AKG - K361

Classic Sony MDR-7506, AKG K361 from your list. Wire usually has better sound than wireless (convenient and noise cancelling). I would not risk sweat on them for light running, the smell stay on earpad during your long study session.

1. Sennheiser Momentum 4 - Magical. Don't know how they pack in the sound quality there. Sometimes I trash the EQ settings just to try to make them sound bad. I baby them though, so my number 2 is 2. AKG K361 - Cheap, sounds great, and comfortable as heck to my head and ears. Never offensive, easy to drive, good durability. I'll carry and use these without a care while the M4s would stay in my work bag. When I'm at home, though, I generally use my number 3, the 3. Fiio FT1 - Does the same thing as number 2, just with a little more style, cost, and weight. I love the wood. Driving it through 4mm balanced on my Fosi K7 sounds sweet and rich. I got these to replace #4, the 4. Audio-Technica M50x - This was my go to for seven years before last year. Built like a tank, I went through a set of pads on it. For a long time this was what I thought headphones were supposed to sound like. I'm glad I mixed it up. Speaking of mixing, let's talk about number 5. 5. Sony MDR-7506 - I got these because I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I get it. If you can make your music sound great on these, you can make it sound great on anything.

From least to most favorite: Audio-Technica ATH-M50X - well-built, cohesive imaging, but some of the most unnatural-sounding headphones I've heard, having a huge hole in the lower mids, mud-fest in the bass, and harsh peaky treble Audio-Technica ATH-M60X - well-built, surprisingly spacious for how small they are, but still a hole in the lower mids and shouty ear gain, plus they're on-ear and therefore uncomfortable Audio-Technica ATH-M40X - well-built, decent all-rounder, but still lacks the lower mids and mid-bass is too boomy, plus the treble is a bit sibilant Sennheiser HD280 PRO - great isolation, large pads, cohesive imaging, but too much sub-bass giving me a headache, too dull yet grainy, plus the cable is microphonic, heavy, stiff, and non-detachable AKG K361 - the most tonally balanced overall, but not very impressive technically, having kind of a tinny timbre with metallic treble, mediocre imaging, and some of the worst build and comfort with a huge design flaw - earpads have a lot of compression with pressure affecting the FR, creating constant channel imbalance, so you have to be perfectly still while using them AKG K371 - the same but more natural timbre for the sacrifice of warmer and muddier tuning Sennheiser HD620S - nice build, comfort, and isolation, good clarity, but unpleasant, cold, harsh, focused, claustrophobic, fatiguing tuning with wonky low-end Adam H200 - nice build, comfort, and isolation, surprisingly spacious, good bass quality, but too shouty FiiO FT1 - the best all-rounder, most casual, most comfortable, solid tonal balance, spatial qualities, and bass quality, but too much bass and too peaky unrefined treble, making them sound fatiguing Beyerdynamic DT770 PRO 250Ω - the best clarity, sounding almost like an open-back, great all-rounder, great low-end and midrange, decent spatial qualities, decently comfortable, but too sibilant, making them unsuitable for a certain kind of music NOTE: I also had the 80 and 32Ω versions of the DT770 but didn't like them as much

For 50€ you could get great IEMs that would work well for metal (too many options to list), you can even get TWS earbuds with noise canceling and good sound for under that price (Moondrop space travel). With over-ear it's harder to find something within budget. Best option I can think of right now would be something like the Superlux 688B + bigger aftermarket velour or PU earpads to boost the bass a bit and make them slightly darker sounding. They fit most generic round or slightly oval earpads. Take a look at muziker (you should be able to get both headphones and earpads there), or find the headphones somewhere else and look at aliexpress for earpads. You could also look at the used market for studio closed-backs. I got my K361 for 20€ (they came without a cable and I had to spend some time to make them stop smelling like vape). NTH 100 is good, but it might be hard to find under 80€.

Either my AKG K361 or KPH40. There are certainly “better sounding” things in my collection but none as versatile. Hifiman Edition XS build is dogshit and leaks sound like crazy, and IEMs irritate my ears if I start using them exclusively for multiple days at a time. If just sound specifically, my Softears Volume S would have no competition.

