shoegazer72
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2015
- Posts
- 16
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- 10
I'm looking for recommendations for a set of decent quality closed headphones in the ~ 150 USD price range to replace the Sennheiser HD201s that I currently use for work. The headphones will be used at low-medium listening volumes and will be driven by my laptop's Realtek High Definition Audio sound card. I suspect that the NVX XPT100/Brainwavz HM5 are good candidates, but I'm curious as to whether anybody has additional suggestions based on my preferences below.
- Comfort is crucial. I'll be wearing the headphones up to a couple hours at a time. My head is a bit more oval-shaped than some (think "0" rather than "O") and my ears are largish and protrude a bit.
- Sound isolation is not too critical. I work in a fairly-low noise environment so I don't need outstanding sound isolation. But a minimum the headphones should not have a problem with sound leakage.
- Sound Quality. I'm not a basshead, but I appreciate reasonably-good extension. A slight mid-centric bias and a slightly-warm overall balance would probably be ideal - but I could live with a neutral-to-slightly-bright balanced set of headphones if it meets the other criterion. A set of headphones that have a tendency to reveal sibiliance would not work for me.
- I would like a sound stage that's a bit more expansive than I'd find on, say, a set of ATH-M50X headphones.
If it helps, I use a set of AKG K-240 Studios at home. With the exception of the bass extension - these are pretty close to the sort of sound quality I would like. But, obviously, as a set of semi-open headphones they are not suitable for my work environment. I spent considerable time with the Shure SRH440 and SRH840 headphones. The former were too harsh/sibilant and not particularly comfortable. The latter were a touch too dark, balance-wise, and were extremely uncomfortable.
Thanks
- Comfort is crucial. I'll be wearing the headphones up to a couple hours at a time. My head is a bit more oval-shaped than some (think "0" rather than "O") and my ears are largish and protrude a bit.
- Sound isolation is not too critical. I work in a fairly-low noise environment so I don't need outstanding sound isolation. But a minimum the headphones should not have a problem with sound leakage.
- Sound Quality. I'm not a basshead, but I appreciate reasonably-good extension. A slight mid-centric bias and a slightly-warm overall balance would probably be ideal - but I could live with a neutral-to-slightly-bright balanced set of headphones if it meets the other criterion. A set of headphones that have a tendency to reveal sibiliance would not work for me.
- I would like a sound stage that's a bit more expansive than I'd find on, say, a set of ATH-M50X headphones.
If it helps, I use a set of AKG K-240 Studios at home. With the exception of the bass extension - these are pretty close to the sort of sound quality I would like. But, obviously, as a set of semi-open headphones they are not suitable for my work environment. I spent considerable time with the Shure SRH440 and SRH840 headphones. The former were too harsh/sibilant and not particularly comfortable. The latter were a touch too dark, balance-wise, and were extremely uncomfortable.
Thanks
