Robin L
Master Contributor
Going all-in with the ASR way, getting Drop 6XX 'phones, Topping E30 Dac and L30 Headphone Amp. My experience with open back headphones ranges from $5 'phones I should have avoided to over two decades with Stax Signature Earspeakers. Lately have been using the Sennheiser HD599 and HD579. Don't really like either. The 599's treble 'extension' sounds tizzy here, with a slightly exaggerated, possibly distorted top register. The 579 is not so bad, more focused on vocals, pretty good for movies. Most of the time I've been listening via the AKG "Tiesto" K167 closed back phones. They have many virtues, good bass and good overall balance. I don't know if the occlusion/thickness with massed brass comes from the 'phones or the electronics or both. So I'm asking for suggestions.
Recently I've been listening to a lot of Bruckner, so massed brass is the order of the day. I usually listen to fairly wide range of music, Rock and Jazz and Country, modern dance-pop and various avant-garde noises. Obsessing over Bruckner [the doom-laden 9th symphony is appropriate background music for our current apocalypse] makes the limitations of the playback gear all the more apparent. My sense is that the bass of the Drop 6XX isn't really going to be all that different from the two open-back Sennheiser headphones I've got already. My guess is that a good closed-back headphone will have more control and sheer force in the bottom registers compared to good open-backed headphones. I'm not looking for more bass, but I want deeper bass. I suspect the Topping gear would help a bit with that. I've also got a pair of Sennheiser Urbanite XL headphones, pumped up on the bottom, rolled off on top. Don't listen to those much anymore.
What I'm looking for are closed back headphones that are good with well recorded Classical music, that go deep into the bass without pumping up the mid-bass, open on top without being ragged, $200-$300. Any suggestions?
Recently I've been listening to a lot of Bruckner, so massed brass is the order of the day. I usually listen to fairly wide range of music, Rock and Jazz and Country, modern dance-pop and various avant-garde noises. Obsessing over Bruckner [the doom-laden 9th symphony is appropriate background music for our current apocalypse] makes the limitations of the playback gear all the more apparent. My sense is that the bass of the Drop 6XX isn't really going to be all that different from the two open-back Sennheiser headphones I've got already. My guess is that a good closed-back headphone will have more control and sheer force in the bottom registers compared to good open-backed headphones. I'm not looking for more bass, but I want deeper bass. I suspect the Topping gear would help a bit with that. I've also got a pair of Sennheiser Urbanite XL headphones, pumped up on the bottom, rolled off on top. Don't listen to those much anymore.
What I'm looking for are closed back headphones that are good with well recorded Classical music, that go deep into the bass without pumping up the mid-bass, open on top without being ragged, $200-$300. Any suggestions?