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Please pick a headphone for me

A

archcommus

Diamond Member
I will be needing good headphones for college this fall. I want headphones with great bass (since I'm used to the awesome bass of my Klipsch ProMedia 5.1) and good, clear highs, as well (since I listen to a lot of orchestral music). I've narrowed it down to the following choices, what do you think?

Sennheiser HD515
Sennheiser HD570
Sennheiser HD280 Pro
Sony MDR-7506
 
My "experience" is generaly limited to grados and some older relabled sennheiser. I stand by my grado 60's and you would prolly want the 80's for better bass response, but im sure someone can give you the "equivilant" Sennheiser model to the grados. I belive the choice between the 2 is weather you want open or closed ear. grados are open while I belive most sennheiser's are close. Open ear generally sounds better but has the drawback of letting in any outside sounds (I'm listening to them now and I can hear the keys on my laptop. ^^) Also open ear lets out just as much sound so it can be paticularly disturbing to people around you if you play your music loude.

 
Sony = garbage in all things. Which would you say is more important, loud bass, deep bass, or clean bass? The 280s go very low and stay clean, but aren't as punchy as some other phones. The 570s really benefit from an amplifier. Grados sound great, but are all open phones, and if you'll have a roomate(s), you might want closed phones instead, which will attenuate outside noise and keep others from hearing & possibly being annoyed by your phones. Haven't heard much about the 515s, are they in the 555/595 family? Most Sennheisers are actually open, but the 280s are closed. The 280s aren't known for their comfort, but have a nice clean sound to them, if a bit too laid back for rock & especially metal. The Audio Technica 500s & 900s are supposed to be great closed phones as well. Alternatively, you could look into canalphones, which have the benefits of isolation and portability.
 
The Medusa 5.1 headphones are said to have an insane bass (plus they have the best 5.1 surround sound headphones can offer according to all the reviews out there) and they come with a very long cable (12 feet or so) , lots of connectors, an amp and are supposedly awesome for gaming or watching movies.

sennheiser headphones are very high fidelity but they can't be said to have great bass.

Either way, you won't be disappointed.
 
HD280's if your dorming with someone since it's a closed headphone. Your roommate will appreciate it 😉. IIRC from what I've heard the 280's don't lack bass either.
 
goz, being the best sounding dosnt say much when theres not enough of you to count on one hand. Theres no way a 5.1 can stack up to a 2 channel, and last I checked, most portables do not support more then 2 channels.
 
Beyerdynamic 250-80 ... they run a just short of $200 and pack some pretty tight bass.

Edit: might want to go w/ grunk's advise and look into a pair of canal phones also...very useful at a college campus if you don't mind their fit (some people have problems with things in their ears).
 
If you don't want to go with canalphones, as suggested earlier in this thread, the Sony MDR-7506/V6 (NOT 600!) might be the best fit from your list.

Most Sony in that price range is junk, but the 7506/V6s are a pretty good phone for the $$$. They're closed (good for dorm), good bass, well-constructed, and pretty comfortable. In addition, they can also be driven pretty well from a computer.
They can also be found for $60-$70.

My V6s are finally going to have to be replaced after a decade of service (I bought right after college and they've been through hell and back).

I'll be buying the Senn 280s, personally, since I need closed for my listening enviroment.
The 280s are nice phones, but slightly more expensive, have less bass, aren't known for comfort, and have an ungodly long burn-in requirement.

If you do opt for an open Senn, stay away from the 515s.
They're not highly regarded, and better open Senns are available for only a little more $$$.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys. I forgot about this thread, I wasn't seeing it on my My Forums page.

Anyway, it really seems difficult to choose between the Sonys and the 280 Pros. I definitely want tight bass, but I'm getting the feeling the Senns might provide a better range for my orchestral stuff.

Definitely want closed, though, for my roommate's sake.

212...how's it different from 280 Pro?

I don't think Grados will have the bass I'm looking for.
 
Grados are all open cans.

Going with closed cans narrows the field considerably.

The 280s will have a better all-around sound than the Sonys; that's why I'm going to replace my Sonys with the 280s, rather than another pair of V6s.

The bass on the 280s isn't bad; the Sonys just have more.

If you're willing to pay the price for 280s (which is still sub-100), don't cheap out on the 212s.
The Audio Technica 500s are the only other ~$100 closed can worth discussing, but you'd have to import them from Japan via AudioCubes.


Also keep in mind some cans require more power to drive than others, which might be a factor if you're planning on running these unamped from a soundcard.
 
