A Headphone conundrum, jack of all trades needed!

AnthroPete · 23-01-2009, 6:03 PM

Hi, my first post so will try to get this right....

My problem is this, I need a set of headphones that are able to cope with several different uses. I currently have a pair of Sennheiser HD477s and have been very pleased with them for the 5 or so years I have owned them. They are now a little tired and I could use some new ones.

The situations I use them in are:

Plugged into my iPod for general listening around and about.

Plugged into my HiFi (A vintage 70's Marantz 60w amp, modern numark turntable and a denon cd player)

Plugged into a sound desk at the student radio station I dj on.

I'm sort of wedded to the idea of Sennheisers as I have found them solid and with a nice sound. I have found some HD595s for about £120 or some HD650s for £170. Anybody have any suggestions as to what might suit best?

Thanks!

swayne · 24-01-2009, 11:26 PM

Hi,

You wouldn't want to run HD650's from an iPod without a line-out dock and a headphone amp. The HD595's work ok though.

Steven.

MIB · 25-01-2009, 9:54 PM

Yeah I tried a pair of 650 with an iPOD and you won't get the best out of them. Hook them up to a decent headphone amp and there's a large improvement to be heard.

**Steven** · 25-01-2009, 10:29 PM

Different headphone for different uses?

My Senn HD600 is used at home and my Audio-Technica ESW9 are used with my iPod

pandemic · 25-01-2009, 10:39 PM

The Grado SR series headphone are worth a try. They run pretty well on iPods (probably due to the low impedance) and produce decent sound quality. I actually really like the SR60s, but you might want to try out the higher end models too.

AnthroPete · 31-01-2009, 6:51 PM

Thanks for the replies!

I decided to go with the HD650s in the end as I figured that if I upgraded the rest of my kit I wouldn't need to upgrade them! I have tried them with my iPod and you were right, they do sound a bit lacklustre compared to when plugged in elsewhere. I'll just stick to using the HD477s I have with the iPod untill they are totally knackered I think.

In the meantime, I am really in love with the sound these HD650s make, lord knows how they will sound when I can afford a headphone amp!