[Tavilyn]

Some of you have no doubt seen my previous posts where I ask for headphone/amp/dac advice within a given budget. Those same people might note that I've been kinda all across the board and have an eye for detail. This is a bit more of the same, but it's more streamlined and a bit more focused. I'm getting a firmer feel for what I like, but am still seeking help and a bit of advice. If you think I'm carrying on too much, feel free to ignore.
Still here? Okay, here we go.
So, the DT880s are gone, the Soundmagic HP200s are gone (too much sparkle in the treble, and bass just wouldn't come out to play unless I had the cans cranked to hell). I have the Fidelio X2 and the HD598 left, with an E10K. Both appear to be driven particularly well through the E10K, though I have no doubt that either of these headphones could benefit from a better amp that would change or improve their sound.

HD598
What I like
- very light and permeable - I think this is what I'd call the epitomy of the open-back as far as sound getting in and out
- good detail separation
- nothing is really in my face or offensive
- my ears don't touch the drivers, and these cans know how to bring some power when called upon
Areas for Improvement
- bass; it could be stronger by at least a little
- treble; it could do with a little more sharpness, but not a ton
(note: neither of these makes the HD598 awful, they're fairly small issues)
Fidelio X2
What I like
- good bass; this is more than enough for me, and I think more would be overkill
- sort of lush-sounding; I like this type of sound signature, by and large
- build; these are seriously built like tanks, so even if they're heavy and have good clamp I can appreciate their construction
- good detail separation; not quite on par with HD598 to my ear, especially in lower mids, but the difference is so small that I can't find fault with either
- earcup design; these make sure my ears don't touch the drivers, and I love it when I can feel the air literally shake inside the earcups when things get nice and powerful
Areas for Improvement
- treble (could do with just a bit more than it's got at the moment)
- nothing I can do about this with the actual cans, but I find they block noise getting in but aren't shy about sharing, leading me to what I've said in a previous topic about the benefits of an open-back being partially wasted

So, as you can see, I don't have serious issues with either set of cans. The things I might tweak are the reason I'm writing though. I'm wondering if there's a headphone out there which could potentially meet somewhere between these two and provide me with everything I want, without breaking the bank. I am well aware that these cans aren't miles apart to begin with.
Potential Contenders?
Hifiman HE400I
B and W P7 (how congested is the soundstage compared to an open can? Is it so v-shaped that the bass or treble will be too much, based on my above comments re: X2 and HP200, respectively?)
Sennheiser HD600/650 (probably the 650 since it has just a touch more warmth, and I'm coming to find I like some warmth); (amping/driving? HD600 vs. 650 debate?)
Mad Dog Pro (Dependability? Soundstage/sound signature? I'm unclear on both counts for these, but they looked good.)
-- go ahead and point me at others, but I think aside from Denons (which I think are discontinued) this is pretty much the short list that will even come close
I am
1. Willing to go close-back if I can get most or all of what I'm after from a close-back headphone
2. Willing to change out E10K, but preferably for a portable amp/dac; if the price is a little higher, that's fine, I paid $120 CAD for mine
3. unwilling to make a nonportable setup requiring a tube amp at this time; I may go there one day, but that day isn't now - this rig needs to be portable
4. Unwilling to spend more than $650-700CAD, and even that is pretty steep
5. unwilling to buy, install or otherwise tweak with an onboard sound card in my Lenovo laptop
Please note:
1. I am totally blind, so a description of sound signatures (bumps, dips, that sort of thing) for coomparison would be extremely handy, especially if you were, say, to make reference to the x2 or the 598 in doing so. Please don't just link me to reviews; I've read a bunch of reviews and many of them either compare exhaustively to models I don't know or give pictures I can't parse. Please believe me when I say that if I'm coming here with questions, concerns or curiosities about comparisons, I've done my best to do my own legwork first. I am an exhaustive but not lazy would-be audiophile...sort of. I came here much more wet behind the ears than I am now, but I still have a lot to learn.
2. What I've been doing so far is plugging the E10K into my computer via USB, and the headphones into the jack on the front next to the volume knob. This, as far as I understand it, uses both the amp and DAC function of the E10K. I don't know much more about connections and how to set stuff up, so if you recommend an amp/dac that is better set up a different way, please let me know.
3. I am using a Windows PC, not a Mac.
4. I use Windows Media Player to play mostly 320-quality MP3s.
5. I almost never listen to music on my iPhone 4S; incidentally, I don't know how well the 4S's DAC works, so if a recommendation suggested would actually do well when paired with the phone, I'd be open to it, though I still want to primarily play music on my laptop. Most of my reason for avoiding music on my phone so far is that the g35s I came from were USB and not compatible.
That...about covers it. I suppose I'm asking a lot here, and I suppose some of you will just suggest I go demo headphones one at a time via Amazon. That's fair enough, but as I've said in another post in the past, that whole concept is new to me and I'd hate for them to start getting annoyed because I was forever sending stuff back. Also, being totally blind and without a printer, I'm finding it kind of a pain in the neck to print off the labels they require for returns; every time I do it, I need to ask for someone's help, and I live alone, so it's not like I've got someone handy at all times (and, for that matter, I wouldn't want to be asking them for that kind of help at every turn). The only reason I'm asking for repeated help regarding comparing and details here is because this is a forum for hobbyists and I figure that what I'm doing is perfectly acceptable, if not welcomed outright.
Thanks in advance.
Oh, and one last thing:
I know there is no "perfect", and I know that the headphones I get now aren't the ones I'll have forever. I don't intend to ever be the sort to have more than two pairs permanently though, and I don't see the culmination of my hobby ending in a $5000 setup. I'm an audiophile, but not a purist who has to get the absolute best out of everything. I am obsessive about details and comparisons here because I'd rather pick something that ticks as many of my boxes as I can, so to speak; if I want to branch out later, I will. If I had to settle, I could take the x2s and I could live with their not-quite-there treble and weird sound isolating thing, or I could keep the 598s while wishing they had a bit more oomph in the low end with just a touch more sparkle up top. If there's something out there that can give me more though, I'd like to find it, and be even more satisfied than I am now.

