• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Looking for new cans

C

cApNhOwDy

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 15, 2007
Messages
90
So I'm currently using a pair of Bose Triports. I like them, but I read alot of "audiophiles" opinions who say that they're overpriced and you dont really get what you pay for. I like them because they're the best headphones that I've tried (I dont claim to have tried many) and they're comfy. But since I'm sure there's better cans out there, I'd like to hear what other people recommend for good comfy headphones. I'm not an audiophile, but I do want the best listening experience possible.

I've heard good things about Sennheiser, so I was considering buying this pair because it has alot of really good reviews on Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826106328

What I'm looking for is comfort, noise-cancelling, and great audio for gaming/movies.

Sennheiser has released alot of newer models since the HD280 series, so I didnt know exactly which ones I should be looking for. Their "best" model seems to be the HD650, seen here

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?transid=USHD650

Would this suit my needs, or is the 280 better suited for gaming?
 
The Koss Sb40 is better than the 280 for directional sound. Not that the 280 is a bad headphone for $100. Not at all. Just for gaming the sb40, a700, beyer 770, akg 601 are all better suited for gaming in terms of where the bad guys are.
 
Would you say that the HD280 is better than the Triports at positional audio? I'll check out your recommendations too, I just wanna compare and see how the Triports compare to other high-end headphones.
 
O hell yes they are. The tri-ports are 2d headphones. You want sound stage. Bose is not acceptable for gaming.
 
As an HD 280 owner, I can tell you that it's pretty unlikely you'll be disappointing with them assuming you aren't a bass lover. They have fairly decent low-end extension, but there's very little "meat" to it, and so everything below 50 Hz comes off very lean. Everything around 100, 120 Hz -- where the real bass detail starts to come in -- plays nice and tight. Maybe even "just right" for bass-heavy games and music.

If you ask me, that's actually pretty beneficial for gaming, as you'll experience less fatigue and you won't have to deal with any kind of sloppy, overbearing low-end "boom" masking midrange and high-frequency detail. Add a dash of EQ for music listening and a good, healthy portion of it for watching movies and you'll be good to go.

My only real complaint about them is the price and the somewhat sub-par build quality. Just treat them well and they'll last you a damn long time.
 
I'm not really a bass lover, I honestly prefer a dulled-down bass so the Triports were right up my alley.

The Triports were $130. I wonder if the build quality on the HD280's is better or worse than the Triports, I assume that they're around the same though.

I had thought that the Triports had 3d audio, because they always sounded great in-game, but that's probably due to my X-Fi card. It'll probably sound even better with the Sennheisers in that case. I might save up for the HD650's though, since they seem like the last headphones I'll ever buy. It's only got perfect reviews on Newegg so far.
 
650s are not good for gaming. Sennheisers are not really good except for the 555 (ok) and the 595 (good). Both are open but the 595 is tighter on the ears and clamps more than the 555.

If you want 3D, and I mean 3D, then AKG 601, 701 or Stax Lambda Normal bias will essentially melt your noggin. THe AKG is bass lean but detail, detail, detail with a bubble-like sound stage. Audio just floats all around your ears. The Stax are nearly perfect in every respect and are the fastest headphones made. My favorites.

Please note that all of these require a fairly hefty investment of at least $300 and more like $500 to do it right. Sick sound though. Damn near as good as headphones can get for gaming.
 
spaceman said:
650s are not good for gaming.
Click to expand...
I sort of agree and disagree. For competitive gaming -- yeah, I might go with something else. I actually fall back to the HD 280 most times I play CS:S these days. For an immersive, less "detail frantic" gaming experience, though, the 650s can be pretty orgasmic.

Call me crazy (or weird), but whenever I feel like firing up a "vintage" game like Thief, Quake or Fallout, I pull out the Micro amp, pop the Darkvoice back into my chain and let the valves heat up just a bit before diving in. Quake on HD 650s and tubes is like, well, just fuckin' outstanding ;)
 
How much are you willing to spend? I have just tried my mate's HD555's today and they're really good, a lot better than what I expected. If you want to save up for the HD650's, you will also need to spend quite a bit on an amp that can drive them properly. I used to own the HD650's and I remember that when I used them with a $200 portable amp, they didn't really sound any better than the HD555's.
 
