I bought my first pair of serious headphones recently (sr225e) and I love them dearly. But the grado sound is really specific and doesn’t suit everything I listen to.
I’m going to recieve an ifi zen dac which was gifted to me in a couple of days and I’m looking for a nice “fun” pair of headphones which will suit bass heavier music (such as hard rock, a bit of metal and some modern production pop/ electronic music) And maybe provide a more “v-shaped” sound.
Budget is around 400$, preferably less but could be more if the cans are really worth it. Any recommendations?
Thank you very much. They look absolutely great but cost around 800$ where I live
I can get most of hifiman, beyerdinamyc, sennheiser and some other brands.
Maybe got Any more recommendations? Doesn’t have to be from the brands I mentioned but these and a few other brands are the only ones I can easily get my hands on.
The Nighthawk carbon are discontinued. I can find them for ~ 200€ here second hand.
But yes, depending on location this might not work at all. Ebay europe offers them regularly tho.
Yep, just checked ebey and local second hand stores. Only found two pairs in ebay that are both around 500$+ without shipping (!) Which will probably add another 40$.
Got some new model recommendations that I’ll hopefully be able to get locally?
Ah that’s too bad, I might get a pair of Nighthawks for 170€ today.
Meze 99 seem cool, for planar the Hifiman HE400i 2020 version is interesting aswell.
V shaped & huge soundstage the Fidelio X2HR comes in mind.
@schmu beat me to the Nighthawk suggestion! Ha! But $500 is too high, so looks like that won’t be an option. What about the Fostex TR X00? Can you find them around? Also I’ve heard the 1more Triple Driver is supposed to be a fun bassy headphone, but not the most comfortable.
And here is a curve ball for you: What about the Koss Portapro with Yaxi pads? They are a very fun sounding headphone and I love to use them when I’m not listening critically. They are so cheap you could pick them up and something like the 1more or the Meze 99 and still probably come in under your budget.
Thank you very much! About the hifiman, can you explain the planar difference? All I know about it is that the sundaras are supposed to be great. Don’t know why though.
The Sundara lacks bass extension and quantity. They won’t fit with your expectations. For bassy closed backs the meze 99 classics are great. The 99 neo has even more bass, but the bass bleeds into the mids. So i like the classics more. Also interesting are the sony mdr 1a and the denon 5200/7200.
For bassy open back the nighthawks are great. Make sure you get a nighthawk CARBON.
The HD Zeus is also bassy and good. The Zeus beats the X2HR as v shaped headphone, but rhe nh carbon still remains the open back bass king in my collection so far
Edit: If you are looking for bass only, you could give a try to the monoprice retro + brainwavz xl pads. This combo offers plenty bass for about 45 bucks
