Headphones and Amps and DACs... Oh My!

[jmtd]

I own and love a pair of Sennheiser HD438s headphones, which I got as a clearance bargain. They're closed design. They were a revelation to me when I first got them, hugely better than anything I'd used before, and opened up my existing music collection massively.

However, most of my listening these days is on AKG K541s. I mostly listen either at work, or travelling to work, and they sound really good, nearly as good as the sennheisers, but are much more portable and convenient for working.

On Black Friday I got weak and bought some Sennheiser HD598 Cs half price. They're higher-end than my 438s (at least theoretically) and similarly closed in design. I have not opened the box yet.

I'm considering returning them. Even half price they were real money. My thinking is as follows: I wanted a serious upgrade from my 438s. But, is there likely to be that much of a difference? My 438s are awesome and perhaps I should listen to them more often than I do. If I was investing in new phones (not sure why I write that in the potential case, since I just did), I could look at open ones, which would give me a different soundstage experience, and I could probably get away with at work, and either way I could at home, and I work from home 1-2 days a week. So perhaps I would be better saving or waiting for an opportunity to get HD 598 Se (open design) or a higher end set, the 650s, or even something non-Sennheiser (I was recommended Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros by an audio engineer).

What should I do oh Internets? I am confuse!

[Jon]

(I was recommended Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros by an audio engineer).

Excellent recommendation for the price. Right now, the 80 & 250 ohm's are the exact same price in the US (around $135).

EDIT: Does anyone here own a Little Dot MK VI+?

[Leviathant]

I own and love a pair of Sennheiser HD438s headphones, which I got as a clearance bargain. They're closed design. They were a revelation to me when I first got them, hugely better than anything I'd used before, and opened up my existing music collection massively.

However, most of my listening these days is on AKG K541s. I mostly listen either at work, or travelling to work, and they sound really good, nearly as good as the sennheisers, but are much more portable and convenient for working.

On Black Friday I got weak and bought some Sennheiser HD598 Cs half price. They're higher-end than my 438s (at least theoretically) and similarly closed in design. I have not opened the box yet.

I'm considering returning them. Even half price they were real money. My thinking is as follows: I wanted a serious upgrade from my 438s. But, is there likely to be that much of a difference? My 438s are awesome and perhaps I should listen to them more often than I do. If I was investing in new phones (not sure why I write that in the potential case, since I just did), I could look at open ones, which would give me a different soundstage experience, and I could probably get away with at work, and either way I could at home, and I work from home 1-2 days a week. So perhaps I would be better saving or waiting for an opportunity to get HD 598 Se (open design) or a higher end set, the 650s, or even something non-Sennheiser (I was recommended Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros by an audio engineer).

What should I do oh Internets? I am confuse!

I spent $99 on a pair of Sennheiser HD500s in 1999. They were, as you said, a revelation. I babied them, I used them all the time. And around 2009, one of the speakers was making a terrible noise, so I capitulated and bought a slightly used pair of HD555s. I don't know if it was just time taking it's toll, or an improvement in technology over a decade, but when I went back to my HD500s, they sounded muted, the high end wasn't as present as my HD555s. Also, the terrible noise in the left speaker of my HD500s turned out to be a cat hair.

The HD555s actually didn't stand up to wear all that well - I didn't baby these as much, admittedly. It got to the point where, last year, I fell into a similar on-sale HD595 trap. I'm okay with that. They're the most comfortable headphones I've ever owned. They're not much of an improvement over the HD555s, even though they're a fair bit more in MSRP.

Moral of the story? You're at a significant point of diminishing returns now. You can pay more for better headphones, but you're going to pay a lot for not a lot of difference.

I prefer open-backed headphones, but there's no way I could wear them to work. It'd be annoying to my coworkers, and it wouldn't keep the background sound out. So that's why I've got a pair of HD280 pros at work. I found them more effective than noise-canceling headphones in that regard, actually.