digitalreferee
Head-Fier
I have a fairly limited selection of headphones, mostly vintage ones, and I do listen to contemporary classical, usually small ensemble pieces though not exclusively (think Morton Feldman, Luigi Nono, Helmut Lachenmann, John Adams, Jürg Frey), and of those headphones I own I've found the ones that let me enjoy those a lot tend to be ones with a robust treble response and a big wide sound stage, namely the Sony MDR-F1 (entirely open, so I suspect you could sub in an AKG K1000 here as well) and CD1000. I sadly can't comment on Stax which I have not had the opportunity to hear but from all I've read they seem like they would be my ideal pick for this purpose.
I have had the opportunity to test a few (and do own a few) IEMs as well but on the whole I haven't really found one that allowed me to really enjoy the kind of orchestral music I listen to. I suspect lack of soundstage/airiness is probably to blame here, though I might just not have stumbled on ones that were fit for purpose.
I have had the opportunity to test a few (and do own a few) IEMs as well but on the whole I haven't really found one that allowed me to really enjoy the kind of orchestral music I listen to. I suspect lack of soundstage/airiness is probably to blame here, though I might just not have stumbled on ones that were fit for purpose.
