JPopJRockFanatic

JBL's LSR305 beats them out. Plus TS has a $2000 budget. I think its better if we actually suggest something that actually makes total use of the budget.

Lets just say that Electrostats are in a completely different category.

Impedance isn't the sole factor that defines that. My 250 Ohm DT990s run perfectly fine on my iPhone without an amp and get quite loud -- I usually end up listening around 40% volume. 

Actually, nobody claims that the m40x is a piece of garbage. They're somewhat decent for the price. It's the m50x that's a piece of trash... Unless you can get it for less than $100. The m40x are not "damn good" they're decent for the price, and actually very easy to beat for a $300 headphone. If you haven't experienced it, then don't say that they are "hard to beat" because they aren't.

Most likely a kid using hes rich parents money.

See, but that all depends on how loud you like to listen. I had a pair of hd650s that I would run off my phone sometimes, and I'd top out at 50%, because that's how quiet I like my music. Sensitivity matters more than anything for loudness, and sensitivity doesn't have any bearing over price.

Its just placebo effect or expectancy bias. Just because its on a phone, does it mean that "it wouldn't come as close to using the headphones true potential"? No. The only thing you won't get is as much power from the volume. And volume does NOT mean more detail the more you crank it up.
If you want to get technical, then okay. I'm just stating from research and experience, here.

There have been lots of people with the mindset of 'the higher the impedance of a headphone, the harder it is to drive them, or the harder it is to push it louder'. Consequently, this leads to the mindset of 'the higher the impedance of a headphone, the more it needs an amp' 
 
It's been said a lot of times in a lot of topics here. The regulars here always go against this mindset, but of course with words alone, it's kinda like a 3rd grader's argument. Something like, 'afraid not....' 'afraid so....'
 
Well, I thought of a simple and rough experiment, for this matter. For the base theory, let's just go with that mindset for a while, 
 
 
That's the base theory, so let's see if it applies to the reality.
 
For this experiment, I'd need some sort of loudness measuring device. This is what I'm using:
 

 
It's just a regular sound level meter. It will 'listen' to ambient sound, and calculate the average (A weighted) loudness.
 
These are the specs:
 
 
It got 'MAX' function, which is it will hold a max value of measurement.
 

 
It will 'listen' through this microphone. 
 
Now this is an ambient sound level, right? That means, it's quite sensitive, and it will pick up lots of ambient noises. For this, I need a way to give it some kind of sound insulation. 
 

 
This is the insulation. It's just a plain handycraft foam sheets, 12x12cm, 3 layers stacked. Cut a hole in the middle for the microphone to sit in.
 

 
This is how it looks.
 

 
This is how it's implemented. So I covered the pads of the headphones for testing with the foam insulation, and take the measurements. The foam minimizes sounds leaking in and out of the headphone. 
 
 
Yeah, so I got the measurement device ready. Next I'd need the test subjects, right?
 

 
These are all the headphones I got with me, sorted from the smallest impedance on the left, to highest impedance on the right.
 
1. ATH-AD700: 32 ohms (http://eu.audio-technica.com/en/products/product.asp?catID=5&subID=37&prodID=156)
2. Hifiman HE400: 35 ohms (http://www.head-direct.com/Products/?act=detail&id=115)
3. AKG Q701: 62 ohms (http://eu.akg.com/akg-product-detail_eu/q-701.html => click the 'specsheet' link)
4. Krezt DJ-9200 (local brand, China generic): 64 ohms (http://krezt.co.id/v3/?product=krezt-dj-9200)
 
So....it's already sorted out from smallest (32 ohms) to biggest/highest (64 ohms) impedance. According to the base theory, with the same source device, and same volume setting, it will sound the loudest on the 32 ohms one, and least loud on the 64 ohms, right? Well, let's see....
 
Measurement device ready, test subjects ready, next I'd need a source device. I'm not gonna use my PC, ipad, or some random DAP or amps. Instead, I'm gonna use this:
 

 
Good ol' Nokia 2730 classic. It's discontinued. It's just a plain basic phone. No touch screens, no iOS or android, hell it doesn't even have wi-fi capability, and can't play any videos. I bought it for $35 or so. The latest price I found on google is $50 or something. At least it got an MP3 player function, and a 3.5mm audio jack. I'd be plugging the test headphones directly to this phone, set the volume to max, with no amp in-between. 
 
