Today I went shopping, and I was using a pair of the Sennheiser HD 212Pro's. But lo and behold, some recordings that I listen to sound like crap on the HD 212Pro's! Not because of the highs (they're recessed, all right), but because those '50s and '60s jazz recordings (and recent high-quality remastered CDs of those, at that!) came out of those 212's with too MUCH bass! Moreover, I had to struggle putting the hood over the 212's (because the headband sticks out where it joins the earpieces), and they were a bit uncomfortable on my ears.
Luckily, there is a Sam Ash store nearby where I was shopping (in suburban Lombard, IL). But alas, no AKG K141S or K240S in stock...
So I tried a pair of the *cough, choke, gag* Sony MDR-V700DJ's (heh, I thought I was going to join the Magicthyse Army when I did that!
) I tried the V700's on my Headroom Total Airhead amp that is connected to my Sony D-EJ1000 PCDP. No dice. The rock CD that I tried on that setup sounded thin and lifeless - and the very same jazz CDs that came out of my 212's with too much bass actually sounded sizzly/shrieky out of the V700's, with no real bass extension!
The mid-bass is there, all right, but it sounded so dull, overtight and gutless out of the V700/TAH combo! My 212's actually go deeper in the bass than the V700's out of my portable rig; there's just too much of the bass. I finally decided against the V700 because of my gut feeling about them (I've told it recently): The very-low-impedance (24-ohm) V700's REALLY need a high-current, high-powered (and thus really expensive) headphone amp in order to get any practical deep-bass extension whatsoever from those 'phones. (But then, if you're going to use a big amp anyway for bass, you might as well go for the Beyer 770's, Grado SR-225's or Sennheiser 580's instead of the Sony V700's.
)
None of the other headphones that Sam Ash had in stock meet my criteria (closed, folding, small enough to fit inside a hood, sufficiently large to cover the entire ear) - except for "Ye Olde Faithful" Sony MDR-7506. (Yes, I already own a 12-year-old pair of the Sony MDR-V6, but my pair had deteriorated with abuse - after so many years of loud thumping going through the V6's drivers from receivers' power switch operation, they don't sound as clear now as they did when new.) So, I bought a pair of the 7506's - for a discounted price of $95 plus tax. (Yep, the employee got me a discount because he knew that I was so knowledgeable about headphones.) They sound a little bright out of the box, so I'm running my new 7506's in for a couple of days.
Needless to say, the 7506's will replace my Senn 212's for everyday winter use. Even though I own better-sounding and more accurate headphones, the Sony V6's/7506's have that special something that keeps bringing me back to them...
a1leyez0nm3, I ruled out my Senn 280Pro's for winter use because they stick out the sides too much for my practical purposes.