[audioqueso]

Oh yeah? Hmmm, well... I will only use it for music every now and then. I like my A900s so I'm covered for music. But I'm glad to hear you liked them for movies.

 

[paaj]

If the HD580/600/650 sound good even with an 0404USB (which they do), they will sound fine with just a receiver. Not to their full potential... but still they are clearly a step up from the HD555/595 IMO.

 

[Chrysoberyl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayB18 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had the HD555 a while back and while I didn't care for it with music, it did make a pretty good movie phone.

Same here(well,hd595).They were great for gaming too.

 

[oqvist]

I don´t know about receiver. The one on my RX-V663 hardly sound better then running my headphones unamped. It has a "silent cinema" mode which is supposed to one up dolby headphone but due to the soundstage shrinking so much compared to running my headphones amp and they sounding so muddy it was totally pointless

Is there any way you can run a phono-2 rca cable to an amp to try and combine this? I haven´t found any such cable though.

 

[ClaudeRaines]

How about some DT990's or DT880s. They come 32 Ohm as well.

Beyerdynamic Headphones

 

[Miths]

As long as the receiver can drive the headphones to an adequate volume level I would also back up eg. the HD600 over the HD595. Without a "proper" amp they might not get anywhere near their full potential, but even straight out of an iPod my HD650 clearly have the same sound signature as they do out of my amp - just less detailed with slightly woolen bass, smaller soundstage and, the main problem, a volume level that's a tad too low for my usual preference.
If the volume issue could be resolved (eg. with a receiver rather than a severely underpowered iPod) they would still sound much better than my HD595 no matter how far from their full potential they may be in a setup like that. I'm fairly sure the same thing applies to the HD600 (or 580).

One area where my HD595 beats my HD650 though is in comfort - obviously important for long movie sessions. After I really went to town on the HD650 headband a couple of weeks ago - the clamping was starting to annoy me again - bending the metal band at each side (fully extended out of the plastic housing of course) to the point where there's now more than a two inch gap between the earcups, I think I've finally reached a proper level of comfort with them, although it's extremely unlikely they'll ever quite be match for my HD595 or K601 in that department.

 

[Chrysoberyl]

^
I agree completely with that.I never understood why everyone just keep telling "oh,without an amp,forget about HD600/650".Of course they can sound better,no doubt.But they sound better than lesser headphones in any case,that's for sure.My HD600 sound a lot better than my old HD595 with both the EMU and the xfi.And now that I mention those,better with the xfi than with the EMU...so there you have it.

 

[skellington]

As some other posters have said, I think HD555 would do the trick. I didn't like them that much for music but they made an excellent choice for movies.
They have excellent sound stage which means the movie doesn't feel "closed in", and their soft sound signature means that listening for a couple of hours is easy.
Best to get them second hand off ebay, they are very reasonably priced this way IMO.

 

[audioqueso]

Sorry, but the HD600 are beyond the HD595/HD580 price range that was noted on the original post. I'm sure they're very nice headphones, but for the amount of usage they will receive, it's just not worth it to me. But thank you.

I found a pair of HD555 for $60 plus shipping, so I'm gonna look into that. Thank you everyone.

 

[Tyler J]

I almost always run my phones from a receiver (although I have an amp) and the 595s were terrible from it. I have found that harder to drive phones sound better from a receiver. The AKG K601s sounded the best and they are very tough to drive. Of course every receiver is different so your experience may vary. And for what it is worth I thought the K601s were better than the 595s in every way.


Edit: sorry, missed the $60 part