What are the darkest closed back headphones for around 3-400$ other then the night owls? Also would like nice instrument separation and sub bass. I’m currently using nighthawks and wanna see what else there are.
Maybe secondhand pair of CF Cascades would be worth a try?
1 Like
Ye my friend do have them and they are pretty good, but I’m wondering how the lcd 2c close out sound. I’m a drummer and I don’t want they sound of my drums to invade the music lol.
You may want to consider the Sony MDR-1A. When I used to monitor my drums, I used a Beyerdynamic DT 770m… but when I wanted to also be able to listen to the rest of the music and still have a warmish signature, I liked the Sony MDR-1A for that purpose.
The LCD2CBs are definitely dark compared to other headphones but I still find they present the highs pretty well. I own both the LCD2CBs and nighthawks, they aren’t as polarizing as the hawks and if you can put up with the weight they would be a good choice.
Do you know anything in the 400$ range? The lcd 2cb are more then double my budget lol
Also i thought i’d say my tastes in music to help narrow it down. I like listing to a loooot of 70s prog rock songs, heavy metal and rock, some electronic and jazz songs every now and then as well.
If you can stretch to $500 the Dan Clark Audio Aeon RTs are really good at separation but aren’t as impactful as the Hawks. They still are a headphone that I would consider darker just not as dark. I also see people recommend fostex but I don’t have any experience with them yet.
Also what amp/dac are you running? This could make or break suggestions people have for you.
Right now I’m using an aune class a portable amp but I’m gonna upgrade to the monolith thx aaa portable
Also if it’s not better then the hawks in every way I don’t think it’s worth upgrading for me. The hawks are really something special so it needs to be a quite big difference to comvince me to switch.
That should work but down the road I’d say push towards a desktop setup. You tend to get a lot more for your money.
Lol I have to go from my home to my studio for drums a lot so I don’t think I can get a desktop amp.
Ah yeah that makes sense, then I would go for the most clean power you can take with you. Oh I believe the ifi black label has a darker sound to it and might fit your needs better than the thx portable.
Couldn’t I just change the eq using the built in Dirac software on the thx portable to get the same effect and more?
Also the black label is out of my budget lol
It’s hard describe but the thx equipment has a tendency to sound less open to me compared to my jds labs equipment. I also don’t believe there is enough eq to get the sound I believe you are looking for…could be wrong, haven’t tried the portable thx amp/dac. My desktop thx amps definitely are not smooth sounding and could actually make my Hawks sound a little harsh and I couldn’t eq it out like I wanted.
If it’s just sound stage that’s lost then I don’t care really much, in fact I really don’t like headphones with really wide soundstage cough sundara cough.
I’m with ya I’m not into a huge soundstage either. Just giving you some ideas for when you swap.
Well I guess I’ll just get the thx portable and play with the eq stuff and save up to get the audeze lcd 2 closed back. Thanks for the help man.
Sounds good man and if you can try them out definitely do, you get some serious bass from them that is well controlled and clean.