For entry level I have the AKg K361. Very balanced tuning. Things like imaging and soundstage are middling but it sounds good. ThebAKG K371 is a warmer variant and more popular. Fiio FT1. Is a warm/dark headphone with high level technical performance (imaging/detail retrieval at its price point). Tuning is more hit or miss depending on who you are. But still a good option. For a dac all these headphones are easy to drive and I would recommend a Fiio KA11 for $30. I think this would be a solid foundation to start your audiophile journey 

AKG K361 & K371 are your best bet. They the K361 can be found for under $100 new, the K371 you would have to go used to land one under $100. Both are quite good. Some prefer the 371 (warmer, more bassy, slightly smoother treble) , others the 361 (more accurate bass, the treble can be slightly more harsh or sibilant). I have found that the 361 takes EQ better than the 371 (to my ear), and I recently picked up a pair for $30 used that are in great shape.

**Endgame at 200 grams (7 ounces)?** Hi all, so I like my headphones as light as possible and with very little clamp force. I’m looking for strong technical performance under $1000 or so. Ideally closed-back, but I haven’t found much in that regard. I currently own the AKG K361 which I really like form factor-wise, although the sound leaves much to be desired I must admit. I EQ everything, so tonality doesn’t really matter. Here’s what’s on my list at the moment. Any input on these headphones or other suggestions are much appreciated. * Sony MDR-MV1 (very promising) * Audio Techica R70xa * Sennheiser Hd550, Hd490 pro, HD560s (I found the HD600 to be very uncomfortable due to the clamp)

ATH-M50x é bem merda, O Kuba Disco 2 é melhor mas nada excepcional também, Os K371/K361 da AKG, são melhores que o Kuba Disco 2 mas não por muito também, só que, a AKG tem loja oficial no Brasil e eles frequentemente colocam fones em promoção lá, vc as vezes consegue K371 por 700,00 ou K361 por 600 (Acredito q esses preços subiram um pouco com a alta do dólar, quando eu olhei e comprei o meu K612-PRO paguei só 599 nele, mas foi em 2022) De qlqr maneira os da AKG acabam derrotando fones até um pouco melhores pq se vc tiver paciência consegue preços incríveis neles aqui no Brasil. (Antes da loja oficial da AKG um K612-PRO não saia por menos de 1400,00 aqui no Brasil) De qualquer maneira, se vc quer entrar no mundo da audiofilia mesmo e tem um ambiente silencioso, te recomendo mesmo pegar um fone aberto, como os AKG K612-PRO ou Sennheiser H650 ou HifiMan HE-400. O problema da HiFiMan é que o controle de qualidade deles é péssimo, é bem comum ter fones com imbalanço significante entre os dois lados ou outros tipos de problema e aqui no Brasil é meio difícil de vc ir trocando eles até receber um modelo que esteja bom, além de que, se vc não tem experiencia com isso pode até não perceber o problema rápido o bastante pra poder trocar. Se vc quer realmente com design fechado os K361 e K371 são os ideais pra comprar. Assumo q vc não tem um DAC então recomendo gasta apenas metade desse seu orçamento mesmo em fones por volta dos 600-700 como o K361 ou K612-PRO e gastar o restante num DAC/AMP de entrada, infelizmente dps q comprei meu ZenDAC eu parei de seguir os lançamentos de DACs então eu não teria uma recomendação atualizada pra te fazer, recomendo pesquisar no sub, frequentemente tem gente pedindo ajuda com isso, ou abrindo um novo post com essa pergunta de DAC.

My first one was akg k361 very nice headphone still have it I was planning on getting dt770 but found a nice deal on akg which do not have chinese replicas unlike dt770. A friend of mine has fiio ft1 also very nice headphone. These two were already mentioned in someone else's comment but I can fully relate both are very good for a start. You don't need expensive dac/amp simple dongle will do although preferably find one with both 3.5 and 4.4 jack won't be superfluous.

I don't have experience with other closed backs quickly got into open back headphones so akg stay the only closed pair.