[Mhog55]

I'm sure they're fantastic, I really wanted to give them a shot. But after taxes are said and done they'll be nearly $300. I'm not sure if that's how much I need to spend on this kind of thing, and if I fell in love with them, then I'd be worried I'd spend that much cause I wouldn't wanna settle for less. Maybe next time, but I would wanna stick around the $150-200 range if possible

Just keep in mind that as with most things, you get what you pay for. If you're getting frustrated because you can't find what you want, for that reason alone, it may be worth it. Not to mention that you likely won't find it in a sub 200 dollar can. In that case, compromises have to be made

 

[Aetheora]

So, because I wasn't content with the limited information I got this morning, I ended up driving an hour south to the city to do some proper investigating with a bigger inventory. I'm gonna list off my impressions of all of these, and will hopefully narrow down what I'm looking for, and what would be recommended based around that.

Sennheiser 569: These felt soooooo niiiiice. I want them for that alone. They also sounded great, with a big sound stage and handled almost everything I heard through them. Almost a perfect fit. The only problem... They were a demo at Best Buy, while everything else was at a Long&Mcquade. And that meant I couldn't play my own audio. That also meant these could've been FLAC/CD quality songs, amplified, and hand picked apart for no faults. The demonstration was great, I liked them a lot! But I'd need to use my own audio source to see how truthful the demonstration was. I also know that the 598 CS's are apparently re-branded 569's. If anyone can show me this as a fact outside of simple specs, I'd highly appreciate it! Might be worth looking into.

Shure 840: Pretty much fixed most of the problems I had with the 440. Handled the treble well, handles the mids well, and has a solid bass/low end that actually has some decent depth. It was the first I tried, and I kinda wish I went back to it later on to refresh my memory after 6 other headphones, just to be sure it was as good as I thought it was. There is one locally though, so I might take the time again if they allow me.

Sennheiser 280 Pro: The isolation was pretty slick, but they were a little tight around the head. The fit was good though. Something about the guitar tones seemed to be missing, and it had a hard time with female voices and opera-style vocals. Good sound stage though. The bass was probably one of my favourites out of the ones I tried. It had some damn good kick and accuracy. The mids were solid too. Just too bad the trebles/highs had issues.

Sennheiser 380 Pro: Much more comfortable, if a bit oddly designed. Could handle the highs/treble much better, but its bass and mids lacked what made the 280 special. Less kick and accuracy all around, despite the lack of a struggle on the higher end.

AKG K92: Hot garbage if I've ever heard it. "Closed back for superior sound isolation" they said. They didn't isolate a single thing, could hear the whole store and the cars driving by outside of it too. As for the sound, I've heard better from some sub $50 headphones. No idea what happened here.

ATH-M40X: Boy these are uncomfortable as hell. I could feel the pressure of them minutes after removing them. But despite that, they were a ton better than the M50X's. I can see exactly why detractors of the M50X's would recommend these. I couldn't try them with better cups unfortunately. However, in terms of sound, they were surprisingly good. Soundstage was still not great, and while it's the weakest of the bunch, it's still not that bad. Not that great though, feels a bit too in the head. Though, they handled the highs/treble very well, and mids sounded pretty good too. The bass was still a bit too strong though, but it had a lot more refinement than the M50X's. Had some good punch to it. I imagine if I EQ'd the bass down a little bit they'd handle pretty nicely. Took whatever I threw at them and were easy to run.

And then we get to these... And, well...

Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80ohm: Yup, I got to try them finally. Both amped not amped, both times through my Shanling M1.

Amped: Holy crap that comfort. Holy crap that soundstage. Holy crap that accuracy. Holy crap that bass and depth. Just... Wow. I see why people are blown away by these. They really are something else! They over-all pretty much hit every expectation I had, except for the bass end. It was... a little too much. Like, overpowering everything else too much. And no, the amplifier didn't have bast boost going on. These rumbled nicely, but it really drowned out anything that wasn't treble.

Non-amped: Tried to see how a 32ohm source could handle them. To my surprise, pretty well! Though, it felt like the left ear didn't quite have enough energy to it. Not sure if that's just where the balances of my audio were weakest, or if the lack of an amp affected it the most. As for the sound... It actually pretty much was much better for my tastes not amped. The mids had room to breath, the treble still sounded great, if a little less so around some of the really high notes. And the low end was still accurate enough I was satisfied. Though it was lacking a bit of impact and sub and mid-bass depth due to the lack of power to make it happen.

I like them a lot, and if I had to decide to get them, it'd either be these with an amp and a major EQ adjustment, or the 32ohm version. But folk say the 32ohm version lacks a lot of detail on the high end, but says the bass is a lot more calmed compared to the 80ohm version. I only wonder just how much detail is lost. If it's as much as I heard... Eh, could be worse. What's the worst is the fact I have expensive taste it seems. $250 Canadian for this and the Shure 840's... Oof.
--------------------------------------------

So, there we go. Right now, the top contenders are the Shure 840's, the Beyerdynamic 770's, the Sennheiser 569/598 CS's, and the ATH-M40X's. Overall, quite the list now. I think I'm narrowing this down finally!

