Hey, I'm looking for not one, but two pairs of headphones! I need a pair to replace my Sennheiser HD 280 pro's. Although I enjoy the great sound insulation from these phones, they're clunky, they give me headaches due to the tight fit, and the sound stage is pretty terrible due to the closed design, not to mention the bass is almost nonexistent. I'd like good open headphones for my computer that have great thumping bass (I listen to a lot of drums&bass like Pendulum) and that don't sound tinny at high frequencies, and that are comfortable to wear for long periods of time. Also, they should have a long wire because my tower's front motherboard audio ports don't work, so I have to plug em in all the way in the back :( I heard the Grado SR80i is a good pair at the $100 price range, but I'd like some more input.
Also, I want a good pair of work-out headphones or earbuds. My sony pair are starting to hurt my ears and the balance is all off, plus the highs are all tinny. I don't know if it's possible to have good bass in a compact headphone or earbuds, but if someone could recommend portable headphones or earbuds that have nice thumping bass I'd appreciate it.
Need headphone recommendations
YES it is usually even better for music. It's sometimes used by concert drummers so they can get a feel for their kick volume, so they know if they're getting softer after tiring out. There are standing platforms for bass players as well. I imagine it would feel insane to surf your own music. Electronic drums are even better since you can choose the palette yourself and set plenty of effects." @MrKlorox: I play electronic drums, so I get what you're shooting towards. Yeah, that device you linked definitely sounds cool. Do you think it complements music as well as games? It sounds like a little subwoofer for your computer chair, I like it. And I also need to think about the comfort of my cans (can't always be having a headache at the computer) so I'll go for either the Sennheiser HD-595's or the Grados SR80i's. Oh and I have an inboard Realtek High Definition Audio card in my gigabyte motherboard that uses HD Audio. Would a PCI-e soundcard make a big difference? "
You'll end up looking for music that makes better use of the low end and end up realizing some of your old favorites weren't that well recorded. You might even end up getting into bands who don't threat their audible spectrum with much respect, but their sub end practically knocks you out of your seat.
I've gotten into a lot more hip-hop and some electronic music since I got mine because the metal I used to use exclusively is usually terrible in the low end. It's almost all centered on the kick. Rock bands who treat the bass guitar with a higher low-end priority than the kick sound will really begin to stand out.
Regarding the soundcard, the biggest advantage for headphones would be how much power it sends to drive the cans and how much feedback from your processor/motherboard is present. That's why I went with a front bay: my older external USB soundcard sounded better than my newer internal PCI (not e) X-Fi and I couldn't figure out why. The front bay solved that and gave me a shitload of input/output ports. So I guess I'm advocating a powerful but not-so-internal approach. When this X-Fi card dies, I'm NOT going back to Creative. I've read good things about ASUS soundcards but haven't used any.
If there isn't already an article regarding this on Tested, there damn well should be. I'd love to find out how well the new android phones sound as well since that would be a big application for me. If you go with an external digital decoder like the Astro mixamp, you'll probably circumvent the need for a dedicated card as long as your mobo has a digital out.
edit: Sadly many many games take the 5.0 surround approach and rely on your sound hardware to redirect the bass to your sub channel. This is a problem because the sound is usually redirected instead of cloned, meaning those frequencies aren't coming out of your regular speakers (in this case headphones). So I have a bunch of cords running under my desk set up so I can switch between the sub out channel and the stereo out (through a stereo ground loop isolator [I think it comes with a mono one now, the old version came with stereo a one] and combined with a Y cable in that order to prevent crossfeed in my headphones).
edit2: and I've been told by a couple others who've tried both th SR80 and HD595 that they prever the SR80's because the 595's are too bright -- or was that SR125i. So by the time you get your bass levels right your highs are more than you want. Then again this was without a bass seat. I can listen to low volume audio and have the transducer turned up and the bass be as present as ever.
As for seats, I use a chair that has its back suspended from the seat by a bar on each side that goes into the chair's arms. Having gone through five or so center post chairs, this was by far the best solution.
Seeing as you're planning on using these headphones for drumming, you might want to look into closed rather an open-air designs. I know drummers tend to prefer close headphones, maybe due to sound leakage. Personally I don't like the confined sound of closed designs, though they often provide much more powerful bass than open-air models. The open variety let a lot of sound in and out, so if you've got other musicians / recordings going on you will hear them very clearly, and this might be a bad thing. But if you're mostly solo and you're only using headphones with no loud ambient noise nearby, I'd recommend open-air headphones. Again, I have to plug Grado :) I'm a real sucker for their retro look and superb sound.
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