Recommendations sought for capable closed-back headphones, under $500 US

Headphones Headphone Discussion / Help
1

I am looking for headphone recommendations, closed, under $500 US. I would consider higher if needed.

My current setup is a set of ATH-AD2000X opens with Alpha Dog pads, and an old Sennheiser PC-350 that came with an ASUS Xonar Xense soundcard.

I have replaced the soundcard with a Mayflower Arc and will soon receive a Klipsch Heritage Headphone Amplifier.

The Audio Technicas are fantastic for both music and gaming but the problem is they leak too much sound for those around me.

Recently I have suffered a lot of damage to my left ear and it is about 90% deaf. I have a Cochlear implant that does well to help hearing and I can steam sound to it wirelessly but the quality is hopeless and it is out of phase with my headphones.

The Senn PC-350 is a lovely comfortable gaming headset that I have worn to death. Unfortunately, they are too weak for me now.

Currently I use an EQ to turn the sound up on the left and down a bit on the right to get a balanced input. It is far from perfect and when heavy bass kicks in I get a lot of reverb.

I am after a set of closed headphones that do not leak much sound and that can handle bass without distortion. I am not chasing bass king headphones, far from it. I do about 80% gaming (not competitive so mic is not needed) to 20% music/videos.

I would be grateful for your recommendations.

TIA.

2

The Neumann ndh 20 or beyerdynamic dt 177x go fit the bill pretty well

3

I’d say the Neumann ndh 20 as well. They have really low THD measurements. I think they would be good for EQing.

4

I thought the ndh 20’s wouldn’t be very good for gaming as they have a rather narrow soundstage am I wrong?

5

They are fine for casual, and he wants a balanced sound with good isolation, so they would work pretty well in those regards. Also depends on the game too

6

One that does not get mentioned very often that recieved a positive review from Zeos are the Blue Mix-Fi. They are nice balanced, and they even have their own built in amp.


I tried the 1More Triple Drivers and they were godly for treble and bass, no sound leakage, but comfort was meh.
The NDH20 is probably your best bet sound wise. Zeos did say that these can get uncomfortable after a while though. You may want to try them and be willing to return them if you find them uncomfortable.
I can’t say anything regarding the DT 177x, but I believe they are fairly similar in comfort to the DT 770 Pro, which was the most comfortable closed back I have ever worn.
7

Thanks for the replies. That gives me some good leads to start researching.

8

Just one more thing I forgot to mention, the Klipsch Headphone Amp comes with 3.5mm and balanced XLR inputs. Are there any balanced options you would recommend?
TIA

9

The 177x go can become balanced with a balanced cable I believe, so that would work

1 Like
10

Everyone needs a custom balanced cable for the 177x Go’s amirite!?

But seriously the 177x Go seems like a solid answer here to me. I’ve got a set of my own due to arrive this week. I have admittedly not had a chance to listen to the Neumanns yet.