What Headphones? Looking to upgrade..........


Okay, here's the dilly. I have a pair of Sennheiser 545s. ;) and well, I used to have a pair of klipsch 2.1s. Problem is my headphones made the speakers sound so badly - I decided to sell them off.

Anyhow now I'm looking to get new headphones. Trying to compete with my dad's latest sound equipment he bought like over $20,000 worth. Making my headphones sound bad damnit. hehe

Anyhow I"ve done some research and a little bit - but I"m interested to hear opinions. What would be a good alternative to the Sennheiser 545s? I'm interested in clarity, no static, lots of detail and comfort. Bass would be nice, not overpowering, but solid.

I'm looking for 'detailed' sound. I've heard good things about Grado, Koss, Sennheisers 580/600......etc. etc. What are youthoughts? They will be used for listening to music on the computer among other areas and for gaming.
frankwu
Well it depends on your budget and musical tastes. As several have ststed the Sennheiser 600 is a good phone, especially for classical and Jazz. The 580 are significantly cheaper and give you probably 80-90% of the 600's. Both of the Senn's sound much better with a dedicated headphone amp. many people like to mate it with tube electronics such as the MF xCan'x v.2 and ASL MG Head DT.

Grado Labs phones are very good especially for rock music. The 225 and 325 models are very good at a comparable price-point to the Senns. All Grado's are low impedance phones so can be driven without a HP amp, but do sound better with them. Some consider the 225 and especially 325 to be bright phones.The wooden Grado's, the RS-1 and RS-2 have a more mellow less strident top end.

You may also want to check out Alessandro Musucal products. They sell a line of the Grad's that have been modified for professional use. They tend to provide a little more detail without increased harshness. Their MS model I is similar to the Grado 80/125, MS model II to the Grado 325 and their MS Pro is a Grado RS-1. I actually own all of the Alessandro phones and so can attest to their musicality.

You can see the Alessandro products at: http://www.alessandro-products.com/main.html

Another set of phones that are a very good bargain are the Sony V6/7506 model. These are very common as monitoring phones and provide a very detailed presentation and are relatively inexpensive. They also fold up nicely, are built like a tank and also present a low impedance load. Thus they are quite nice for portable use.

Lastly you should go to:

http://www.head-fi.org

and ask your question there. It is full of a group of the most knowledgeable headphone geeks on the planet. Happy listening.
Check out www.head-fi.com for forums on headphones and amps. I used Grado 325's for 8 years until now liking the 600's better (less glare) along with a new Headroom Cosmic.
I agree with Scott that you need to check the quality of the headphone driver on your PC before buying expensive headphones. I have (lowly) Sennheiser HD535s and they sound COMPLETELY different on my PC, my portable CD and direct from the headphone jack on my Marantz CD67SE. The Cd67 sound is leagues above the portable CDP, which in turn is a more modest step up from the PC.
The headphones may not be the weakest link ... you may do better buying a new source (even a standalone CDP with a variable volume headphone jack like my Marantz).
Well, here's the thing:

Right now my choices are down to Sennheiser 580 or 600. From what I"ve heard the 580s are practically the exact same as the hd-600s except the hd 600 are made of slightly better material instead of plastic. Is this worth the extra moola?

Also I listen to mainly classical/jazz + a little bit of rock every now and then. hehe. ;) Right now I"m looking into a headphone amp.......and looking to do a bit more research.

Would htere be anything that could compete on the Sennheiser 600 level besides electrostatic? Thanks for the advice guys!
Note: As an quick update I use the Hercules Game Theater XP /w my computer. I have an 1/8" to 1/4" adapter and plug it in directly to the external rack with the Game Theatre.

Sounds decent to me - static is basically gone unless you really crank up the volume and listen very carefully