First off im from the USA, I was unable to find a forum of this magnitude geared toward the US so I figure asking here is fine as it should all be the same hardware.

Alright I currently am living in an apartment so I am unable to play music/movies/games as loud as I would like to at certain times of the night, example 4am haha. So I have been trying to get an idea of what a good pair of cans to buy would be. This is mostly for PC use but would be nice if I could connect to a DVD player or a reciever or something of that nature. Currently I am using the logitech z-680 speakers, nothing special by all means but when i got them alost 3 years ago they where amazing. I was going to purchase a new set of speakers for my pc, the new logitech 5.1's but decided headphones is the way to go.

My price range is around 300 USD, can go up or down whatever.

After reading a few of the forums I have noticed some people say the SENNHEISER HD-600 are pretty decent quality. On ebay they are going for 250USD brand new so that seems like a good deal to me.

The dilema I am having is mainly deciding what kind of headphones I want, dolby, isolating, earbuds, I just don't have any clue. All I care about is SOUND QUALITY, and 5.1 would be nice but if that sacrifices quality it is not needed. Reading the philips vs pioneer thread I was really intrigued to buy the Philips SBC-HD1500 but I am unable to find them for sale anywhere in the US or on ebay so I guess they are not an option.

I have never owned a nice pair of cans so I have no idea what to truly expect, what is the sound quality going to be like compared to a set of 5.1 Logitech PC speakers? Im not a huge fan of room ratling bass I just like it to exist so i am not lookin to compare bass, just really sound quality. So basically im lookin for advice here, on which pair of cans will give me some decent sound quality in the price range of around 300USD.

Thanks!

$300 USD should get you Sennheisser 650's. They are regarded as the best quality full cans in the world right now. Better than 600's, not by much but if you get the 600's you'll always wonder if you should of got the 650's.

[SAP7]

What about the grado RS-1's. Some would say they are the world's best? More so than the Senns.
And then there's the Stax....

By the way, how can you claim there is no US site when you have www.head-fi.org which is the most respected site going!!!!

Well now that you have informed me of head-fi.org I will check it out. I have been surfing google using search strings such as "top headphones" and "5.1 headphones" and stuff like that, best site i found over the course of a few days what this one. Head-fi.org never came up for the stuff I was searching. Thanks for the link though

I hear amazing reviews of grado's but i also hear they are not very comfortable, that is a concern of mine considering I will be using them a lot. Will check out the 650's and the RS-1's though. Appreciate the advice guys.

Edit: How necessary is an amp for the 650's? A guy has them for 280 buyout on EbAY brand new seems like a good price, tempting me right now =P

[NicolasB]

You won't get a decent Stax system for $300. I'm not sure if you can get HD650s for $300 either - Sennheiser being a German company, their products tend to be cheaper in Europe than they are in the US. But if you can, go for it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/SENNHEISER-HD-65...QQcmdZViewItem

Others list at 300+ on ebay for them and authorized dealers want 500.

Lookin around at head-fi and they seem to go for a bit over 250 used on the forums there. I figure I wouldn't really miss out on anything other thant he exciting 100 hours of burn in everyone talks of. Is it worth buying them "new" if it isnt from an authorized dealer anyways? Only worry buying used is durability, so anyone have any comment on the durability of the HD-650's? As I am pretty much sold on them now after reading a bunch of reviews.

[extremelydodgy]

You're advised an amp with the HD650, but it depends on what you'll be using them out of. Most receivers and integrated amps with headphone jacks will have enough power on tap to drive them but are of variable quality. On Head-Fi the HD650's are a little overhyped (it's no coincidence that they are the best headphones to fall into the range of a far bigger range of wallets), but they are very unfatiguing upper mid-range headphones with a very good balance of abilities. Buying used shouldn't be a problem, but keep an eye out for mods that Head-Fi members like to make which can damage phones in the long run. I've not had any problems dealing on there.


I would certainly contact Headroom and Todd The Vinyl Junkie (both Head-Fi sponsors) for a price on the HD650. As far as I know, it may be as low as $350, and that's with a full warranty.

I will be mainly using them on my PC which has an Audigy 2 ZS soundcard, or I may plug them into my Logiteh Z-680 ControlUnit as the sub as a built in amp. Would you still guesst i purchase a seperate amp for the headphones?

[StevieDvd]

Originally Posted by trancekid

I will be mainly using them on my PC which has an Audigy 2 ZS soundcard, or I may plug them into my Logiteh Z-680 ControlUnit as the sub as a built in amp. Would you still guesst i purchase a seperate amp for the headphones?

I don't know the soundcard you have but if you ask this question on head.fi in the computers as source section I'm sure the answer would likely be:

Get better soundcard
Good headphones need an amp

I use an EMU-0404 soundcard thru a WNA amp for my computer listening, and mainly Grado/Alessandro for the pc. I feel that it's hard for a pc setup to justify the top end headphones.

If you are US based then you get a better deal on Grado headphones than us europeans.

Steve

[TekHousE]

Originally Posted by SAP7

What about the grado RS-1's. Some would say they are the world's best? More so than the Senns.
And then there's the Stax....

By the way, how can you claim there is no US site when you have www.head-fi.org which is the most respected site going!!!!

I have listened to the Grado RS-1 and it is amazing! Pity it was out of my price range, I bought the Grado SR 80's for 120 euros. When I need to replace them I will probably stick with Grado, the sound stage on even the bottom range SR 60's was outstanding, especially with high energy BASS.