[Emon]

...sounds pretty ****ing cool. I've been dissapointed with my recent DT 990 purchase, and I can't get away from these old 414s. They lack bass, so I've compensated with equalization in Patchmix DSP on my E-MU 1212m. They don't distort or anything. Not the greatest sounding cans, lacking refinement I guess you could say, but they are seriously sweet. At 2,000 ohms, no wonder they weren't so hot out of my Audigy 2 years ago, but with my Millet, damn, pretty cool! Better than my DT 990s.

By the way, in case you're unaware, the HD414s were the first open-air headphones, first made by Sennheiser in 1968. It blows my mind to think that these are better than the 990s. :/

 

[sgrossklass]

Midrange guy, huh? The current DT990s aren't a good choice then. (If the mids are a bit sucked out on the HD590s, they're quite a lot on those. See? When I heard those recently, I didn't like that kind of sonic signature much either.) My HD424s should be similar to the old '414 except for more bass, and indeed for cans that old, they're far from bad. I never really liked the ~2.7 kHz spike in the mids though. Somewhat newer oldie Senns like my HD420SL (mid-80s) are better, these ones are a touch mid-centric but with only a bit of bass and treble EQ (I'm talking 1..2 dB here) they're really nice, as far as open supraaural cans go that is (not that great soundstaging, obviously, but very open sounding, something I missed a bit with the HD535). You might want to try some late '80s/early '90s oldies, like HD530/540 and the respective IIs, or the '80s DT990s with the double headband, or K400s/K500s, just keep in mind how much the pads cost which are the more likely to need replacement the older the cans are. BTW, have you auditioned HD580s and K501s yet?

 

[Emon]

I used to own the HD600, which I traded for these DT 990 Pros. I liked them, but I thought I might like the 990s more. I was wrong. My initial plan was to get the 880s, I just jumped on a trade for the 990s since I was having trouble selling my 600s.

I've not auditioned the K 501, but it probably doesn't have enough bass for me. I'm not terrible concerned about mids, but the 990's mids are like...messed up. Right now I have my eye on the DT 880, and the K 701 is a possibility, too. But I don't have enough money for either, so it'll have to wait a bit.

 

[sgrossklass]

Don't forget the K601, which appears to be sort of an improved K501 from the freq response posted here, with somewhat flatter looking mids (reminded me of the HD595) and good bass. The K701 actually has the more extreme EQ of the two, which is interesting given that normally sonic signatures get more extreme when you get to cheaper cans and not vice versa. I would guess this is because high-end cans are mostly judged by ear, rarely by measurements.