Global Conflict

So recently the right ear in my sennheiser HD205s blew out and I need a replacement set of headphones for school/listening when I'm not using my headset. Budget is around $120 US. Just wondering if there's any audiophiles out there that could recommend me something to look at. Currently I'm looking at Sennheiser HD280 Pros, Shure SRH440s, Audio Technica M-50s, or Sennheiser HD449s.

The only real stipulation I have on what it offers is that it is a closed system design for noise isolation because I plan to use these for work/listening to music at home more than anything, although I will probably use them for movies from time to time and I did use my HD205s at school for signal analysis applications. They don't have to have superb bass (although I would prefer something with more bass than treble, I don't want it to sound like a subwoofer is in my brain), but I want something that can work with a vast variety of music since I listen to just about any and everything at some point or another. I don't use them off of my phone that often, usually it's off of my netbook or desktop, so it doesn't have to work perfectly on phones. I'm also not planning on amping them at this time.

Any ideas other than what I've listed, or a favorite of the 4 I listed above? All 4 got stellar reviews, so I can't decide which to go for.

I'm not currently a member of the sweet headphones club. But in my experience its hard to blow something out and not be deaf. If the membranes are shot, thats not looking good. But if the wires/cables are bad, thats cheaply fixed.

I have the ATH-M50s and could not speak enough good words about it. Granted it's my first pair of kind of 'high-end' headphones so I cannot speak about other products. But it's still as good as new after 3/4 years of heavy usage. For music and movies it's just stellar, if you never listened to music with good headphones you're just blown away the first time you do, for gaming there might be better options out there, but it still suits me just fine.

I suggest posting here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/529144/full-si ... se-read-op

Do you already have a sound card? If not I would recommend putting some of that budget aside for one, there's no reason to spend THAT much money on headphones if you aren't going to be running them from a good source, "garbage in, garbage out"

Ash2Dust wrote:I'm not currently a member of the sweet headphones club. But in my experience its hard to blow something out and not be deaf. If the membranes are shot, thats not looking good. But if the wires/cables are bad, thats cheaply fixed.

it's a wiring issue, but the HD205s were designed so that there's no way to open them up to fix the wire. Which is why I picked the ones I did, because the wires are all generally replaceable (except for the M-50s). I got 3 years out of them anyways, was going to get around to getting a new set eventually to begin with, then this happened and made it more immediate.

mrBLUE9 wrote:I have the ATH-M50s and could not speak enough good words about it. Granted it's my first pair of kind of 'high-end' headphones so I cannot speak about other products. But it's still as good as new after 3/4 years of heavy usage. For music and movies it's just stellar, if you never listened to music with good headphones you're just blown away the first time you do, for gaming there might be better options out there, but it still suits me just fine.

I have a simulated 7.1 surround headset that I use for gaming. I just don't want to bring that around with me to use on my laptop or on the lab computers at school so I don't run in to driver issues and whatnot. Did you get the straight or coiled cable version?

TheYonderGod wrote:I suggest posting here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/529144/full-si ... se-read-op

Do you already have a sound card? If not I would recommend putting some of that budget aside for one, there's no reason to spend THAT much money on headphones if you aren't going to be running them from a good source, "garbage in, garbage out"

I've been through every thread on that site about the 4 above headphones (been searching for a couple weeks), which is how I decided on the above 4 in the first place. Not gonna make a new post about it to get the same opinions for the 9000th time, which is why I came here to test the diverse waters that are GC.

And yes, my desktop has a sound card in it, along with 99% of my saved music either being 320 bit mp3s or Ogg vorbis. I won't be using these only with my desktop though, which is why I would prefer something I don't have to amp, because they will travel with me.

matsif wrote: I have a simulated 7.1 surround headset that I use for gaming. I just don't want to bring that around with me to use on my laptop or on the lab computers at school so I don't run in to driver issues and whatnot. Did you get the straight or coiled cable version?

Straight! That's why I run over it all the time with the chair.

I've used the HD280 for quite some years now, including for live sound mixing. While having great overall sound, they're not particularly strong on the bass, and I will usually use the EQ function of the software I use to give them a boost around 60-80 Hz. I can't comment on the others as I have no experience with them.