I have HD485's and i think they are a good entry level can. I enjoy them with music because they have fairly tight bass with a wide range. They also sound good in gaming (i mainly play CSS). They're darn comfortable and they have a nice long cord. I snagged mine for $65, and I bet you can find a deal for less.
 
phide said:
I sort of agree and disagree. For competitive gaming -- yeah, I might go with something else. I actually fall back to the HD 280 most times I play CS:S these days. For an immersive, less "detail frantic" gaming experience, though, the 650s can be pretty orgasmic.

Call me crazy (or weird), but whenever I feel like firing up a "vintage" game like Thief, Quake or Fallout, I pull out the Micro amp, pop the Darkvoice back into my chain and let the valves heat up just a bit before diving in. Quake on HD 650s and tubes is like, well, just fuckin' outstanding ;)
Click to expand...

you are right. the bass and deep sound stage is great. they just do not do directional sound well is the main point. amazing sound with tubes though. a good, dark set game and that setup offers great sound.

problem is that such a setup is beyond most budgets around here.
 
cApNhOwDy said:
No more than $1000. I'm willing to spurge a bit.
Click to expand...

Stax. Go to head-fi and look around. I liked the normal bias Lambda w/ a SRD-7. You also need a speaker amp that does full range. Nothing comes close to them and you can do it well for around $6-700. The only problem is that these head speakers are out of production and can only be bought used.
 
^ I've never heard stax, --- but I've tried a LOT of headphones. My Audigy 2 ZS drove my Sennheiser HD-600's perfectly fine --- no secondary amp needed. The HD-600's are the best headphones I've ever heard. I can't think of anyone complaining about them.

570's are crap
535's are great
590's are great
580's are great
600's are great
490's are crap

^ Those are the sennheisers I've owned. The hd-535's are a gem for a person on a budget. It's what me and all my friends settled on after buy, try, resell attempts on ebay. Five of us lived in an house while going to school. 4 of us ended up buying the HD-535's from sennhesier after demoing all the above cans. The other didn't care about audio and had a cheapy pair of headphones. That should give you some clue as to the HD-535's price/performance relation.

I tried also Bose Tri-port (nice, but not nearly as nice as the senns - not even comparible to the HD-535).

I also tried Grado's up to the 225 model. The 60, the 80, the 125 and the 225. They were horrible in my opinion. Sound was good, (mabye even better than my senns -much more "in your face" sound) but comfort was absolutely the worst. I have a big head so maybe tha was part of it, but I couldn't wear them for my than 30 minutes without feeling like my ears were bleeding from the pressure.

I had a pair of the Denon's top model too...Not even really as good as the others. I think most people compare the top model denon to the HD-280 from Senn. I didn't like it that much.

I tried a lot of gimmick headphones too. Like the zalman craptastic 5.1 surround gaming headphones. Absolutely horrible. A set of $10 earbuds from walmart sounds 10x's better.

Because you can basically buy and sell oftentimes on ebay for the same price I tried probably 25 different pairs of headphones. My roomates all listened in too. We all liked the Sennheisers and the HD-535's take the price/performance crown. If money was no object the HD-580's and HD-600's were the better headphones, but they need a power amplifier and an ipod or walkman isn't going to do it. The ipod type devices power the HD-535's just fine though and so that's another bonus. The HD-600's were 300 ohm. I think the HD-535's IIRC were 150ohm --- So basically it takes twice as much power to drive the HD-600's or HD-650s. A premium sound card in your computer and your AVR will do it just fine however.

I think you'd absolutely love the HD-650 (even though I've not personally heard it) Having heard all the other sennheisers I mentioned the HD-650 is supposed to be only better than the HD-600. Otherwise If you can pick up a pair of HD-535's for 40-70 on ebay --- do that though...they are an undervalued Gem. (I think they use the same driver as the HD-565, and HD-545) IIRC. The HD-535's are 90% the sound quality of the HD-600's, but 1/2 the build quality. Even so they sound better than the HD-590's did and we all decided on them over the other options.
 
Good post. You are right about Senns, they are excellent. Except that I have heard almost everything dynamic and have had two pairs of stax.

It is not close. Stax are just way better in every regard. Maybe the Ultrasone Edition 9 with a fantastic amp but the Ed9 alone is around $1k.

