@Hellreaver hey, people aren't in here all the time, but if you leave a message, we do check in periodically and respond

Awesome! Now, if it's okay to ask, what 200-300 dollar portable headphones would you guys and girls recommend?

@Hellreaver hey, you still around?

I saw your question on the main site as well. It's really not a good fit for the site as your interests for the headphones seem to be particularly consumer targeted

In your price range I could recommend several very good headsets that produce high quality results, but they produce even level sound and it sounds like that isn't what you are looking for since you said you didn't like the Senheiser's (which btw, is a major company that makes some of the best headphones around)

Senheisser is far bigger than Monster or the other companies you mentioned, they just work in the professional audio sector rather than targeting the consumer sector with overpriced crap

Sony Professional also makes good quality headphones

personally, I use a pair of Shure SE-535s for portability, but they aren't as bassy as you'd want (though they are fantastic balanced bass for in-ears), but they are also out of your price range and the SE-425s aren't nearly as strong on bass

hmm, actually re-reading, did you like the sound of the Senheissers and just want to avoid them because you thought they were an off-brand of some kind?

I might have been reading too much in to your question based on your current selection and the alternative options you listed as your initial preference

do you prefer something with a bass that is present and firm, but not overpowering so that the mids and highs still come in crisp and clear or do you want something that has a very strong thumping bass even at the cost of some clarity

' bass that is present and firm, but not overpowering so that the mids and highs still come in crisp and clear' yeah, I prefer clarity. The beats were overpriced and sacrificed a lot of clarity for almost no bass.

well, Beats are crap. I tried them on once and asked if the demo unit was broken

I literally have used $15 headphones from Sony Professional that were better sound quality

than the $300 beats

it made me very very sad

btw, nice to finally run in to you at the same time as I'm on :)

Yeah, I know, awesome for me to talk to someone who clearly know what they're doing.

Knows *

ok, so what did you like and dislike about the Senheissers?

They felt... Cheap. Maybe I judged them too soon, however.

My friend also kept warning be to be careful with them, as he had durability issues with them.

probably, the thing you have to remember with headphones is that the big consumer brands are charging for marketing and image rather than quality materials and design

the professional headphones tend to look less high end and more utilitarian

because it is just wrappers around the speakers that matter

that said, professional headphones are still designed to be comfortable since they will often be warn for extended periods of time

Yeah, I realize. One reason I'm getting away from monster. Are vmoda crap?

I don't know anything about them personally

Master Tracks?

the look of their design doesn't say good things to me off the cuff, but I'm not familiar enough with the brand to say for sure. Master Tracks I'd stay away from

basically, if they have a model with a famous person's name associated with it, stay away

Because, in my price range I can't find any headphones I wouldn't need an amp for. Probably looking at 32 ohms, for portability.

I would honestly suggest looking at Audio-Technica, Senheisser and Sony Professional. If you are looking for durability, spend enough to get one of the metal framed sets

those don't have the durability issues of plastic framed sets

Any personal recommendations?

not in that price range. Like I mentioned, I use in-ears for portability

I can go less and spend some on an amp.

pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-audio/cat-headphones/product-MDR7506

these are a nice set I've used before, but you can get better quality within your budget

those ones are a pretty standard model to see on mixing consoles though for the balance between quality and price

If you can stretch a bit, en-us.sennheiser.com/dj-headphones-over-ear-stereo-hd7 might be good too. I'm not particularly familiar with the DJ models, but they have slightly stronger bass response rather than mix headphones which are more linear response

which is the other thing to try out, you need to really fine tune what response curve you are looking for

and that will help narrow down your selection a lot

personally, I prefer linear response, but I've also been a sound guy for 15+ years, so my perception of sound is considerably altered from the norm

I can understand that

Normally I associate Sony with those 15 dollar Walmart Sonys, but these look much better. Bigger diaphragm, advertised as professional.

yeah, sony professional is a completely different division

I don't touch Sony's consumer stuff with a 10 ft pole

well, not for headphones anyway, I like their consumer receivers, but again, that's a different division

I can see why. It kinda scared me away from Sony headphones

it actually is fairly common to see that too, often companies that do well on pro still do badly on consumer. For speakers, JBL does really well on the professional side of the market, but their consumer speakers are kind of blah after they updated the division for consumer stuff a few years back

another good indicator to look for is to see if response curves are actually available for the headphones with a fairly low tollerance

it isn't sure fire, but a lot of the more consumery headphones don't have officially published response curve diagrams

not that you can make a decission purely off response curve as it doesn't give how accurate it will produce a complex sound, but it is one helpful indicator

if more power is put in to one frequency band, by nature, the other bands are going to suffer for it

hmm, and after saying that, I notice that Shure no longer has an easily available chart for my 535s, they used to on the E5s that were the main model before the 535s

so maybe publishing response curves is less common now than it once was

you might also look at Shure's over the ear headphones, I forgot that they actually make over the ear's too, but I'm not that familiar with their over-the-ears

Yeah, I listen to pop as well as electronic and orchestral, so hearing detail is key.

you might actually like a linear response for electronic and orchestral, that's my style of music too and I really like linear response for it

and any good large diaphram should still have pretty good bass power

and if not, then I'd look at professional DJ headphones

I don't have any experience in DJing though. For all the A/V stuff I've done, I've never once touched on DJing

Thank you very much.

I normally go for Amazon used headphones

I'd definitely love to hear and feel the 40 cellos in some of the music I listen to

I always look for a wide, deep soundstage

The Sony MDR-7506 are 63 ohms, would I need an amp?

I just use a large Kenwood amp at home, but I only have an android device to listen in

On*

@Hellreaver I'm pretty sure I've used them without an amp before, but it's been a while and could vary based on how well your device handles volume and what level you want to listen at

that said, depending on the quality of the DAC, you might get a decent quality gain by going for one of those hybrid bluetooth DAC/Headphone amp units

or one that is just straight up USB

android phone dacs are pretty hit or miss

I like the one in my S4, but when I was using a galaxy s back in the day I went for a little bluetooth dac

I don't have golden ears, I listen to music at around 95-115 db

I suspect it will probably push that much sound pressure, but some DACs start to fade quality wise near their full power (and some do better)

no way to really tell without trying it sadly

Also: my amp is emitting static - more as I turn it up, I got it used, does this mean something specific?

it may just mean your signal has noise going in

all signals have some level of noise, the more you amplify it, the more noise you get