Upgrading to a new pair of cans, and need the most neutral and accurate available. Please advise.

[OHPC]

I am a musician too: composer, arranger, pianist. I found the HD595 very nice for the task. And they are not that expensive. However, they are so nice, the sound is so good that you will probably like everything you hear with them...

So... I use an old AKG K141 for playing/recording/mixing and after that I hear the final result with my HD595. It usually works. My AKGs will show me the flaws and my Senns will me show the qualities. I am just simplifying, of course, but for my purposes it works fine.
Just my two cents.

 

[Lunatique]

Thanks for all the suggestions--they really helped. I've pulled the trigger on the order--a pair of good ol' HD600. I know its sound, and I know it'll be a step up from my HD555--even if they are very similar. I just don't want any more bad surprises from not having heard the product myself, and since I'm in a crappy city right now, I can't find any place that will have them for me to test. I regretted my Westone 3 purchase big time, and I had done tons of research and asked around here, and everyone told me how flat and neutral the W3 was--they were all wrong. Even Westone admitted to me that the W3 was designed to be very warm and for "fun" listening and was never meant to be neutral at all. I wish I had simply asked Westone first before buying them. So, that's the last time I'll ever buy a sound-reproducing device without testing it myself.

 

[renlute]

Very interesting thread. I am also casting about for neutral reference phones, as possible supplement or replacement for my K240DFs.

How do you go about testing frequency response on a pair of phones? Does that not call for special equipment and some training?

I would love to know the FR of my DFs. I have not found a published FR curve for this unit anywhere on the web. And I wonder if the curve of my pair, which was used an unknown number of years before I bought it in about 2004, would be identical to another pair of DFs, perhaps less or more used?