threads, I noticed that companies are said to have their own sonic signatures. Thus, about to invest about £200 in audio tech, I was thinking whether it would be better to buy several (probably 3)lower end headphones from different companies to find a preference or go for 1 headphone which costs £200ish.
Also, I want to see if I'm alone in this dilemma; I would like to point out that I also struggle to understand terms such as 'warm', regardless of glossaries as I believe these are abstract nouns (like trying to describe an emotion to a soulless individual); another possible reason for getting several headphones: to try to understand terms better.

 

[kbal]

In case anyone was wondering: the only places where I can listen to audio tech are John Lewis and the apple store and I'm mainly hoping for open-backs.

 

[jasonb]

I'd rather have one good headphone than 2 or 3 cheap ones. The problem of course is finding the one headphone that you'll love.

 

[kbal]

Where do u go to try out headphones which aren't beats or Bose?

 

[nikongod]

you could go to a headphone meet...

 

[jasonb]

Depends on where you live and what is around you. It can be very hard, even impossible, to try many headphones first. All I have around me is stores selling Beats and Bose and junk like that too. Sometimes musical instrument stores will have pro-audio sections with headphones as well. 
   
Quote:

Where do u go to try out headphones which aren't beats or Bose?

 

[Tangster]

Quote:

In case anyone was wondering: the only places where I can listen to audio tech are John Lewis and the apple store and I'm mainly hoping for open-backs.

Where are you? Guessing UK thanks to John Lewis(the Liverpool one has a terrible selection of terrible headphones). Try the music stores in your area, typically the ones that are large enough to sell pianos, etc will also have an area for "Digital Music" with some studio monitors, mixers and headphones. Probably won't have many open backs though.
 
Otherwise, you could just put out a head-fi meet request.
 
A good introduction to open back headphones(imo) would either be the Grado sr80i, the Sennheiser HD598(with an amp, eg FiiO E07, etc) or one of the Audio Technica AD***X range(less so the older AD range with no X suffix as they lack bass).

 

[wingmylife]

the best idea should be finding some place or someone where you can try them. well since this may be not option for you, the only thing you can do is buy-try-sell-... repeat the cycle until you got what you love....... or dismiss everything and never come back again......

 

[kbal]

I realised I never thanked you guys, so, even though it's really late, thank you for your help

 

[manbear]

If you buy used on the forum here, you can sell for close to the same price you bought them for (though you will have to eat shipping). That's a relatively cost-effective way to try out different headphones. You can also buy new from somewhere with a good return policy.

It's somewhat true that different brands have different house sounds, but there are still large differences within a given company's products. I would not expect a company's cheap headphones to really tell you what their more expensive headphones sound like. The best approach IMO is to get the best single headphone you can afford, then sell or trade it for something different once you get tired of it.