I agree, and I think that would be a great first step.
Oh i see in this price region the FiiO K5pro would aswell be an option. Witch one to go for ?
Edit: My fault… the other one has a balanced option so i will go for the Zen
You could hardly pick a better headphone to contrast with the Porta Pro and add to your listening experience than a Grado. They have very different tuning. Plus, they’re both legends, so would make great additions to a personal collection.
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I’d say that the zen is a pretty good starter amp for the price, there’s not a lot of solutions in that sort of price range in the eu.
In terms of headphones, is there a sort of sound you’d be looking for at all? As that would help a lot in steering you towards what you may like.
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In general I know the Porta Pro and i want to learn how different something could sound. For the first experience I think something complete clear and open would be a try and I would like to have an over ear headphone for the little bit of plus comfort. The Porta Pros are little bit harsh if you wear them more than 2 hours. I ordered the pads from Japan, still waiting for them.
Btw first step is done and the zen is ordered :).
I am quite exited to start all of this and hear my beloved music in some other ways.
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Maybe look at an AKG 361 OR 371, I have a 371, closed back Harman.
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@PaulG
Also in germany and would’ve liked to be able to check out Argon MKIII or other Massdrop things.
(Argon require quite a bit of amping tho)
Kinda hard to get a real listening experience atm. with shops closed.
I suggest ordering a headphone with a good return policy.
You mentioned Koss Porta Pro, so maybe Philips Fidelio X2HR?
Also good for gaming afaik.
I kinda enjoy a pair of very cheap (bought used for 30€) AKG K361 these days, which also doesn’t seem so far off from the Koss. You can find much better for >120€, it’s just that I have a thing for cheap & second hand things that feel fun
(also really really comfy, but no huge soundstage & gets warm after a while).
edit: Wanted to suggest trying the Sharkoon Gaming DAC Pro S - a very cheap usb dac/amp, but that won’t work with ur Adam T5V setup.
In general, I would say don’t start with the “best & most” expensive, since all this is pretty subjective.
Wait until you can actually try all those cans somewhere again.
My context: I’m personally cheap af, but have access to some expensive stuffs at work.
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Oh nice iFi has an option to upgrade if I need more power for a headphone (Zen CAN). So I am covered on that part of my journey too, nice.
Shipping will be at the end of januar for the DAC so I still have some time to decide what headphone to try first.
Thank you all for helping me to see the new hobby little bit different :).
Have found an other interesting option. Time to dig the reviews about them. Audio-Technica ATH-M50 X
Hey Paul,
let me be the first person to tell you what probably 1000 others in this forum are going to tell you at some point: don’t buy the ATH-M50X!
There are some good reasons to avoid them, somewhat muddy bass (not good for gaming), stock pads are not comfortable for long listening sessions to name 2 big ones. They are far from neutral imo, but of course there’s alot of subjective stuff here…
Most people will tell you to get the ATH-M40X instead (if you insist on that model) - they are considered the superior of the two, because they are somewhat more neutral - but you still have to change pads for more comfort. In general most “audiophiles” here will tell you to avoid the ATH.
I suggest something completely different (and since ur in germany this should work quite well):
Go to ebayKleinanzeigen and purchase good condition second hand Sennheiser HD-558 under 40€.
I got mine today (30€ shipped from a friendly dude from Hamburg) and I enjoy them a big deal.
They have a removable & easily replacable cable, are super comfortable, open back, velour pads…great for long sessions.
I love the sound, not muddy at the bass regions, a little bit on the warm side, good soundstage & tuning(considering the price).
If you want a closed back option with good sound isolation to use outside -> get a pair of second hand AKG-K361.
This is all highly subjective, but since owning these two headphones (and comparing them to higher budget like DT1990 Pro at work), I’m very confident in suggesting this.
I think from there you can take a bigger step towards more expensive things, don’t rush that.
It’s sort of a journey to figure out what you really enjoy in headphones, sound, comfort and so on.
Buying something for 500€ straight away with very little comparison can be risky.
If you actually end up finding something you love in the upper price range, you can still give your HD-558 (or whatever) to friends/family as a gift or sell them again.
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You are absolutely right,
I was searching on ebay at this moment you wrote 
. Saw a section on beyerdynamic with “B-Ware”, this could be aswell an other option. Don’t worry, as I have already learned that throwing money on something I don’t know is not the right way. I will just make small steps to test myself what I want.
