DemonicLemming
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2008
- Posts
- 953
- Likes
- 24
So I stumbled on this site while doing a quick google search on headphones, and not knowing better, clicked the link.
Gone are my dreams of "good" $70 headphones and plugging straight into the headphone jack of my video card. So long wallet, you now have another hobby alongside books, cars, and computers, and it doesn't look like it'll be a cheap one either. Alas Mr. Grant and Mr. Franklin, you will never find a comfortable resting place in my wallet.
Anyway, on to the questions. I'm a metalhead. I listen to everything from piobreachd to Duke Ellington, Mahler to Silly Wizard, but my heart is made of metal. Thus, I need metalhead phones. A bit of research has led me to the Grado 225s, the HFI 780s, or the DT-880s or 990s. Still up in the air. What I've read lends itself to recommending the 780s to me, especially as they're closed and I need a set of "all-purpose" headphones for everything from listening to music in the office to listening to music on flights. However, it seems like a hell of a lot of people are recommending the DT-880s for metalheads, or the DT-990s. The 225s have seem to come up quite often, as well.
Since it seems like no headphones are complete without a good amp, that'll go into consideration too. The two I've seen that I like the most are the Pocket Amp v.2, and Headroom's Total Bithead. My work computer doesn't have a soundcard (oh yes, onboard sound FTL, ugh), so I'm leaning towards the Bithead as it has the USB DAC, although I like the PAv2 because it seems to offer a bit more flexibility when acting as a portable amp. However, most of the time, the amp will be sitting on my desk, plugged into the computer.
As far as sound goes, I love bass. The more, the better. The last competition system I had in a car metered 151db on a TermLab mic, legal. However, it has to be balanced. Bass without music is just noise. I'm not fond of overly bright highs (for guys familiar with car audio, I HATED titanium tweeters), but again, they need to be balanced for the music. Good bass response and well-toned highs are a must.
Now, given all that, I'm thinking the 780s + Bithead amp. Be a little expensive, I know, but good things are. I'd also like to have these by next weekend (flying home for Easter and figure it'd be a good torture test for the money I just spent), so if either of these products fall under the "harder to get" (reading, it seems some amps can be hard to buy due to manufacturer quirks, build rates, etc), I'd be open to alternate selections. I'll also likely buy the PAv2 down the road (given the price, I don't see any reason not to), but pick up the Bithead now because most of my listening takes place at work while drawing lines everywhere.
So, poke and prod and nudge and even outright kick my selection, toss other ones in the arena and let them fight to the bloody death, and make me spend some money - up to about $400 - to make my ears happy.
Gone are my dreams of "good" $70 headphones and plugging straight into the headphone jack of my video card. So long wallet, you now have another hobby alongside books, cars, and computers, and it doesn't look like it'll be a cheap one either. Alas Mr. Grant and Mr. Franklin, you will never find a comfortable resting place in my wallet.
Anyway, on to the questions. I'm a metalhead. I listen to everything from piobreachd to Duke Ellington, Mahler to Silly Wizard, but my heart is made of metal. Thus, I need metalhead phones. A bit of research has led me to the Grado 225s, the HFI 780s, or the DT-880s or 990s. Still up in the air. What I've read lends itself to recommending the 780s to me, especially as they're closed and I need a set of "all-purpose" headphones for everything from listening to music in the office to listening to music on flights. However, it seems like a hell of a lot of people are recommending the DT-880s for metalheads, or the DT-990s. The 225s have seem to come up quite often, as well.
Since it seems like no headphones are complete without a good amp, that'll go into consideration too. The two I've seen that I like the most are the Pocket Amp v.2, and Headroom's Total Bithead. My work computer doesn't have a soundcard (oh yes, onboard sound FTL, ugh), so I'm leaning towards the Bithead as it has the USB DAC, although I like the PAv2 because it seems to offer a bit more flexibility when acting as a portable amp. However, most of the time, the amp will be sitting on my desk, plugged into the computer.
As far as sound goes, I love bass. The more, the better. The last competition system I had in a car metered 151db on a TermLab mic, legal. However, it has to be balanced. Bass without music is just noise. I'm not fond of overly bright highs (for guys familiar with car audio, I HATED titanium tweeters), but again, they need to be balanced for the music. Good bass response and well-toned highs are a must.
Now, given all that, I'm thinking the 780s + Bithead amp. Be a little expensive, I know, but good things are. I'd also like to have these by next weekend (flying home for Easter and figure it'd be a good torture test for the money I just spent), so if either of these products fall under the "harder to get" (reading, it seems some amps can be hard to buy due to manufacturer quirks, build rates, etc), I'd be open to alternate selections. I'll also likely buy the PAv2 down the road (given the price, I don't see any reason not to), but pick up the Bithead now because most of my listening takes place at work while drawing lines everywhere.
So, poke and prod and nudge and even outright kick my selection, toss other ones in the arena and let them fight to the bloody death, and make me spend some money - up to about $400 - to make my ears happy.