Has anyone had a chance to try the iGrados? I have their SR60 model for home use and like it, but it's a bit too bulky for travel.

I just got Beyerdynamic 880s as per PITTM's rec. They are ****ing sick. My previous headphone was a Senn HD580, which was v. good too, but not like this.

Very nice.

Didn't mean it literally :-) I'll probably sell the Sennheisers on Audiogon or eBay and then buy the AKGs.

Anybody have experience with Senn's HD280 and HD555? I was going to get the 555 (90 bucks at amazon) but was somewhat disappointed with the bass, when I tried them at a friends. I heard the 280's have good bass but am wondering how much lower quality the rest of the sound is.

I think the 555s are far better headphones than the 280s. However, I have to admit that I hate sealed headphones. By better I mean just handling high to low sound. The bass on the 280s might actually sound better but the treble will suffer imo.

I need some good headphones that will mainly be used when I am playing poker live. Are the 595s my best bet here? I have ear buds but dont find them comfortable for long periods.

595s would be pretty sweet, but since they are open you should check out how loud they will be to outside listeners/how much sound leaks to you from outside before buying them. IIRC they don't leak sound as much as most headphones so you should be okay.

PITTM -

I have 2 sets of headphones I primarily use right now - the Grado SR60's and a cheap set of Koss KSC75's.

Both drive me INSANE because they rattle /buzz whenever bass hits.

Any ideas? I've never overpowered them that I know of. The grados developed the rattle after about 6months of use (i've had them like 3+ years now), and the koss's got it almost immediately - like a week after I bought them.

Anything you can do to fix these?

Has anyone tried the Sennheiser PXC 250 or 300? I'm looking for an under $200 pair of decent noise-cancelling headphones (not earbuds) for a plane. Folding up is a nice feature.

I was at the airport today without headphones and bought the Brookstone Soundshield 250 ($150). They did a decent job of noise reduction, but they weren't all that comfortable after 2 hours. I'll use them again on the flight home, after which I'm planning on returning them. I would like to assume that the Sennheiser 300 ($139) will be a superior product. Any opinions?

z28,

sorry about the wait, didnt see your question. I know one of my good friends over at head-fi developed a mod for the ksc75s that make them sound a lot better and not rattle, just do a search for "kramer mod ksc75" and you should find it. wrt the grados, I have inspected the build quality of most headphones and grados are ALWAYS the worst in terms of build quality. You open them up and its filled with glue and foam and crap. I know a lot of people complain about the plastic creaking, imo this is just because the sr60s are poorly built, dont really know how to help there :\

dylan,

I just read a reviews of the pxc250 and pxc300 written by tyll hertsins, who i trust quite a bit, and he says that not only does the 300 sound a good deal better, but that the 250's noise cancelling sometimes picked up cell phone interference which was quite annoying. Plus iirc the 300 has a case and stuff which is nice if youre traveling. And yes, I imagine it would be a vastly superior product to the brookstone ones.

Thanks for the info. The Brookstones were a stop-gap solution, but I am definitely liking the active noise reduction. Do you have a link to that review?

He owns headroom. He writes reviews on all the product pages. The one for the 300 is here.

Sorry for the bump, but a question for PITTM or anyone else with some input...

I've recently discovered spacing out in a dark room with headphones is an awesome way to experience music, I'm becoming pretty addicted to it. I've been using an old pair of Sonys, my primary music source will be mp3s from a laptop.

Would it be worth it to just get a pair of 595s and play them from a standard laptop soundcard?

Right now spending more than like $400 would be irrational of me, and from reading through this thread it doesn't seem like I could get a DAC/amp setup going for that much.

I listen to a lot of classic rock, jazz, and bass heavy hiphop fwiw.

Thanks guys.

The 595's run at 50ohm impedance, so they'd be a bit quiet without an amplifier, but you could get away with it.

For comparison, most normal headphones run around 32ohm.
Headphones like the HD600 that require an amp are as high as 300ohm.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/hea...-guide-271258/

The guide above rates their favorite headphones from 1-3 if they need an amp
(1 = not needed, 2 = recommended, 3 = required).

They rate the HD595's as a '2'.

Awesome link, thanks z

Cool. I've been doing the same.



I'd recommend checking the Beyerdynamics out as well (880 and 990).

I am looking for a decent-good set of headphones for use with my PC and long journeys. Needs all the obvious things and also needs to be loud, anything under $500ish i suppose. Any recommendations?

anybody have any experience of the Ultrasone HFI-700? the reviews seem pretty good but i've never heard of them before.

anybody heard the sennheiser cx 300? im in the market for a sound isolating earphone for my ipod but dont want to spend a lot bc i just lost my second nice pair in 6 months and im pissed off

PITTM or others,

What do you recommend for < $100? I want to pick up a set of headphones for my dad.

Seems there are a ton of sennheisers down in that range, and not sure which are worth the upgrade.

The main ones I'm seeing (but could easily miss some) are as follows:

HD-212
HD-280
HD-515
HD-555

Suggestions? Also open to other brands (AKG/beyer/etc)

I am looking for something solely to cancel noise on an airplane. Suggestions?

Lebowski, I'm not an expert but the Sennheiser PXC450 is pretty new and has a cool "press to turn off noise canceling" button. They are very pricey at $450.

I've started the process of convincing myself that I need those Sennheiser PXC450s. I'd love to read impressions of anyone who has a pair.

I was thinking of getting the AKG K 601 headphones http://reviews.cnet.com/headphones/a...?tag=pdtl-list



The review on cnet says that they're not intended for use with an ipod though.

I am looking to get ONE nice pair of headphones to use for both my computer and my ipod.
Would these be a bad choice?

They will work but most likely the impedence is too high for low powered iPods. In that case you wouldn't get much volume. Those seem like expensive headphones to be using with an iPod anyway.