More Headphones Thread

[Ramor]

I'm back on the market for another pair of headphones, hoping mostly to get some reviews from fellow BGers about my possible options (which I've mostly narrowed down) rather than new suggestions, although suggestions are always welcome.

Options:

Ultrasone Pro 550s (200$~ little high for me, but I love my DJ1s)
Audio Technica ATH-AD700 (cheapest option, lost of great reviews)
Astro A40 Mixamp (w/o headphones it's 140$~, not so interested in the headphones)
AKG K271 (150~200$ shopping around, again little higher but if they're good enough)


also, in case you couldn't tell I'm only really shopping around for some over-ear headphones, w/ or w/o noise cancellation. 200$ is about my upper limit for this

thanks in advance as always guys, just wondering if there are new cans on the market since last i shopped around about 6 months ago

also, i'm staying away from the 7506s, few people i know have had trouble with em.

[levish]

I have and love my AD-700's but I haven't listened to the rest to compare. See if you can find a store that would let you listen to them since no one can possibly tell you which you would end up preferring.

[Norellicus]

AD700s are a good buy, as are K271s; agree that you should try to find someplace where you can listen to both, the feel of the soundstage in one over another might sway your decision.

However, if it's a choice between hitting your budget with just the headphones in the case of the K271s and getting the AD700s plus the mixamp, do the latter. Any set of phones will sound soooooooo much better with an amp behind them.

I'm partial to the AKGs for music (mainly because of how their earpiece design fits and creates this "air" to the soundstage that's really nice with anything acoustic or orchestral), but the ATs might be better suited to more 'overall' uses, gaming or such, if that's something you're interested in with them as well.

Edit: The ATs are a semi-open design, so you're going to get more noise pollution from them than you will the AKGs; depending on your intended uses this may be good or bad, so something else to keep in mind.