The 650 is not going to run worth a SHIT out of a receiver or sound card sorry. I did run the 600s (great headphones for music I totally agree) out of a Cowan F2 mp3 player. Apparently, the cowan has a pretty beefy little amp in it. However, the 650 is even more difficult to drive. It did not work like the 600s did.

The main issue with the Senn 600 and especially the 650, is the veil. You need a strong amp(balanced is best in most peoples opinion, including mine) to get them to open up to their full potential. Even then, especially for gaming, a good Stax owns the 650.
 
I just reread the first post and apparently the OP wanted a noise-cancelling headphone? Most of the headphones mentioned in this thread are open so all these high end Senns and AKGs might not be suitable? I haven't heard of any noise-cancelling headphones except IEMs so I can't give any recommendations.

As for Stax, they're great but for me they aren't the best for everything, especially not rock music. I own the SR-007A, and personally I still prefer Grado for rock music. SR-007A's have very good bass and rock music still sounds good on them, but Grado's "in your face" presentation makes rock music sound more "fun" for me. The Stax are excellent for everything else though (I still haven't tried gaming with them yet though).
 
Noise canceling or closed? I think he is changing his mind about that?

Gaming with stax is just amazing. The first time I fired up BF: Special forces with them was killer. I could pinpoint, like I had some terminator targeting system, exactly where people were. Insane.

You like Grado over the 007 for rock? What amp are you using for the 007? My preference is Stax for everything although grado is awesome for rock too. Everyone is different right? The speed and detail levels of the Stax gives them THE edge for gaming.
 
cApNhOwDy said:
No more than $1000. I'm willing to spurge a bit.
Click to expand...

If you are serious about spending that much for a pair of cans, I would recommend going to a high-end audio store and listening to several for yourself. Everyone is different, sound and headphone preference included.
 
He might be confused about the terminology. I've seen a lot of confusion over closed/sealed vs. noise cancelling, and people believing that they're one in the same (for some reason).
 
$1000, dang, you ARE willing to splurge ;)

There are too many options with that kind of money. Probably Stax is what you should be looking for, although there would be some very nice dynamic headphones out there also that you might consider.

Denon D2000's and D5000's are supposed to have an amazing soundstage for a closed headphone, although they don't really seal like a closed headphone either. I've read over at head-fi that there are quite a few people that use them for gaming and they like them.

/subscribed to see where the money goes :D
 
That is an OLD website... but I guess it goes to show that headphones haven't made very many advancements in the last few years :rolleyes:

All of their articles are from before 2003. Still pretty accurate though, although I think prices on some of the headphones have come down since then.
 
Noise-cancelling is a must, it doesnt have to be perfect noise-cancelling but at least on par with the Triports.

I say $1000, but in reality I dont think I'd let myself spend that much on a pair of headphones. I think alot of the recommendations given are for studio-quality headphones and might not be best for gaming but excell particularly in music. What I'm looking for is a headphone that excells in all areas of music, movies, games. I'm not much of an audiophile. I dont want to have to buy an amp to get my headphones to work, I'm looking for something that is plug and play with a high-end soundcard. These headphones wont be leaving my desktop computer.

Sorry, I should've been more specific. Carry on then.
 
Maybe consider some Audio-technica's. They are all easy to drive, have good sound quality, and most of them have a good soundstage. The ATH-AD700 is pretty famous for having such a good 3D soundstage for $100 range. It doesn't have much bass slam (so I've heard), but sounds pretty decent otherwise, will probably be great if you aren't an audiophile :D
 
How much noise canceling? Are you trying to block out noise or keep sound from leaking out?

stax are out then either way lol.
 
cApNhOwDy said:
Noise-cancelling is a must, it doesnt have to be perfect noise-cancelling but at least on par with the Triports.
Click to expand...
Okay...I think we need to get things straight here, unless I'm just radically confused.

Noise cancellation is an active, circuit-based process. A mic(s) positioned on the headphones get fed into a device which inverts the phase of the signal and mixes that phase-inverted signal back into the playback material. This "cancels" the outside noise (though almost always just reduces it significantly, since perfect phase alignment of the inverted signal is never possible due to processing delay, and the mics are not perfectly accurate). The Bose TriPorts are not noise-cancelling headphones. The QuietComfort series are the only noise-cancelling headphones Bose makes (for consumers, anyway).

