Best Headphones for PC and Portable Use?

While I own and love a pair of HD-580, they're strictly home cans (I amp mine with a Pimeta there). In addition to not being very portable at all, they require a LOT of power to drive - considerably more than a CMoy can provide. A PA2V2 or Go-Vibe could at least tolerably drive them but wouldn't begin to tap the full potential of the cans. A true portable amp that would fully drive the 580s would in fact set you back two to three hundred dollars.

It depends on how you're willing to go with your portable cans. If you're willing to go for a full-sized pair of circumaural cans, I reccomend the Sennheiser HD-280. Fantastic computer cans and they don't require amplification, so they can be driven fine right out of a portable CD or MP3 player.

If you want a true pair of "portable" cans, the Etymotic er6i and Shure e2c are both about $100 and have great sound quality, but canalphones take a bit of getting used to. There's also the Koss KSC-35, KSC-75, and PortaPros. They're all rather inexpensive (sub-$30), but the sound quality is nothing short of stunning for the price.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Yume, have you ever looked into Hi-Fi Audio? I mean, $800 (what the E500 cost if I remember properly) is an intro-level speaker setup. Pair of B&W DM601 and a receiver. And their sound quality is absolutely stunning.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Oh, I must have been thinking of the UE-10 Pro. Yeah, $400 for a pair of cans really isn't that hideous. More than I could make myself spend at the second (I've probably got about $400 invested total in my chain of Source, Amp, and Cans), but not at all unreasonable.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Let's see:

Chaintech AV-710: $25 (Best sound card EVER for the money. Indisputable. This sucker beats anything short of an EMU0404, and those things cost 6 times as much)
Maxed-Out Home Pimeta: $150 (Admittedly, it'd be $225 new from the guy who built it)
Sennheiser HD-580: $105 (Would be about $130 New)
Sennheiser HD-280: $20 (Would be $100 New)
Grado SR-60: $65

I've reached a Plateau for now mostly due to saving up money through college and the funds I've recently put into other stuff (car, DSLR camera). I don't intend to upgrade for at least a few years, although Head-Fi still has some small pull over my soul.

How ya doing, buddy?

The Headband does tend to wear down over time, but by "over time" I mean "heavy use for 2-3 years". Even then, a bit of Duct Tape (I used Electrical Tape myself because it was black) fixes them good as new. My pair are about 6 years old and I'm the third owner - they still go fantastic.

As far as uncomfortable with glasses, I've never had an issue with that and I wear glasses. One of my friends with glasses doesn't like them, but that's just because they're closed and they make his ears warm over long periods.

A lot of people call the bass poor. These are, in my humble opinion, the same people who think filling your trunk with subwoofers gives you a great sound system. The 280s do not have giant boomy bass. They have flat, VERY well-extended bass - it's there, but it's not in your face.

Piccolo - I get no hiss whatsoever. I use it only for Stereo Output and turned off all amplification in the card with jumper settings, and the Wolfson DAC that's on the high-quality channel is stunning. I leave the volume on the card turned to max and get no hiss or distortion at all. When I turn my Pimeta's gain to the absolute max, I think there may be the tiniest bit of hiss, but I don't listen to music that loud ever other than the briefest bit of testing (no need to destroy my eardrums), so I can't be certain.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Quote:

I'm happy to spend about £250 on a surround sound set but when it comes to spending that much on a pair of earplugs, you would find me hesitating a fair bit before buying.

True. Canalphones are a specific taste - some love them, some don't care for the feel. Personally, before ever spending that much on a pair I'd try one of the ~$100 pairs out there (Shure e2c/e3c, Etymotic er6i, a few others). I found that I just didn't care for the feel of in-ear phones and traded off my er6i for a pair of Grado SR-60. Financially it was a bit of a loss for me but I've never regretted it because I use the Grados a million times more than I used the Etys.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?