Best headphones you've ever heard/used

Hi,

I enjoy my Senn 600's at home and work, but they are not practical to travel with. I tried the Ety's and they did not fit my ears at all, they hurt and did not seal the canal properly so I returned them. I now use Grado SR60's when I'm traveling; they fold flat and fit in my laptop case, are comfortable, sound pretty damned good, and cost $60. I fly 100,000 miles a year, I'm always open to new cans for traveling but cannot use in-ear headphones.

Best, Jeff

I've been listening to my Shure E3's against my Sennheiser HD580's. I've got to say the Shure E3's are superior to the Sennheiser 580's. The Shure's are more dynamic, fluid, more definition, and, for want of a better word, more fun. With the E3's in, my head is bobbing, when the 580's are on, it isn't -- the "head-bob" test is a biggie with me.

I would just use a longer cord for your bedroom headphones. That's what I do. The gains in sound quality more than make up for it.

The problem with in-ear 'phone for me has always been the positioning or soundstaging. Even good in ears like the etymotics sound 'wrong' not because any part of the frequency range is off, but because the imaging is wrong. All headphones sound like the soundstage is inside your head to varying degrees, but larger open headphones are not as bad at this as any other kind. In ears dont even bounce the sound off your outer ear the pinnae (sorry if I spelt that wrong) and all the other ridges etc on your ear. Believe it or not this is an important part of sound shaping and decoding.
To me, the etymotics and I'm totally guessing here, the shures would have a similar problem. They get fatuiging fast because they your brain knows that the imaging is wrong. I can very well believe that not everyone has the same reaction to headphones and in-ears (and I'm still a headphone fan despite all I say) but that's my reaction to headphones.
Of course there are problems with open phones. Other pointed out the problems when using them outdoors. I listen to mine at night in the bedroom when I dont want to disturb, but I can still listen at reasonable levels. For other uses, other phones may be a better match.
Just my $0.02.

Rsbeck, how is the tonal balance of the Shure e3's compared to the hd-580s? do the Shure's have good bass, or do they sound thin?