Hi all, apologies for the wall of text!
TL;DR… I seem to enjoy clarity and imaging, I am sensitive to sibilance; I like controlled, defined bass. and I am looking to pick something up at the upper end of the sub-$500 price bracket.
I have spent the past few years buying budget headphones far too often. I now have SMSL SU-8, SP100, SP200, SuperLux HD668b, ATH-M40x, SHP9500, X2HR, MPOW H21, Marshall Major III, Takstar Pro-82, B & O H7, Tascam TH-02, Fostex T50RP Mk 3, Koss Porta Pros, Koss KPH30i, Koss KSC75, Tin T2, KZ ZS10 Pros, and most recently HarmonicDyne Helios. I also have some Audeze Mobius mainly cause I was interested in the gimmicks.
Now, I have been re-evaluating my spending the past couple months and it’s hit me that by now I could actually have some headphones that I would consider to be insanely expensive by now if I hadn’t bought so many cheap ones. Well, I would like to action that by picking up some headphones in the near future in the $3-500 category… and hopefully my preferences now will help me decide what would be the best choice. I’m not gonna go through my thoughts on every set, but feel free to ask… but I will mention a few that I really do or don’t like:
-
Koss KSC75. These are great, I have two sets… one of them I have done the “Kramer” mod, replaced the pads and put them on a headband. They really sound awesome, tight bass, great imaging, sparkling, dynamic. I went for a run in them yesterday and just had a great time.
-
Koss KPH30i. I have a lot of fun with these too, for similar reasons to above but I prefer the modded KSC75.
-
Koss Porta Pro. Don’t like these much at all. I think the bass is just a bit too loose compared to the other Koss I have.
-
Marshall Major III. Major disappointment. These are super uncomfortable first of all, but they also do not sound good to my ear. They are just like generic “fun sounding” headphones, all bass and no clarity.
-
T50RP. I’ve had these for ages, I love the way they sound after some tuning (with 1540 pads, various felt and foam mods to tame the treble) but they have a really annoying bass rattle which seems to be due to a warped diaphragm in the driver. I didn’t used to notice but now it’s pretty much all I can hear so I don’t use them at all. I picked up a set of Fostex T20RP and had the same problem (though not as bad) and immediately refunded them. I love their clarity, well-defined bass.
-
X2HR. These are okay for me. It’s nice to have some bass monsters on hand but I rarely find myself reaching for them.
Finally… I was curious about the “tube” sound so I picked up the SMSL SP100 hybrid. I tried a few headphones on it and wasn’t blown away, but then I dusted off my old pad-swapped SuperLux HD668b (the first headphones I bought on this journey) and was absolutely blown away by the sound. I feel like something must be wrong with me for me to enjoy these budget headphones so much but they are my current benchmark. They seem to have just a bit more bass than the other headphones I like without being overwhelming.
So yeah, that’s my life story. I have been wondering about getting something Sennheiser… maybe the HD600 or HD6xx, but I have also been eyeing up the HiFiMan Sundara and the Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro. I would welcome input from anyone!