Edit: After listening to my HyperX Cloud 2's after all of this, I thought I'd give an impression on them too. I dunno if it's just cause I'm used to them, but they don't sound too bad. Soundstage is reasonably good. Bass is ok, though it lacks sub-bass, a bit of accuracy, and doesn't have much impact. The mids are pretty good, if a bit forward in spots. Guitars can sound a little intense and overshadows male/female vocals slightly, but it handles strings impressively well. It can hit all the high notes with little trouble, though I'm not sure if I'm hearing anything very special from the treble response. Feels like there's just a little bit of something missing, but I'm not sure what. For their price and the fact they are comfy and come with a mic, they're pretty good stuff

 

[Aetheora]

It's only now I saw the irony that there were too many options and opinions on headphones, so I ended up listing potential options and my own opinions for the sake of recommendation based on my findings. Whoops

 

[ZMG885]

It's only now I saw the irony that there were too many options and opinions on headphones, so I ended up listing potential options and my own opinions for the sake of recommendation based on my findings. Whoops

What jumps out at me from your list is that comfort is important as sound, which isn't really apparent in short sessions (less than 30min each). I thought the beyer DT1770 would be an end-game closed back for me, and initially the soft cushy pads felt wonderful, but for long sessions the clamping force was too high. It took a few months of experience with these headphones to really get that detail.

I'm only mentioning that because you can and will make yourself crazy with choice. A path out is to pick the best of the lot and don't look back, but get a lot of listing time and then see if it's good enough or trade for something else. It took me about three rounds to arrive at a headphone I can listen to all day and is good enough. To get better, I'm looking at $1000 and up cans, which is out of my current budget anyway, but I don't feeling like I'm not getting excellent performance with what I have.

 

[Homoerected]

I'm also a metal listener I would go through the Beyer DT880 it's half closed at least For M50x and M40x I don't have so much good experience they're fun but something missing and feels cheezy that i cannot describe verbally.

 

[Aetheora]

I'm also a metal listener I would go through the Beyer DT880 it's half closed at least For M50x and M40x I don't have so much good experience they're fun but something missing and feels cheezy that i cannot describe verbally.

Unfortunately, half closed is still gonna leak a lot in public. I like the idea a lot though, but I shouldn't be buying 2 sets of headphones. They look great though! And yeah, the M40X were good, but there is something about them that's just a bit too as is.

What jumps out at me from your list is that comfort is important as sound, which isn't really apparent in short sessions (less than 30min each). I thought the beyer DT1770 would be an end-game closed back for me, and initially the soft cushy pads felt wonderful, but for long sessions the clamping force was too high. It took a few months of experience with these headphones to really get that detail.

I'm only mentioning that because you can and will make yourself crazy with choice. A path out is to pick the best of the lot and don't look back, but get a lot of listing time and then see if it's good enough or trade for something else. It took me about three rounds to arrive at a headphone I can listen to all day and is good enough. To get better, I'm looking at $1000 and up cans, which is out of my current budget anyway, but I don't feeling like I'm not getting excellent performance with what I have.

Yeah, you're not wrong. Might be worth just biting the bullet and buying a few things. The store near me that sells good headphone brands has a 30 day return policy, so it might be worth taking advantage of that. I can tell which ones are at the top of my list, but I'm unable to find good, conclusive, solid evidence that the Sennheiser 598CS sound the same as the 569's, so I'm not sure which of those to buy. I don't wanna end up constantly buying and returning headphones though, it'd be a bit of a nuisance. So those are at least ones I'd wanna try and sort out first. Good advice though, I've at least narrowed my list down this far

 

[Aetheora]

Well, I dunno who's still looking at this page anymore, but I felt like making an update after some thought and trying some headphones!

I got to try the Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 and the Sennheiser 569's, as well as the Shure 840's for personal use. I liked the Pro 2's a fair bit, but comfort was lacking, among other things. They struggled on some highs with their middling 20,000HZ max response, so I returned them. As far as comfort goes, the 569's were amazing, I miss them a lot. They were really good, but they felt muddled in terms of instrument separation, and didn't play nicely with electric guitar, which is probably 50% of my music library. So I returned them as well.

Now I'm wearing the 840's as we speak, and I got them for $50 off normal price thanks to a sale. In terms of sound signature... It's perfect. Every bit of it is just right. Has the right amount of bass-y power I like, mids are clean, trebles never struggle... all of it. But there are still faults. For one, it's heavy and slides off my head really easily if I look down, which sucks since my Cloud 2's never had that issue. The pads are ok, but not great either. Both of these things can be modded out with some better pads and a different headband wrap (Oof, my wallet). They also look pretty bland to me. But there's also another major problem... The god awful headband adjustments are so loose than I can't ever take these off and put them on my head and keep the same position. They always slide around and it's hard to put them back up when the band is stretched to fit around my head. It's infuriating, and I'm not sure how to fix it. It feels like these never go back onto my head the same way.

Because of the comfort and the awful headband position stuff, I'm still keeping my options open to alternatives. But if anyone has any ideas on how to fix this, let me know! Or if anyone knows a set of headphones with the same sound signature but better comfort and less weight, also post them here!