HeretixAevum
100+ Head-Fier
Hey guys
I've had my Sennheiser HD 448s since December 2010 and I'm ready for an upgrade. I've got two major problems with these headphones.
The first problem is the bass response. It's rather weak. It sounds sufficient for acoustic music, but it still lacks any real kick or power. When I try listening to something like Drum & Bass or Dubstep, though, it's just not there. I'm certainly not a basshead at all, in fact I want a somewhat neutral headphone. I have no interest in drowning out details with obnoxious amounts of bass. I just think the low end in these headphones are lacking big time. There's not much bass, and what's there isn't particularly great quality either.
My second problem with the Senns are that they're not exactly sturdy. The plastic body creaks when you move them, they're extremely light (assists with comfort but doesn't exactly lend itself to giving them a 'quality' feel), they feel very hollow and they don't even really look that strong. I definitely want whatever I upgrade to to have fantastic build quality. While I certainly take great care of my belongings, and my 448s are as good as new, great build quality is something I really, really appreciate.
As for musical use, I am prominently listening to a variety of Technical, Death, Black and Progressive metal, as well as some D&B and Dubstep here and there. However, my musical tastes are certainly still growing and I'm regularly trying new things (Dabbling in a wee bit of jazz as of late) so I'm really after the most all-rounder headphones I can find. I can deal with them not excelling in anything provided they aren't utter crap at anything, either.
These are going to be used exclusively for my PC, so they're going to be plugged in directly to my ASUS Xonar DG. This leads me on to the other use for them outside of music; Gaming. I game quite a bit, so this is somewhat important. Whilst I definitely favour musical quality over game audio quality about 10:1, it does lead me to lean slightly towards getting an open headphone instead of a closed one. If there was a headphone that did absolutely everything I wanted and was closed, I'd definitely snatch it up. Being open would just be a nice bonus. The headphones must also be around-ear design, no exceptions.
I have, of course, had a look myself for some new headphones, and the ever popular ATH-M50 is definitely on my radar. The build quality looks good (adore the coiled cable and the metal jack), I like the sound of the, well, sound (apart from the slightly recessed mids), I like the aesthetics of it and it fits my budget of $150 to $200 (Though I could be persuaded to spend a wee bit into the 200s if it was really worth it). I do have two concerns about it. 1. It's closed, so the soundstage doesn't exist. 2. The general consensus amongst enthusiasts seems to be that it's somewhat overrated / overpriced because the people who give it rave reviews are all noobs who've never heard good cans before.
So, I know that's a somewhat specific list of requirements I've got there, but if anyone could suggest some good cans to suit my needs then I'm all ears!
I've had my Sennheiser HD 448s since December 2010 and I'm ready for an upgrade. I've got two major problems with these headphones.
The first problem is the bass response. It's rather weak. It sounds sufficient for acoustic music, but it still lacks any real kick or power. When I try listening to something like Drum & Bass or Dubstep, though, it's just not there. I'm certainly not a basshead at all, in fact I want a somewhat neutral headphone. I have no interest in drowning out details with obnoxious amounts of bass. I just think the low end in these headphones are lacking big time. There's not much bass, and what's there isn't particularly great quality either.
My second problem with the Senns are that they're not exactly sturdy. The plastic body creaks when you move them, they're extremely light (assists with comfort but doesn't exactly lend itself to giving them a 'quality' feel), they feel very hollow and they don't even really look that strong. I definitely want whatever I upgrade to to have fantastic build quality. While I certainly take great care of my belongings, and my 448s are as good as new, great build quality is something I really, really appreciate.
As for musical use, I am prominently listening to a variety of Technical, Death, Black and Progressive metal, as well as some D&B and Dubstep here and there. However, my musical tastes are certainly still growing and I'm regularly trying new things (Dabbling in a wee bit of jazz as of late) so I'm really after the most all-rounder headphones I can find. I can deal with them not excelling in anything provided they aren't utter crap at anything, either.
These are going to be used exclusively for my PC, so they're going to be plugged in directly to my ASUS Xonar DG. This leads me on to the other use for them outside of music; Gaming. I game quite a bit, so this is somewhat important. Whilst I definitely favour musical quality over game audio quality about 10:1, it does lead me to lean slightly towards getting an open headphone instead of a closed one. If there was a headphone that did absolutely everything I wanted and was closed, I'd definitely snatch it up. Being open would just be a nice bonus. The headphones must also be around-ear design, no exceptions.
I have, of course, had a look myself for some new headphones, and the ever popular ATH-M50 is definitely on my radar. The build quality looks good (adore the coiled cable and the metal jack), I like the sound of the, well, sound (apart from the slightly recessed mids), I like the aesthetics of it and it fits my budget of $150 to $200 (Though I could be persuaded to spend a wee bit into the 200s if it was really worth it). I do have two concerns about it. 1. It's closed, so the soundstage doesn't exist. 2. The general consensus amongst enthusiasts seems to be that it's somewhat overrated / overpriced because the people who give it rave reviews are all noobs who've never heard good cans before.
So, I know that's a somewhat specific list of requirements I've got there, but if anyone could suggest some good cans to suit my needs then I'm all ears!
