you know, one’s that do everything justice but may not excel as others would…while maintaining a reasonable cost? if you do think such headphones exist…what are they?
I think there are plenty of all rounder headphones out there at mostly every price point. You just can’t expect them to do everything the best, they admittedly aren’t hard to find
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For me personally, I’ve found the Focal Clear to be my favorite all rounder headphone for music.
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What do you mean by all rounder?
Good for music and all genres.
Or good all music and games and movies/tv etc?
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good for music and all genres.
Hah!
-My KZ ZS10 Pros were too bright on some songs, so I gave em to a friend.
-My Grado SR60e’s sounded great on some calm music… and that’s all. 150$CAD mistake. I’ll send these to a friend soon.
I’m not a collector: If I get headphones and they don’t always sound great, they’re not good enough for me.
-I used Sennheiser HD280 Pros (old version, two different pairs) for 10 years (like Zeos, yes). Everything sounded good with these – but they had nothing above 10khz and zero soundstage (new version might fix this? damn I’m curious).
-My modded Fostex T50RPs (160$ + 15$ Shure 840 pads) are probably my best recommendation for “all rounders”. Everything sounds great with that. Smooth jazz, rock, death metal, electronic music, classical, K-pop, movies, whatever… You don’t need to concentrate to hear anything, and there’s zero annoying frequencies. Maybe, maybe, you don’t hear much above 15khz. But who does, lol! They also got a pleasant shoulder-wide soundstage, which is… damn impressive for closed-backs.
-My newest recommendation is the Monoprice M650s, sometimes for sale for 60$ (150$ MSRP). They got 15khz+ “air”, but also “knock” like HD280 Pros. Which is surprising: They’re open-backs. Velour pads apparently give you a neutral sound, but sibilance (and probably not the “knock”). Leather pads will give you a slight V-shaped sound and soulless mids – Squash the pads for 6 to 12 hours (on a “yoga block” or whatever) and you get “all rounder” headphones with delicious mids, neutral from 0-15+khz, with, like, 10-foot wide soundstage.
I also got Sennheiser HD58Xs. they’re not in the list. They don’t “knock” realistically enough for electronic music/EDM kicks.
what do you mean by ‘air’ and ‘knock’? provide examples, please.
Sorry. 10khz is more or less “where” the cymbals are. Higher than that is “air”. For example, a weird thing happened when I tried my KZ ZS10 Pros for the first time. Put em in my ears: Ears sealed, closed, as if I was “underwater” almost. I pressed “play” and it’s as if the earphones “disappeared”. As if my ears were “unsealed” and I could hear the room again. But it was the studio room. I don’t know if it’s mandatory for soundstage, but it sure helps.
For what I call the “knock”, well, it’s just, the powerful drum kicks or electronic music kicks (100hz-ish). Drivers really need to work hard to make you feel like you’re next to a drum… Even worse when this “drum” is an electronic music “kick” – where in techno some people just like to use all the possible dynamic range, for more info see the “Bass gods approved” thread. 
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