Originally posted by: Gurck
Sony = garbage in all things. Which would you say is more important, loud bass, deep bass, or clean bass? The 280s go very low and stay clean, but aren't as punchy as some other phones. The 570s really benefit from an amplifier. Grados sound great, but are all open phones, and if you'll have a roomate(s), you might want closed phones instead, which will attenuate outside noise and keep others from hearing & possibly being annoyed by your phones. Haven't heard much about the 515s, are they in the 555/595 family? Most Sennheisers are actually open, but the 280s are closed. The 280s aren't known for their comfort, but have a nice clean sound to them, if a bit too laid back for rock & especially metal. The Audio Technica 500s & 900s are supposed to be great closed phones as well. Alternatively, you could look into canalphones, which have the benefits of isolation and portability.
Click to expand...

sony is not garbage, thier consumer stuff is yes but thier profesional headphones and video equipment rock. altohugh its a bit expensive. while I owuld also add that in the under 100 dollar area thier are better choices than the 7506
 
Sorry, but they are. Even if the cd3ks & r1s/r10s sound good, they're still sony, meaning they'll still need service/replacement within a year, and getting said service replacement will be a tremendous hassle since the company has this thing about screwing its customers.
 
Closed ear is a must.

With that said, the 280 Pros are the way to go. $100 is fine to me for a good pair of headphones.

I've heard that I CAN run these unamplified that I'll get a better experience if I do use one. Should I or no?

If you use something like one of the Audigys that provides all of the front controls that go in a 5 1/4" slot, would a port up there provide more amplification than a regular port in the PCI card?
 
Originally posted by: archcommus87
Closed ear is a must.

With that said, the 280 Pros are the way to go. $100 is fine to me for a good pair of headphones.

I've heard that I CAN run these unamplified that I'll get a better experience if I do use one. Should I or no?

If you use something like one of the Audigys that provides all of the front controls that go in a 5 1/4" slot, would a port up there provide more amplification than a regular port in the PCI card?
Click to expand...

The 280s sound good unamped, if you want to add one at some point you can but it's not necessary. You can find them for as little as $80 new, or even less if you find a deal or don't mind buying used. Power depends on the sound card, but my chaintech av710 gives me about the same volume as my audigy 2 zs's front panel (and sounds better too).
 
Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: archcommus87
Closed ear is a must.

With that said, the 280 Pros are the way to go. $100 is fine to me for a good pair of headphones.

I've heard that I CAN run these unamplified that I'll get a better experience if I do use one. Should I or no?

If you use something like one of the Audigys that provides all of the front controls that go in a 5 1/4" slot, would a port up there provide more amplification than a regular port in the PCI card?
Click to expand...

The 280s sound good unamped, if you want to add one at some point you can but it's not necessary. You can find them for as little as $80 new, or even less if you find a deal or don't mind buying used. Power depends on the sound card, but my chaintech av710 gives me about the same volume as my audigy 2 zs's front panel (and sounds better too).
Click to expand...

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...key=y&keyword1=280

$59.99 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: archcommus87
Closed ear is a must.

With that said, the 280 Pros are the way to go. $100 is fine to me for a good pair of headphones.

I've heard that I CAN run these unamplified that I'll get a better experience if I do use one. Should I or no?

If you use something like one of the Audigys that provides all of the front controls that go in a 5 1/4" slot, would a port up there provide more amplification than a regular port in the PCI card?
Click to expand...

The 280s sound good unamped, if you want to add one at some point you can but it's not necessary. You can find them for as little as $80 new, or even less if you find a deal or don't mind buying used. Power depends on the sound card, but my chaintech av710 gives me about the same volume as my audigy 2 zs's front panel (and sounds better too).
Click to expand...

Still not sure if I'll use an amp or not then. When I (hopefully) upgrade in the summer (the setup that I should then be bringing with me to school in the fall), I'll probably get some type of nForce 4 Ultra board. In that case, should I not even put my current Audigy 2 into that system and just use the onboard sound?

Thanks for the great deal link, but I don't need them now, won't be buying them until summer. Just wanted to get an idea of what I'd be getting and how much I'd be spending.

The headphone situation won't change much from now till then, will it?
 
The headphone landscape should look pretty much the same this coming summer, yeah. I'd use the Audigy over onboard, a lot of people put it down but it actually is a nice sounding card... just not as nice for music as some others.
 
The Audigy's headphone out is amplified.

It won't supply as much juice as an external headphone amp, but it is one of the few cards that has a powered headphone out anymore that I can think of.
Only the Audigys and the M-Audio Revo 5.1 spring to mind, actually, among the current sub-$100 cards.
 
Originally posted by: archcommus87
That's not a feature they dropped with the Audigy 4, is it?
Click to expand...


I doubt they would, but I don't think there's enough info out yet to say.

I don't follow SoundBlasters that closely, though, as I'm one of those people who has shied away from CL since their Windows 2000 driver fiasco.
(I don't game anymore, so I don't NEED a SoundBlaster).
 
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