This is the test track I'm using:
 

 
Obviously, the MP3 version, not the video, because of the phone's limitation. 
 
Why do I use a trance song? Why not a sine tone, something like 1kHz sine tone or something? Well, it's because the headphones got different frequency responses, so I thought it'd be better to get an average reading of various frequencies, rather than 1 particular tone. 
 
So it's all set, played the song for 30 seconds from the beginning. With the sound meter's 'MAX' function, it will lock and display the maximum loudness it measured.
 
 
Moment of truth, the results, sorted from number 1 to 4. Remember, same source, same volume, same test track, same sound meter, same method of testing:
 

 
AD700: 91.8 dB
 

 
HE400: 83.1 dB. So far so good, it went according to the base theory. Because HE400 is 35 ohms, so it's less loud than the 32 ohms AD700, right?
 

 
Q701: 83.2 dB. Hmmm that's strange. 35 ohms to 62 ohms impedance is quite a leap. So the Q701 should be considerably less loud than the HE400, right? Then why the hell did it measure basically the same as HE400 (let's waive the 0.1dB, chalk it to difference in frequency response)??
 

 
Krezt: 103.4 dB. Hot damn, I've broken a law of physics here. The highest impedance of all 4 test subjects is actually the loudest!! Yay, the 64 ohms headphone is 11dB louder than the headphone with half its impedance, 32 ohms.....
 
What gives, dude?
 
Seems like the base theory of 'the higher the impedance of a headphone, the harder it is to drive it louder, the more it needs an amp' is on the brink of being debunked. Oh man, the world's coming to an end....
 
Sooooo....if impedance is not the determining factor, then there have to be another determining factor, right? After all, the universe is bound to orderly laws of physics. 
 
So let's look at one other rating of the headphones, which is the sensitivity/efficiency. Something that looks like 'X dB', or 'Y dB/mW', or 'Z dB/V'.
 
1. AD700: 98 dB/mW
2. HE400: 93.5 dB/mW
3. Q701: 105 dB/V => this is not the same as dB/mW. To be able to measure it in the same context, this have to be converted to dB/mW, which results in ~93 dB/mW
4. Krezt DJ-9200: 107 dB/mW
 
Oh wow, now it all make sense!!. Using the order of the sensitivity ratings, the order of the least loud to loudest is: 2 or 3 (about the same ratings and measurements) - 1 - 4. This corresponds with the test results in the pictures. 
 
So what is this efficiency/sensitivity? In a nutshell:
 
 
Just by the definition of the efficiency/sensitivity, it's already quite obvious that when we're talking about loudness, or how loud it will go, efficiency/sensitivity is the more important, and most determining factor. 
 
So at this point, I think we could all agree now that 'impedance rating' is NOT the determining factor of how easy or hard it is to drive a headphone to the desired loudness. Here's a fun trivia fact: the hardest to drive headphone in the market, the Hifiman HE-6, is only 50 ohms. Even less impedance than the Krezt DJ-9200. 
 
So the next time you see someone posting something like, 'My headphone is 250 ohms, so it DEFINITELY needs an amp. If only my headphone is 32 ohms, I won't need an amp at all', hope you'd remember this topic and this simple experiment...

Because they're overpriced and they're terrible for gaming. That's why.

Explain to me how these are NOT sexy

Speaking of looks, I wish these headphones won't sound like ass.



I find them adorable, but I hope they don't sound like ass.

Explain to me how these are NOT sexy

gratz on linking headphone videos that don't even address the op's question?

Oh god, this again.
 
Look, the reason why they sound similar is because they sound similar. A lot of it has to do with the person. Spending much money on a bunch of gear rarely helps. Being able to hear a difference won't make your life better either.
 
24bit vs 16bit's an even more pointless discussion.
 
 
This has been said over and over and inevitably there are a few that lie or don't know how to run a simple abx.