HD-555 or HD-595

[mchen01]

Hey,

I need help deciding which set of headphones to get.

I play lots of FPS games, listen to a bit of music (all genres), and watch a fair bit of TV shows and movies.

I'm currently using a very old SB Live! 16-bit PCI sound card. Would I need to purchase a new sound card if I got either of these headphones? If so, which sound card would do a decent job?

Thanks.

 

[CountChoculaBot]

HD 595 is $200ish right?

I'd recommend these in that price range.
http://www.buy.com/prod/high-performance-headphones/q/loc/101/206928680.html

 

[mchen01]

What about the AD700 or AD900?

 

[Danothemano]

Well, the Denons would be so much better if they weren't coming through a soundcard, so I agree with chen. The AD900's would be great in your price range.

 

[football76]

I love my 595's. Look around, they can be had for less than $150.

 

[fss69]

What kind of onboard sound do you have? Onboard "HD" audio nowadays should easily best the SB Live. Back to the topic at hand, the difference between the HD 595 and 555 isn't that big. Keep that in mind when comparing prices. They're about the same sound signature wise. Maybe the 555 is slightly bassier and the 595 has better detail.

The AD#00 series are open air, right? I remember reading poor reviews on them at head-fi. I can't really remember the issues (sorry too lazy to look them up ). The Audio Technica A#00 (closed back) are often compared with the Sennheiser HD5#5 series since they're supposed to be "jack of all trades" type headphones at similar price ranges. The difference being the Sennheisers have a good midrange, but weak highs and poor bass impact (decent quality though). The AT's being the opposite possessing good highs and lows, but a distant midrange. The closed back nature of the AT's shouldn't really be much of feature given that they offer little to no isolation.