[emericanchaos]

sorry i stepped away from you head-fi.  i sold my gear off in a desperate financial time and am just now revisiting.
 
I need a jack of all trades.  A main rig.  Full size, over the ear.  Open is fine.  It's for home, if she can tolerate xbox she can deal with some headphone noise.
 
Priorities:
 
1. Comfort.  I'm used to beyer's.  Once i got used to the squeeze (i have a large/wide/round head) they were so comfy.
2. Detail.  I like clean detailed highs.  Articulate throughout the tonal range would be ideal.  Almost sparkling, not sibilant.
3. Full sounding.  Doesn't have to be bass laden but I would like a little punch.  My 990's used to give me a snap in the nose/throat area.  i liked it but the 990's seemed woofy and fuzzed up the detail a lot.
4.  Big stage.  
5.  Most of my music is mid laden.  Lower mids though.  Roll off from 2.5k through to 7k is fine.  Metal, electric guitar (soloists), acoustic guitar.  At the same time i listen to some ambient quiet stuff like Sigur Ros.  
 
My first idea was senn HD598's.  Seems to cover a few bases but I'm not sure at all how they sound.  When i dropped out of the hobby they weren't even around.  The other notion was AKG K601's.  From what I've read they fuller in the bottom compared to the 701's which should suit me as I'm not exactly a quiet music person 100% of the time.
 
I'm open to suggestions, would like a few price range options though.  I'd rather not spend $300 on cans but if that's what I have to do in order to address most of my priorites then that's fine.  
 
I'm open to amping and a dedicated source but i'm trying to focus on cans right now.  for sources i'm looking at the VDACmk2, PICO (portability is a bonus) and the EMU 0404.  This is for a computer setup.  USB or Optical input required.  Amp depends on cans of course.  not going OTL with grado's.  

 

[Gwarmi]

 
 K601 is a very under rated can ~ problem is the amping and sourcing - given a tight budget, I can only suggest
 you source an Audio-gd NFB-12 Dac/Amp.
 
 It's the only thing for $200-ish new (less second hand) that will drive them adequately and give them a clean
 source all in the one box.
 
 E7/E9 will not cut it with these fine AKG's - all you'll get is gain and volume, the refinement will disappear.
 
 Once properly amped they are superior to the HD598 - considerably so.

 

[emericanchaos]

 
Quote:

 
 K601 is a very under rated can ~ problem is the amping and sourcing - given a tight budget, I can only suggest
 you source an Audio-gd NFB-12 Dac/Amp.
 
 It's the only thing for $200-ish new (less second hand) that will drive them adequately and give them a clean
 source all in the one box.
 
 E7/E9 will not cut it with these fine AKG's - all you'll get is gain and volume, the refinement will disappear.
 
 Once properly amped they are superior to the HD598 - considerably so.

not sure if i gave off the impression that i'm on a tight budget but i didn't mean to.  I'm not going to spend $3k on a full rig tomorrow but i'm also not going to take a $600 budget and spend more than half of it on just the cans.  
 
on the subject, what sort of amping would the 601's benefit from?  are they similar to the 701's in that they need current rather than voltage?  I'd like to be all in/done by $800.  i just found the 601's for $199 on amazon.com as well

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

 


not sure if i gave off the impression that i'm on a tight budget but i didn't mean to.  I'm not going to spend $3k on a full rig tomorrow but i'm also not going to take a $600 budget and spend more than half of it on just the cans.  
 
on the subject, what sort of amping would the 601's benefit from?  are they similar to the 701's in that they need current rather than voltage?  I'd like to be all in/done by $800.  i just found the 601's for $199 on amazon.com as well

 That's the huge benefit - many stores are literally giving them away and they're a total jewel!
 
 Both the K701/702 Q701 and K601 love current and voltage swing it seems, makes for a diabolical
 requirement concerning amps - the K601 being slightly harder to drive at 120ohms although it does
 feature a higher sensitivity at 101dB - I'd say they're all more or less in the same class when it
 comes to the necessary goods to drive them all properly. 
 
 For the cash - again, I'll recommend Audio-GD - just something further up the line, their gear
 is far too good to pass up for the money - unless of course you start snooping around for
 decent second hand gear.
 
 NFB-10SE
 
 $499USD + delivery
 
 http://audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/NFB-10.1/NFB10.1EN.htm
 
 Dual WM8741 Dac's and the following power specs at various impedances
 
 [size=small]9950MW /  25 ohm [/size]
[size=x-small]5950MW /  50 ohm 
 3300MW  /  100 ohm
1150MW / 300 ohm
590MW  /  600 ohms[/size]
 
The best part is that the unit is already fitted with XLR balanced connections including a 4-pin XLR
headphone out to complement the standard 1/4 headphone out. If you ever decided to get your K601
re-cabled to balanced 4-pin then this thing is already set to go.
 
Take note of the specs - this will be very hard to match for the price. There are other options but
none will stack up on paper compared to the NFB10-SE at $500, that's not say they're bad options.
 

 

[jimejam]

I highly recommend the shure 840 they under 200 ,best bang for you buck for under 300 actually!Very detailed, forward vocals, has a slight mid bass hump, treble stunning!Amping not necessary.You would really be doing yourself a favor picking these up!

 

[emericanchaos]

 
Quote:

I highly recommend the shure 840 they under 200 ,best bang for you buck for under 300 actually!Very detailed, forward vocals, has a slight mid bass hump, treble stunning!Amping not necessary.You would really be doing yourself a favor picking these up!

 
From what I'm reading these sound very detailed but also very thin.  Good entry level cans but not really something that would fit the bill for me.  I'm used to Beyer 990's.  Full detailed sound.  Those Shure's would be the opposite direction.  Looking for something in between hoping to address what I'd disliked about the 990's.  Too much bass, recessed mids (vocals sounded muffled).  I'd like tight punchy bass/less woofy, warmer/crunchy more forward mids and forward detailed highs.  Great imaging, fast as a lot of my music is faster paced.
 
Some music hints:
 
http://youtu.be/MuAGGZNfUkU?hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEZnyBKD6UQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_pnFhFjNtY&feature=BFa&list=FLyv4c73ilFeFtwtyzdid9zg&lf=mh_lolz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhpJUBcTkvI&feature=BFa&list=FLyv4c73ilFeFtwtyzdid9zg&lf=mh_lolz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP1IyCfKhhQ&feature=BFa&list=FLyv4c73ilFeFtwtyzdid9zg&lf=mh_lolz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLx_bhSkfPI&feature=BFa&list=FLyv4c73ilFeFtwtyzdid9zg&lf=mh_lolz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YIHvK5WN7I&feature=BFa&list=FLyv4c73ilFeFtwtyzdid9zg&lf=mh_lolz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nVcLwN7VEg&feature=BFa&list=FLyv4c73ilFeFtwtyzdid9zg&lf=mh_lolz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cZGgtN42ns&feature=BFa&list=PL8DF3D957843A31A5&lf=mh_lolz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpsM3IkbrfE&feature=BFa&list=PLE30B5EEABC854E64&lf=mh_lolz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPUhtEVsQgE&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctk-MqyTox0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO76RzDZb2Q
 
If Grado is out:  Are K601's the way?  I suppose it's worth mentioning that I play guitar.  Most of music is based around that and/or complimentary to it.