I'm a proud owner of a pair of Sennheiser HD215s, and they were my introduction to the actually-decent sound possible when you splash out even the slightest bit of cash for some decent cans. They were £32.

But it's left me wondering: what would you recommend as an upgrade to these? They're closed-back and comfortable, completely encasing my ears. I love them, but I think the time is right to upgrade.

I love me some bass, but of course I wouldn't want a tinny treble. Well-balanced phones, or slightly bass-heavy, would be perfect for me. I'm looking to spend somewhere around £80, but certainly not above £130.

Anyone has any suggestions? And how much better would they be than the HD215s?

(P.S.: what bitrate/codec do you guys encode your music with?)

[MattShine]

I got a pair of Bose around-ear headphones (£100), which I think are excellent, but it's always down to personal preference.
You'd have to do what I did, which is find a store with some you can listen to (I went to HMV).

[vdbswong]

I tried a pair of HD595s in PC World (i know... of all places 0.o) and they completely blew me away.

Can't really describe it to be honest... just felt like you were in a huge hall and you could pick out all the different sounds and everything. And this was with their rubbish non-music tune thingy.

Only problem is that they're about £120 online... maybe the mid-range HD5xx series ? I also tried the 515s although one of the channels/sides wasn't working but it still gave roughly the same effect although on a much lesser scale.