I was listening to music and yearned for better quality headphones, so I started looking for headphones, and the task that I thought would take a day at most turned out to be an endless abyss.
so here I am seeking help from veterans that have been dabbling in the ways of the audio for a while. I just created this account for this sole question, I need help, please.
I’m trying to find the best headphones under 350$ or maybe like 20-30$ over.
I use a soundcard called SoundBlaster AE-5 that apparently allows me to power a pair of headphones to 600 ohms, I will mainly use it for gaming and music. I will probably sacrifice gaming performance for audio quality for music. I listen mainly to K-pop like “how’s this?” from HyunA and K/DA POP/STARS and j-pop like artists like Yunomi and HoneyComeBear, but I also love the song Kamado Tanjiro no Uta. Now I love bass but I also love detailed sound so I’m not so sure what I should be looking for exactly. now ideally I would want closed-back but if the open-back is better then I will totally pick open-back.
Ok then i would recommend the Monoprice M570. for your price range they are simply the best headphones out there. They are open though. but they sound great. 300$
Your sound card is just an internal sound card. With good (powerful) headphones, you could easily blow your eardrums. IMO you need an external volume… therefore, an external headphone amp. The JDS Labs Atom is 100$ and one of the bests. Really neutral.
And for the headphones… open-back:
-Sennheiser HD58X (150$)
-Takstar HF 580 (200$) Closed backs:
-Fostex T50RPs (150$) with Shure 840 pads (20$)
-Fostex T60RPs (300$)
i’d say its better than all 4, the M570 used the awesome Aiva driver that everyone was blown away by. its a clone of that headphone. but by many reports its very close to the sound of that headphone. and thats a 600$ headphone that reviewers have said punches way above its weight. which is why i recommend it, and since your budget is 350$.
I haven’t heard the HE400i but its a lower level headphone that i doubt can match the quality of the M570. I also haven’t heard the AD1000X. maybe someone else here can comment on it. The HD 600 and 650 are much liked headphones here. i thought the HD600 was better than the 650. but they are older headphones and suffer from a veil many people dont like and i didnt like either. the HD650 was cloned to the 6XX by the Massdrop company for 195$. everyone says it sound the same for much cheaper.
Thing is close backs dont usually sound better than open backs. but if you need isolation there are a lot of close backs that sound good. heres a Z review on it:
I for one would not reccomend the 570 as many people, some in this forum public reviewers like metal 571 people on other forums seem and me seem to have issue with this headphone either qc or tuning. For me it’s both the treble is too sharp and tthe mids have too much resonance
I would reccomend something like a 600 ohm dt 880. If you want a planar maybe a he 4xx or 400i cause sound wise no glaring issues. Or maybe modhouse argon’s
Did metal 571 review the m570’s? i cant seem to find it. also zeos reviewed them and said they were ok. said they were close to the aivas. the dt880’s and 400i’s are cheaper headphones. he says he has 350-380$ to spend on headphones. shouldnt he get the best for his money?
i dont understand some people on this forums tendency to recommend the cheapest headphones to people who have more to spend. I think they should get the best bang for the buck. If you dont like the M570’s why not recommend something in the price range thats the best. for instance the Sundara’s or the Audeze El-8, M1060, T60rp, Verum ones, Meze 99 Classics.
He didn’t review because of his issues with the m570 when he measured it check his Twitter. I only reccomended what I reccomended because I don’t know many good headphones around his price range. My focus is on the cheaper side of things but I also reccd the argon’s as they are more reliably good. Sundara’s have wiered build issues. M1060 suffers from the same thing the m570 does but worse interns of resonance.
Z may have also gotten a good pair I never ruled out the fact that my pair may be broken and so is metal’s and the other reviewer he mentioned, as well as the other guy on this forum who got a pair at the same time I did and also said his pair sounds bad. As well as the one guy in headfi who said he had the same issues as well as you I believe who returned his pair cause you thought it was broken. There has to be an issue here.
Someone here told me they’re not even “for bassheads”. So, “stock”, they’re definitely not horrible.