 

[cel4145]

I think you are in the same position most of the rest of us are: you will simply have to try other headphones to see what you like better.

 

[Tavilyn]

That's fair enough I suppose.
Let me pose a few much more specific questions then.
Hifiman HE400I: How comparable is its bass to X2? Is it as big and meaty, or is it polite? Also, is its treble Soundmagic-comparable, sizzly/zingy in places, or is it also fairly polite?
HD600/650: The 598s don't have a ton of bass, though they can grab a bit if they need it; are the 600s/650s the same way, or will I notice a bit more warmth? And if there's warmth, is it close to the x2?
P7: Same question as the HE400I, basically.
Mad Dogs: I'm generally unsure on these, across the board. I don't know how they'd compare. Never mind the open vs. closed thing unless it totally screws with soundstage; for me, soundstage is not a huge deal, though it's nice when you get it.
I know there's no true substitution for experience. I'm trying to eliminate or prioritize my choice in cans though. If you tell me, for instance, that the HE400I is so hard to drive that a 200-dollar amp isn't going to do it any justice, then that's one contender gone. If you told me the difference between HD598 and HD650 bass was negligible and the treble was basically identical...same deal. I'm trying to use what I have as a reference to judge what I'm looking at. it's the only way I know how.

 

[cel4145]

I have the HE-400s (not the i). Something like the Schiit Magni 2 would drive them very well.

 

[Tavilyn]

Well that, at least, is good to know. So they're not going to sound like crap coming out of a lower-end amp like the Magni 2. So they're still on my radar then. Would still like to know a bit more about the other cans I mentioned, mind you, but thanks for that info.

 

[Tavilyn]

Add the Nad Viso HP50s in. I like that they're roomy for a closed can, and don't seem to have any crippling drawbacks except the YMMV comfort issues. But then, I hear people saying the x2 clamps too hard, and I'm fine with it.
Would really love it if someone with access to graphs, or who's had some of the phones in my list above, could chime in and kinda give me an idea of what I'd be looking at as far as differences in sound quality.