I am trying to get some grado sr80e on ebay aswell, lets see what happens there. Any Headphone to pair with the Zen DAC will be an option to play with and get a feeling. I know how the koss sound so I am just looking for something kompletely different (open, wide stage, studio clear) to them. Need a kontrast.
Thanks for the other options to look up.
Thomann also has B-Ware headphones that are usually cheaper than buying from the manufacturer sites.
Just to compare prices.
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There is a nice saying in my new hobby here in germany, “Der Weg ist das Ziel”
The way/experience is the goal
And nice to know that thomann has it also, thank you.
LOL, isn’t it though? And the M50x is a textbook case in that regard. It may have been Tyll Herstens’ putting and keeping the M50x on the iconic InnerFidelity wall of fame who put or at least kept them on the map. Then we have Bob Katz the mastering engineer and author of a textbook on the subject who independently gave them high marks in the budget category. But along comes the young rebel Zeos who does a Tyll-esque put-down of the M50x, then Metal571 chimes in on the negative side. Now it’s hard to find a kind word in favour of the M50x anywhere.
My thought when reading this was “oh no, not another bloated mud region Senn 5-series model”. But I dutifully looked up a frequency response graph for it and was amazed to see not a bit of that. Wish I had bought that instead of the HD 579 back when.
I tried the M50X, M40X, V-Moda LP, V-Moda 100 when i was searching for different DJ headphones.
In the end I was not satisfied with them in context of beatmatching & practicality and went back to my trusty HD-25. It made me realize how much I love those uncomfy things for what they are supposed to do.
Of course those HD-25 are far from neutral, but to me they were very fun, punchy and easy to play with.
During this time I used those mentioned headphones for casual listening aswell.
I listen to everything from soul to funk to hip/hop to jazz to stereotypical berghain techno.
This is where I come from when saying “maybe avoid the M50X”.
I enjoy all those reviews from zeos and others for entertainment purpose,
but I’m very much aware that you have to take all this with a grain of salt.
Zeos didn’t really praise the Tinhifi T2 plus & I can’t live without them anymore, just as an example.
About the “Sennheiser Veil”, I’m personally not feeling much of that from the HD-558 and there’s always the option to do the foam mod and get a slightly different/more open sound to play with.
Seeing this and that you play FPS shooters in your first post, you might want to check out the TYGR 300R.
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The TYGR 300R seem very interesting, but getting a pair without the whole microphone + headphone bundle is not easy, since the phones are completely out of stock everywhere… I was looking at ebay/second hand & even contacted beyerdynamics if they have a retoure or something leftover…
Some argue that you could compare them to the DT990 pro 250 ohm.
They have the same drivers afaik, the TYGR just uses different earpads (which makes them less sharp in highs). I could be wrong tho and have not tested these. I decided to be careful about all those different beyerdynamics when I’m not able to actually try them out and compare side by side.
Most beyerdynamics also perform a bit differently & change over time when earpads are worn in.
Hard to judge - frequency graphs exist for all those versions (even with “worn in earpads” graphs),
but personally I’m not a huge fan of pure statistics.
Anyways, TYGRs for ~130€ seemed good, sad u can’t get them these days.
Saw one on beyerdynamics side at the b-ware section ;).
In the Outlet part you can buy them alone for about 129€
“Nicht auf Lager”
oh lol, they were on stock today… sorry for that
Maybe you can find them somewhere for ~ 140, but would only buy if return policy is okay.
I’m happy with the super cheap hd-558 & akg-k361 right now, they don’t sound very different to me tonally, but serve different purposes.
Tygr 300R, Fidelio X2HR are the two I’d personally want to try short term, but not going to blindly pay >100€ these days.
Well I’m cheap & content right now sooo 
That being said @PaulG we have one thing that the cool kids over there don’t have:
Austrian Audio Hi-X55
Of course I’ve never heard them myself haha,
but that’s my late goal for now - just wanna try them at some point.
Could fit your description, but at this point it’s just the wildest guess.
edit: i wouldn’t be surprised if you can hear zeos scream “THEEESEEee” in a couple of months if he gets the chance to review them - quite analytical studio headphones tho, not everyones cup of tea
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