[lubczyk]

I'm trying to decide between these two (or some other suggestions, like Ultrasone Pro 550, Citiscape Downtown, House of Marley Exodus) for a friend.
 
These are examples of music he listens to:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7XF3kry_Ck
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9H45weHwR0
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR6AV9yJPoM
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKj8Mpf7-0I
 
He also watches Netflix and plays web games on his nettop, but sticks mainly to rap, trance and dubstep. Preferably, I'd like some can that can keep the highs of the trance he listens to as well as the lows of dubstep, while keeping some mids for when he plays games or watches movies. He could probably regulate the treble and bass with the E17's EQ if he needs to.
 
I was thinking of giving him a Fiio e17 along with a good set of cans, but I realize that he tends to listen to music that is compressed mp3 with a usual bitrate of 128 kb or less so I don't want cans that are too resolving.
 
I'm leaning towards the Ultrasone HFI 780 but I'm not sure if it's too high quality for what he listens to.
 
If all else fails, I'm buying him the Skullcandy Hesh 2 and calling it a done deal.
 
 
Edit 1: The 780s are off the table for being too revealing.

 

[AstroTurf]

At 128kb compression, you should buy him the most revealing cans possible. Why?
 
So that you may save him from poor sound quality. He will thank you later!!!
 
Just a thought, Jim
 
PS Etymotic MC5, or the MC3 would be a great starter headphone.

 

[lubczyk]

Quote:

At 128kb compression, you should buy him the most revealing cans possible. Why?
 
So that you may save him from poor sound quality. He will thank you later!!!
 
Just a thought, Jim
 
PS Etymotic MC5, or the MC3 would be a great starter headphone.

Thanks for the suggestions, but he hates in-ears so those are off the list as well as the 780s.