150-200$ studio headphones

[marti23]

So I have been using my HyperX Cloud 2 for about 2 years and now I want to buy myself some studio headphones, but I don't understand anything here. I made a purchase of the Sennheiser HD 560S (120 ohm), but later today I found for the same price headphones that have more ohms. I found for the same price the DT 770, 880 and 990 Pro. I found out that the 990 have a 600 ohm option (I don't understand ohms at all). At the moment I don't have the money to buy a dac and I searched how many ohms can my motherboard support. It says up to 600 ohms, which on paper sounds great, but at the same time impossible. So at the end I want to get some good headphones for around 150-200$ and I don't understand anything about ohms. I'm sorry if the question is really dumb, but I really don't understand what should I pick.

[Haris Javed]

Ohms is a measure of resistance. Essentially higher ohms means that you need more power for your headphones to produce sound. I would stick with HD 560S or HD 58x due to lower resistance compared to other headphones you listed. Higher ohms doesn't necessarily mean better sound but it does mean more power to drive the headphones. But another thing you should look at is sensitivity which dictates how loud your headphones will be at certain power level given by decibels per volts. The higher the sensitivity the louder your headphones will be. I would say that you should stick with the HD 560 / 58x for now as those headphones have a pleasing sound compared to DT 770/880/990 as DT  headphones can sound very thin with no bass if they are underpowered. I own more than 100 headphones including the ones you mentioned here (I am buying and selling headphones all the time), funnily my first “real” headphones were DT 990 Pro followed by sennheiser HD 600, and then HD 650 and then the list kept on growing. 
 

also wanted to ask you the following 

1. are you looking for only open back headphones ? Open back headphones sound great for music and games but all of your noise will be head by others around you, and they let sound in if you are in a noisy environment 

2. are you willing to buy used headphones? You can get awesome deals on used headphones if you are willing to spend sometime on hifishark and headfi 

[rice guru]

If you don't have any kind of existing source gear like an dac or amp aside from your motherboard I highly suggest you stay away from the 600 ohm models if you wanna keep within budget. There are a good amount of variety to choose from all dependent on your needs and wants.there are many good reasons as to why people would choose a higher impedance headphone up to 600 ohms but those reasons tend to be very enthusiast level reasons like for example with beyerdynamic the 600 ohms just flat out sound better than the lower impedance models.  Another reason is they have gear that can support the headphones. Higher impedance also means it has a higher versatility with amps as they tend to be less sensitive.  First of all what is your use case if  for music what type of music do you listen to?

 

[marti23]

6 hours ago, rice guru said:

If you don't have any kind of existing source gear like an dac or amp aside from your motherboard I highly suggest you stay away from the 600 ohm models if you wanna keep within budget. There are a good amount of variety to choose from all dependent on your needs and wants.there are many good reasons as to why people would choose a higher impedance headphone up to 600 ohms but those reasons tend to be very enthusiast level reasons like for example with beyerdynamic the 600 ohms just flat out sound better than the lower impedance models.  Another reason is they have gear that can support the headphones. Higher impedance also means it has a higher versatility with amps as they tend to be less sensitive.  First of all what is your use case if  for music what type of music do you listen to?

 

Thank you for the great explanation. I intend on using them for music listening (Mainly pop and a really mixed variety of rock, rap and electro), a lot of gaming (Playing a lot of singleplayer and multi-player games) and for movies, because I watch a lot.

[marti23]

7 hours ago, Haris Javed said:

Ohms is a measure of resistance. Essentially higher ohms means that you need more power for your headphones to produce sound. I would stick with HD 560S or HD 58x due to lower resistance compared to other headphones you listed. Higher ohms doesn't necessarily mean better sound but it does mean more power to drive the headphones. But another thing you should look at is sensitivity which dictates how loud your headphones will be at certain power level given by decibels per volts. The higher the sensitivity the louder your headphones will be. I would say that you should stick with the HD 560 / 58x for now as those headphones have a pleasing sound compared to DT 770/880/990 as DT  headphones can sound very thin with no bass if they are underpowered. I own more than 100 headphones including the ones you mentioned here (I am buying and selling headphones all the time), funnily my first “real” headphones were DT 990 Pro followed by sennheiser HD 600, and then HD 650 and then the list kept on growing. 
 

also wanted to ask you the following 

1. are you looking for only open back headphones ? Open back headphones sound great for music and games but all of your noise will be head by others around you, and they let sound in if you are in a noisy environment 

2. are you willing to buy used headphones? You can get awesome deals on used headphones if you are willing to spend sometime on hifishark and headfi 

Thank you for the amazing explanation and examples. To answer your first question, I just found a pair of headphones that are open back. I have never used open back and in my room it's dead silent, so I don't mind the sound coming or leaving them. But is there any benefit compared to normal non open back headphones? Mainly I care if the sound inside the headphones is sealed (I don't lose sound). And about your second question. I got the 560S on sale for 150$, but later that day I found HD 599 on sale but for 120$. I don't like the look of them at all, but is the 30$ price difference good enough, so I would spend a little bit less?

[CTR640]

I had the HD560S and don't like it one bit. Soundstage is crammed.

 

The most popular headphones used for gaming and movies are the X2HR and Tygr 300R. They are cheaper than the HD560S and have better sound and comfort.

[Haris Javed]

2 hours ago, CTR640 said:

I had the HD560S and don't like it one bit. Soundstage is crammed.

 

The most popular headphones used for gaming and movies are the X2HR and Tygr 300R. They are cheaper than the HD560S and have better sound and comfort.

Yes X2HR is good, but I find it’s bass too over amplified. Better “sound” is subjective as I like neutral sound most of the time and tend to prefer HD 560/ 600/650 over the X2HR. In frequency graphs the sennheiser HDs response is much cleaner compared to X2HR but the X2HR are cheaper and also easier to drive. 

[marti23]

1 minute ago, Haris Javed said:

Yes X2HR is good, but I find it’s bass too over amplified. Better “sound” is subjective as I like neutral sound most of the time and tend to prefer HD 560/ 600/650 over the X2HR. In frequency graphs the sennheiser HDs response is much cleaner compared to X2HR but the X2HR are cheaper and also easier to drive. 

In my country the X2HR are actually more expensive. The HD 560 are 200$ (150$ on sale atm) and the X2HR are 300$

[Haris Javed]

3 hours ago, marti23 said:

Thank you for the amazing explanation and examples. To answer your first question, I just found a pair of headphones that are open back. I have never used open back and in my room it's dead silent, so I don't mind the sound coming or leaving them. But is there any benefit compared to normal non open back headphones? Mainly I care if the sound inside the headphones is sealed (I don't lose sound). And about your second question. I got the 560S on sale for 150$, but later that day I found HD 599 on sale but for 120$. I don't like the look of them at all, but is the 30$ price difference good enough, so I would spend a little bit less?

Hi, the benefit of open back headphones is that their “soundstage” seems larger and they have less resonant frequencies. So the sound feels more open, large, and dispersed (imagine a speaker in a room). Due to less resonant frequencies the sound is also cleaner. You can also try X2HR by Philips as they are easy to drive, get fairly loud, and have a smooth bassy sound signature, if you want more neutral sound that’s accurate without any frequency emphasis then try the HD headphones. 

[rice guru]

I also vote for the x2 hr here the 560 is a very weak model for your music genres imo.