mid range Head Phones

now that my HDphone amp is coming, would appreciate some input on make & model of head phones. I am not after a high end unit, mid range price and quality will be ample for me.
Any suggestions/recommendations would be appreciated, thank you.

I am very fond of my Beyer Dynamics DT 990 Pro's. They are very difficult to drive at 250 ohm, but sound great with their open frame design. Not too good for a office environment, due to noise leakage. These are the most comfortable headphones, that I have ever owned.

Mike

I have the Sennheiser HD 598 and it too is an open end headphone… very comfortable and sounds excellent.

this is good info, thanks guys, keep 'em coming!   

HD 600 here.....

so what are the benefits, if any, of open end headphones?

MontanaWay wrote:so what are the benefits, if any, of open end headphones?

Better defined Bass. What Headphone amp do you have? That will help to narrow down the search!

mine will be a Mr Nixie headphone amp, details & specs can be found on his site, http://www.nixiekits.eu, click on the Headphone Amp link on the left

MontanaWay wrote:mine will be a Mr Nixie headphone amp, details & specs can be found on his site, http://www.nixiekits.eu, click on the Headphone Amp link on the left

If I understand the specs correctly, this will put out less than 1mW into a 300 ohm load. Two of the three headphones recommended thus far are 250-300 ohm, and this amp might have trouble driving these. By comparison, I drive my 250 ohm Beyer Dynamics with a Nuforce amp that puts out 249mW into 300 ohms. I tried a amp that put out 12mW into 300 ohms, and was not at all satisfied with the volume level.

yes I was wondering about that after some more reading on the net, I have sent an e-mail to the designer and asked what he recommends as max resistance for headphones on his amp

MontanaWay wrote:yes I was wondering about that after some more reading on the net, I have sent an e-mail to the designer and asked what he recommends as max resistance for headphones on his amp

32 ohm headphones would be a good choice, and are quite common.

Mine are AKG Pro Audio K141 MKII Professional On-Ear Semi-Open Studio Headphones. 55 ohms. Amazon has the full gamut of AKG cans, man.

I had Senn HD650s. Too analytical and bulky for me. I had Nagamichi's, that I really liked, which broke after a month.

The Grados get high marks, too, but break easily, too.

I'm not a big headphone user. I use these when in public on my computer: www.amazon.com/JVC-HAS160B-Lightweight-Headband-Headphones/dp/B004JRYLG4/ref=sr_1_1/179-3320088-9909412?ie=UTF8&qid=1395883847&sr=8-1&keywords=jvc+flats.

I like reading this guy's stuff, though: http://www.innerfidelity.com/

MontanaWay wrote:now that my HDphone amp is coming, would appreciate some input on make & model of head phones. I am not after a high end unit, mid range price and quality will be ample for me.
Any suggestions/recommendations would be appreciated, thank you.

Perhaps, you should give us an idea what you mean by "mid range price"? You are getting some good feedback, but the prices are all over the map! I spent $150 on my Beyer Dynamics 990 pro's, primarily because of comfort first, and sound a close second. If a set of headphones is not comfortable on my head, it does not matter how good the sound is. If your budget is less than $100, then a lot of the headphones recommended so far would be above this limit. You also need to decide on "on ear" or "over ear". I much prefer over ear myself.

mazeeff wrote:

Perhaps, you should give us an idea what you mean by "mid range price"? You are getting some good feedback, but the prices are all over the map! I spent $150 on my Beyer Dynamics 990 pro's, primarily because of comfort first, and sound a close second. If a set of headphones is not comfortable on my head, it does not matter how good the sound is. If your budget is less than $100, then a lot of the headphones recommended so far would be above this limit. You also need to decide on "on ear" or "over ear". I much prefer over ear myself. wrote:

You get too many ideas of what 'comfort' is from many reviews for the same product. It's hard to determine what qualities the reviewer is assessing. BTW: The AKGs on Amazon run the full gamut of prices.

mazeeff wrote:

MontanaWay wrote:now that my HDphone amp is coming, would appreciate some input on make & model of head phones. I am not after a high end unit, mid range price and quality will be ample for me.
Any suggestions/recommendations would be appreciated, thank you.

Perhaps, you should give us an idea what you mean by "mid range price"? You are getting some good feedback, but the prices are all over the map! I spent $150 on my Beyer Dynamics 990 pro's, primarily because of comfort first, and sound a close second. If a set of headphones is not comfortable on my head, it does not matter how good the sound is. If your budget is less than $100, then a lot of the headphones recommended so far would be above this limit. You also need to decide on "on ear" or "over ear". I much prefer over ear myself.

about $200 max, that would be the most I am happy to spend on a pair, more the $150 range, seem to able to choose a fair amount at that price range. I guess its a bit like good wine or well aged Scotch, after a certain age, I cannot tell the difference, except for the price!! :-)
Problem here is, we live in a rural area, nearest bigger town is Bozeman, 75 miles away, and even there, the choice of retailers who sell a fair range of headphones is not that big. Walmart, Target, K-Mart, there are some home appliance retailers who also sell audio gear. Next time I'm in town will need to check some out. I prefer the ones that cover ones ears.

I would recommend Grados. Even the SR-60 is easy to drive and pleasant sounding. I do however recommend dropping the $20 on the bigger ear pads for them or bumping up to the 80 or 125.

If the primary intent is to use the headphones on the Mr. Nixie amp, then I would focus on a very efficient pair, like what was posted in post #13. My Wife has a pair of these, and for $12, you can't go too wrong. They produce 106dB at 1mW input, which matches your amp quite well. You will not be happy with the Beyer's that I recommended. It takes much more than 1mW @300 ohms to drive them, and requires a amp with about 100mW.