Closed/sealed headphones can be described as passive noise-reducing headphones, because they're most effective, among circumaural headphones, at attenuating the amount of outside noise by creating an effective physical barrier between the area outside the cups and the area inside the cups. All headphones do this to a certain extent (since there will always be some acoustical barrier present -- even with the STAX and AKG's K-1000), but closed/sealed headphones do the best job at isolating the ears from outside noise. Among the best passive noise-reducing/closed/sealed headphones are Sennheiser's HD 280s, though there are a number of contenders.
 
Oh yeah, I forgot he was looking for a closed headphone... I think, hehe. Pretty sure.

Well guys, which headphones do you think would serve him well?

I'm thinking: Denon D5000 for gaming - UPDATED IMPRESSIONS - with markl mods

Without an amp, he may not be getting 100% of the quality of the headphone, but hey... this guy likes them for gaming coming out of his Realtek intergrated audio, so depending on what the OP has for a sound card, it can't be any worse than that.
 
Anyone who spends that kind of coin on a headphone and does not bother with the source...........

Well, they need more experience.

The OP needs to clarify the situation in which he listens before we can say one way or the other. The D5000 is a good can though I would rather go D2000 + better components.
 
I believe I already mentioned that these headphones are going to be used for music, movies, and gaming, and that they wont leave my computer. They'll be plugged into an X-Fi card.

If the HD280's are better than the Triports at noise-cancelling, as well as being better than the Triports at gaming, then I think I might as well go with those. It's what alot of people are recommending, it's one of the highest rated on Newegg, and it doesnt need an alternate power source to work. Sennheiser is a trusted name in headphones, and the HD280's are very affordable, cheaper than the Triports even. If anyone knows of any reason not to upgrade from the Triports to the HD280's, speak now or forever hold your peace.

And yes, I'm trying to both block out noise and keep noise from leaking out.

Also, forgot if anyone mentioned this, but if there's anyone here who've tried out both the Triports and the HD280's for extended periods of time, which one is comfier?
 
The triports are miles ahead in comfort. The hd 280's sound quality might disappoint you, but if you're like me, then you will appreciate the clarity. I bought the hd 555 thinking I would like it more for the games, but the sound stage isn't all that it's cracked up to be (been told it's like 5.1 sound, but it's barely noticeable over my hd 280s) and I find it hard to use because nearly every ambient sound will force you into early hearing loss if you're too stubborn to switch to a more isolating headphone. The only thing that's making me keep them is the comfort. The velour pads might as well be velvet, because it feels like I have silky, smooth vaginas covering my ears (albeit leaky vaginas that gape into larger-than-ear sized cups).

I haven't tried this option, but if I had a second chance to return the hd 280s, then I wouldn't even think about it. The perfect balance between comfort, isolation, and sound quality, IMO, would be the sony mdr-v6 with beyer pads.
 
Captain, you are just going to have to trust me a bit here.

Try these and this,

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f10/fs-denon-d2000-markl-modded-350623/

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/review-zero-24-bit-192khz-dac-headphone-amp-pre-amp-269458/

If, for some really strange reason, you dislike this combo, FAT CHANCE, I will personally guarantee that you will get at least 80% of your $$ back selling them on head-fi. I will vouch for you. Pm me if you have any ?s about this.

Just do it. If I had $500 and was looking for something closed, this would be the best deal. You really do need to upgrade from the X-Fi for music but can use the X-FI for gaming still. This dac/amp will blow your head off compared to the X-Fi via its usb input. You can plug it in with usb for music and rca for gaming so that you retain EAX compatibility and your microphone.
 
Wow nice find, $300 for modded D2000's.... anyone have $300 they can lend me? :p
 
topdog5050 said:
Well,Who wants to pay that much for a pair of headphones be real...........lmao.........:p
Click to expand...
First off, welcome to hardforums, always good to see some new blood and enthusiasm, but you've been spamming the forums too much lately, and your posts are basically all crap.

Pull up a chair and read for a while, check out all the websites us regulars link to, and read those websites also, this stuff is real interesting and you'll learn a lot (and it'll help you keep that itchy trigger finger off the reply button!)

Not trying to be nasty, just trying to help you avoid bigger headaches down the road with other forum members who aren't as patient ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top