 

[buke9]

The Nad Viso HP50's sounded just abit better than my Senn HD-280's.The Hp-50's would not fit me. The bottom of the earcups would not touch my head. I had to move them to the ultimate level for them to touch and the headband was almost a inch from the top of my head. They did sound better but not as much as I think I paid for. I don't know because this is my baseline. I guess after burn in they might open up some. I just won an auction for a pair of HE-400's with a EF-2a amp so when I get them I can report with better experience on higher grade components (compared to HP-50's or HD-280"s) . I'm not the source you should use as I'm new to hifi headphone scene but I have had my Senn's for about 12 years. So this is my 2 cents worth YMMV. The NAD's look great and sound good (really good straight from my iPhones). I just was wanting a little more.

 

[Tavilyn]

Thanks for the feedback.
I'm now wondering if Sony MDR1A or some version thereof would be a worthy contender with the Nad Viso HP50 or B and W P7, or if they're in totally different sound classes.
Going back to that bit about "the more I learn the less I really know" thing, it occurs to me that for almost every headphone, someone is saying it's the "x" I've ever worn/listened to. I didn't see a single bad Soundmagic HP200 review, but I disliked them almost immediately; my ears touched the drivers, they blocked sound in a way a closed can would, and their bass only came out when they were blasting my ears off. Everyone's different and a lot of it is subjective, I realize that, but I'm amazed at how many people are willing to make superlative statements like that.
It's kinda why I'm here asking for specifics in sound signature (such as how close x2 and P7's bass are, or how far from x2 the HD650's bass is, etc). Although I know everyone will give me subjective opinion, at least to some extent, I also figure this is the best place to ask the experts, if you will.

 

[billybob_jcv]

Well, don't forget that MOST reviews on Amazon and similar sites are written by people that have not heard a large number of headphones. In fact, Amazon reviews are notoriously biased. Think about who is really going to take the time to write a review. It is usually either the new buyer who is very excited about their new purchase and writes a glowing review to justify the purchase to themselves, or it is a review by someone that had a problem with the product and is p!ssed-off. If you read the reviews with the idea that nearly all of them are in one category or the other, I think you will quickly be able to identify and categorize them. There could be thousands of buyers that are somewhere in the middle - the product meets their needs and they go on with their life *without* writing a review, or they thought it was just OK but not great and they traded it for something else *without* writing a review.

IMHO, that's why reviews by folks like Jude, Currawong, ljokerl, Tyll, and other long-time head-fiers are more meaningful. They have heard MANY headphones and written many reviews, and over time you can extract the kind of sound they like, and then their review of a new headphone can be put into perspective against their preferred sound. To me, this is much more useful than just reading a review on Amazon from a guy that says "I just bought these and they sound fantastic, the best I've ever heard!" If everything else he has heard is just the Apple iBuds, then his review isn't really worth squat.

The problem, of course, that there is probably a very small number of people that have heard exactly the same set of headphones that you are considering, and they may not have heard them at the same time or really compared them directly to each other. In the end, you take your chances and pull the trigger. You *have* to do that - otherwise you will just sit on the sidelines and never get the experience of really knowing what works for you.

 

[Tavilyn]

I'm talking even about folks here on HeadFi. Particularly where comfort is concerned, there is probably always going to be someone out there saying a certain headphone is the most comfortable they've ever worn, and then someone who will complain because the headphone is too heavy/too tight/doesn't fit their head. I filter out a lot of what I hear regarding comfort as a result, but I still keep chasing those side-by-side specs and tidbits, as noted above.

 

[cel4145]

Yeah. I agree. Take comfort discussions with a grain of salt. Some people are very picky. Some people have odd shaped heads :etysmile:

 

[Tavilyn]

At this point I'm falling more and more in love with the x2's sound. Still wish it had just a bit more treble, but oh well. I guess nothing's perfect.
At this point, any closed can (in particular) I try, I'm probably going to compare to the x2. P7, maybe the Nad Viso HP50? I want to have near on the same level of bass, a little more sparkle in the treble, and at least close to the same soundstage. The thing where x2 makes me unable to hear outside sound but blasts it for everyone around me to hear is a bit of an annoyance; if I'm going to get cans that show off my tunes to strangers, I may as well hear what's going on at the same time.