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Please suggest headphones


kartoonz

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So friends I am currently using Sony xb90ex headphones and are great for dubstep and commercial trance, and psy also sounds good on them. However they are very bassy with 16mm drivers. I have narrowed down to audio technica ath m50 and sennheiser momentum on ear (not over the ears). Now since psy and Goa trance does have lots of guitar and synths I was wondering if you guys could make it easier for me to choose the right pair of headphones since I don't want to miss the slighest of details in the songs. Pls dont suggest any others since there are limited options here in India. Thanks. :)

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In my experience Sennheiser are hit or miss. I used to have many different models, some were great, some were pretty bad.

 

I now have AKG K 601 and I'm very pleased. Can't you order them online from somewhere?

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I listened to the ATH-M50 recently and they have really overblown bass. If you like over-empahsized bass they're decent, I guess, but if you prefer a neutral frequency response avoid them. If you can get the Beyerdynamic DT250 (250 ohm version) I can highly recommend them (they might be slightly bass-shy, but the ATH-M50 are easily 10 times more bass-exaggerated than the DT250s are bass-shy). Otherwise the Sennheiser HD25-1 or HD25-2 should be fine, too (on-ears), they're just slightly lacking in mids with slightly muddy bass (too much midbass). If it's only the ATH-M50 or Sennheiser Momentum, I don't know enough about the Momentums to make a recommendation, but maybe get the Amperior (they're (probably) slightly improved HD25-2s) if they're available.

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ATH m50 has had good reviews forever, don't think u can go wrong with them for price/performance option. They are probably my next set anyways.

Good to know. Yes the reviews are good. I just want them to sound good with psy and goa.

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I listened to the ATH-M50 recently and they have really overblown bass. If you like over-empahsized bass they're decent, I guess, but if you prefer a neutral frequency response avoid them. If you can get the Beyerdynamic DT250 (250 ohm version) I can highly recommend them (they might be slightly bass-shy, but the ATH-M50 are easily 10 times more bass-exaggerated than the DT250s are bass-shy). Otherwise the Sennheiser HD25-1 or HD25-2 should be fine, too (on-ears), they're just slightly lacking in mids with slightly muddy bass (too much midbass). If it's only the ATH-M50 or Sennheiser Momentum, I don't know enough about the Momentums to make a recommendation, but maybe get the Amperior (they're (probably) slightly improved HD25-2s) if they're available.

I suppose they would still have less bass than my existing Sony xb90ex? Other options you gave aren't available here in India I'm afraid.

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I suppose they would still have less bass than my existing Sony xb90ex? Other options you gave aren't available here in India I'm afraid.

 

I don't know. If you can find a site with a frequency response chart of the mdr-xb90ex, you could compare that to the frequency response of the ATH-M50. There are plenty of m50 charts, xb90ex didn't turn up in a few quick googles, though... If you manage to find one and want to compare between different sites you would have to factor in the probably different frequency response target curves, which are essentially specific modifications to the raw, measured frequency response curve...

 

here are the momentums: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserMomentum.pdf

ath-m50s: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudioTechnicaATHM50.pdf

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xb90ex http://en.goldenears.net/17313

ath-m50 http://en.goldenears.net/10034

momentum http://en.goldenears.net/19104

 

So apparently the ath-m50 are only very slightly "boomy" while the xb90ex are almost as boomy as it gets.

 

If you look at the waterfall plots (the fancy, colourful pictures), you can see for the eb90ex, that 2.68 milliseconds after a ~200 hz note was supposed to end, the note will still be perceived at about -15db relative to its original volume (it shouldn't be there at all anymore, in best case). For the ath-m50 the same is true, but a bit better with about -18db. In general sound reproduced by the xb90ex decays slowly and steadily, while the ath-m50 smears the notes for 1 millisecond almost without any decay, but then it gets much cleaner quite quickly.

 

Looking at the momentums, the waterfall plots look much better than either the xb90ex or m50 in the bass region, and they're supposed to be about as boomy as the m50.

 

I don't know much how their classifications of boominess can be trusted, though, accordig to golden ears the hd25-1 is clearly more boomy than the ath-m50, while for me quite the opposite seems to be the case (hd25-1 should sound very similar to hd25-2). (http://en.goldenears.net/4761)

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I highly recommend breyerdynamic dt 880 pro

They seem to have great reviews online. But they cost a ton here in India. Approx $500, that's twice the cost in US. But I will certainly consider them as upgrades to the ath m50's in a couple of years. Maybe then I can get any of my friends from the US get them for me ;)

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Yes, I've got very old Rev. 1 LCD-2s. Just recently I replaced the really old (and rather stiff) LCD-2 pads with completely new super-soft LCD-3 pads and they're, once again, transformed (sound and comfort). =)

 

This is my head-fi profile: http://www.head-fi.org/u/1419/ramtha604

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Sick.

 

Not really. ;) Everything has its use none of the others would work very well for. Except for the HAK-360, which I've currently lent to a friend. Then, of course, there are also those guys with 30 headphones, 20 iems, 5 solid state amps, 10 tube amps, 100 different pairs of tubes and 10 different mp3 players over at head-fi...

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I got the HFI-580, they are basically coloured for electronic music in general with brights highs and really nice bass. About 125~ euro. They are closed though and will wear you out quickly enough on the comfort level. However I'd definitely recommend these cans for that price range for electronic music. On that note, I've heard for general use other cans could be a better choice, as said, these seem to work much better with electronic music with it's emphasis on bass and such.

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Nice posts TrancenonZensedance! Dude knows his shit!

 

And yup he was correct about ath 50 I'm sure, I still haven't heard them so maybe good for listening if you like more bass. But otherwise one of the other options might be better.

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12%? Try 30%!

 

Anyway you still have a lot of time it seems so you can still hop around reviews on phones in your price range.

 

By the way my first choice was m50 as well back when I was doing research, however I ended up with the HFI 580 after vigorous research.

 

Ah I'd love to upgrade again but the next step is like 300e+ :D

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No they are not bassy...that's why I settled for them. There's a "bass edition" of them, for people who like their sound bassy, but I prefer a neutral and balanced sound.

 

There are some stores where you can order some demo headphones so that you can try them before you decide to buy. With the vsonics it was a blind buy, as there have been lots of reviews and I liked what I read.

One reason for buying them was that they are flat when they are plugged in the ears. I can wear them in a plane and can sleep with them, lying on the side. My previous IEMs would always stand out of the ears when plugged in and therefore I couldn't really sleep on the side while wearing them.

 

Btw, I got mine for cheap as a friend bought them in Singapore. So far I have convinced two other friends with their sound. One bought the bass edition, the other one the same as I did.

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