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**Koss KPH40**. I've got headphones a lot more expensive, but this gets like 90 percent of the headtime. Alternatively, if we're talking of over ears then **HD600** with the bass boost of **ifi Zen Dac**. Its lightweight, comfortable, durable, self-servicable and sounds good enough to the point where I don't feel the need to upgrade (until a much higher price point, but idk if I'll still go for headphones or a speaker system at that price).
I live in a country where none of the audiophile brand exist. None. Therefore I didn't have the luxury of testing headphones before buying them. I had to ask a family member to buy them and then send them over to my country. Therefore for someone like me who didn't have the option to try them, I think it was good to focus on not only the sound but the other characteristics as well. I initially went with the Beyerdynamics 880 and it was the worst purchase of my life. Gave me tinnitus with it's abysmal treble. Then I learned to actually research in depth and make my purchasing decisions around weight, comfort, durability, user serviceability and seeing what the pros already use. Bought the good old HD600. It's my endgame for mixing until I'm ready to spend over £2500 for a headphone. Which is not anytime soon.
I find it hard to believe that the comfort between a Sennheiser and the D1 would be similar. The thing that bothers me the most about the D1 is the price and the comfort, when compared to the HD6 line. If you wanted more subbass in those, you could surely get a zen dac to boost the bass up, or a pair of tubes to upgrade them even more. But the additional weight and build of the D1 concerns me. The weight is likely to cause discomfort in long listening sessions, and in terms of build - if anything breaks, I doubt its as user servicable as the HD6 line of open-back headphones. That coupled with the addional price increase of these headphones, is why I'd probably never recommend anyone these over the HD6 line of open backs. Plus the company doesn't have good rapport either based on the DMS video.
Understand where you're coming from. My point was price, comfort, ease of user serviceability, and company goodwill. (In that order of importance) I really appreciate you addressing the latter two to a certain degree. But to clarify, regarding the brand bit, I wasn't alluding to where they were located or their products, I was referring to dms video about how they try to snub critical user reviews by pressuring mods into removing user posts. The longer warranty is certainly nice. But i don't think that's a concern sennheiser wise, when we've seen them last decades already. Also the d1 certainly does not seem as easy to service as the sennheisers (and by that I don't mean partially like earpads or headband, but the rest of the chassis as well). You can open up the whole chassis of senns without any tool, I haven't seen any breakdowns of the D1, but it doesn't look as easy. Not to mention THE most important factor, the comfort. Good sound means nothing if you're constantly uncomfortable wearing them, I prefer lighter weight, a lot. So ultimately all I'm trying to get at, is that while your points about the longer warranty or the stock sound are valid, considering the d1 an all around upgrade is a stretch when you're compromising on comfort, and price. You said that the d1 needs juice because the mac wasn't powering it to sufficient levels, so the cost of a dac or amp I wouldn't consider additional costs for senn but rather something that you'd need to invest for d1 as well. Both have their advantages and tradeoffs. And personally for me, the tradeoffs of d1 are not worth it.
In that $ range, I would have to go with the Sennhesier HD6XX or a pair of reburb HD600 off the Sennheiser Outlet Store. FYI: I'm a huge Sennheiser fan just to let you know. I would also have to include the very solid Fiio FT3 in that group. I'm not really a big fan of ribbons yet so I won't even try. I also own a older pair of ATH AD900x and while it's really detailed, it lacks sub bass than modern music needs to have and also can have sibilance on some recordings. If you have a bass boost option, that might not be a problem. I've never heard a pair of the R70x, but I have never seen a bad review on one. \*\*\* As always, headphones are all about personal preferrence, get a demo or a return policy if at all possible.
Go to the Sennheiser Outlet website and get a pair of refurbished HD600 for $229 or a pair of HD650 for $279 a pair. Both of those are great enough to be your very last headphone purchase.
Since I bought hd 600 I haven't thrown a glance at dt 770 except when I have to use perks of closed backs.
Glad you too settled down on a pair of headphones. I don't plan to upgrade from hd 600, maybe in far future. They are simple and that makes them phenomenal.
HD6*0 series compared to the HD800s, before I purchased the HD660s The HD800s was definitely more detailed and an amazing headphone overall, but I thought the HD600s series wasn't so far behind. I actually think I prefer the tonality of the HD600 over the 800s
Sennheiser HD600. Neutral, accurate, uncolored, durable, modular. Avoid: HD650/HD660S/S2 (colored, non-neutral), HD5xx (not anywhere as durable).
Sennheiser HD600. Sure, it's a bit above budget (~$250), but hear me out. Your GPU and CPU you will upgrade within 5 years. Your PSU, Monitor and computer case might last you over a decade. Good headphones are **forever**.
Open back. It is not even close. (HD600 on my head)
I went through this a few years ago and ended up just getting some really good speakers and keeping only my HD600s. Haven’t looked back. Even downgraded my stack since that too was a money sink and modius+asgard3 was good enough (coming from bf2/jot2)
Can never say no to my HD 600. And my first Senn was HD 280 Pro which I still use from time to time. And my vote goes to classic.
neutral bright or mild v-shape ig found the lcd 2's and worn hd600s boring, hd800 was interesting but too bright. liked 560s, ed xs, arya and sus though currently running an eq'd ed xs, plan to eventually upgrade to the arya stealth/organic
Rankings by Use Case
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