Headphone Recommendation

[DemandedGoblin]

Hi I have recently bought a GO XLR understand they get a lot of hate for being overpriced but got a good deal and besides the point anyway; am looking at getting some new headphones budget is about £350/$400ish which would be compatible with the GO XLR (which i understand is most if not all). I live rural and no where within 2 hours of me has any mid/high end headphones so cant see any before i buy. Been looking at the sennheiser HD600 and the beyer dynamic pro x online. Leaning towards the sennheiser going only off reviews but open to new suggestions in the price range.

 

Thanks for any help and wisdom imparted.

[CTR640]

The first important question: what do you seek in headphones? Immersive audio for gaming and movies or critical listening?

[DemandedGoblin]

14 minutes ago, CTR640 said:

The first important question: what do you seek in headphones? Immersive audio for gaming and movies or critical listening?

Well I use these for gaming however moreso for general purpose youtube. Been using the astro a40s for the last 4 years and want something to last equally long if not longer

[CTR640]

Okay, and do you want more bass or neutral? For gaming I can recommend the Beyerdynamic Tygr or Amiron Home. The latter is a bit more expensive but it sounds very good. I own them both. For neutral, perhaps the DT880 600ohm. Though the DT880 and Amiron Home are both very underrated but they sound very good.

[DemandedGoblin]

2 minutes ago, CTR640 said:

Okay, and do you want more bass or neutral? For gaming I can recommend the Beyerdynamic Tygr or Amiron Home. The latter is a bit more expensive but it sounds very good. I own them both. For neutral, perhaps the DT880 600ohm. Though the DT880 and Amiron Home are both very underrated but they sound very good.

Not gonna lie im a bit of a sound noob, so a bit of bass wouldnt go amiss but not the end of the world if not too bassy. Is there any middle ground in the beyerdynamic range as you seem to know the brand well as a bit of a jump between the 2 price wise?

[CTR640]

13 minutes ago, DemandedGoblin said:

Not gonna lie im a bit of a sound noob, so a bit of bass wouldnt go amiss but not the end of the world if not too bassy. Is there any middle ground in the beyerdynamic range as you seem to know the brand well as a bit of a jump between the 2 price wise?

Then it would be the Amiron Home as the Tygr is a bassier headphone. This brand has been my favorite because they got headphones that are specific use like bass, studio, treble, comfort and so on. You can see that in my sig lol. But you can't go wrong with all 3 of them. The Amiron Home has a very laidback sound signature that are easy on the ears and yet they give a cinematic sound.

[DemandedGoblin]

Thanks for the recommendations, have any experience with sennheisers which was the other brand i was mentally debating with?

[CTR640]

Regarding Sennheiser, I'm afraid I can't help with that. I had the HD560S and this was the most boring, lifeless and fatiguing headphone I ever had. Soundstage is very narrow and bass is just not that great.

[Psittac]

Are you in the united states?  A quick google search says that the goXLR isn't designed for high impedance headphones, though this is coming from a community post and the product page says nothing.  Given that the thread was talking about it having a difficult time pushing 250ohm headphones to an acceptable volume I would avoid higher impedance headphones.  The mentioned headphones were the DT 990pro 250ohm which has a 96db sensitivity, that's about middle of the road.  So I would assume that you can get away with something that has a higher sensitivity, but I would stick to the lower ohm at any sensitivity category of headphones.  You could take a chance and tickle the HD650 which is 300ohm but 103db sensitivity.  My understanding is that the 6xx is a rebranded 650 but the massdrop link doesn't show the sensitivity.  They have a 30 day no questions asked policy so you could see if there are any glaring mismatches.  But given your budget I've heard excellent things about the 660s which would be easily run given the limited information I have to work with.  I would at least look at some reviews of this product.  If you're thinking of pulling the trigger on the 6xx you would have enough to purchase a separate amp just to power them and run the output of the goXLR to it while staying under budget.  I ADORE my 6xx because it is unlike anything I own, very intimate and it plays well with everything I own for dac's and amp's and shows the characteristics of each (they LOVE tubes for music).  The 660s isn't this way I believe IE: so critical, I would take a hard look at the 660s.

 

Another headphone to take a serious look at would be the HiFi-man Sundara, people Adore them and claim them among the best in the price range, but I couldn't tell you why.  Again do your due diligence in looking for reviews.

 

I intentionally left out Beyerdynamic because they always have a headphone to fit any need, of all of them.  I love every Beyerdynamic headphone I've listened to but that's only 3, the 770pro-80 880edition-600 and 1990pro-250 two of which I own.  They are very robust and will last years, same with the Sennheiser.  The DT lineup offers replaceable parts but given the only part that should have a problem on a good pair of headphones is the earpads and cable both should last for many years.  A friend of mine who is blind ran a pair of Sennheisers HD559 jubilee for 7 or 8 years at 10-12+ hours a day and the pads went flat before anything broke.  Hifiman has had a few issues with build quality but I ran a pair for about 5 years with zero issues.  All three of these brands will serve you well so long as you consider the power available to you from your source, or plan on adding an amp.

 

Oh and DO NOT let one or two reviews become a pitty party for something you may have been leaning towards.  I have umpteen headphones and the majority of them have a few reviewers that crap all over them even though I love them.  Zeos is my favorite reviewer, he's like a car salesman, looking for the best in everything so don't get hype trained right away and give a little more credit to the negatives he presents, but he is 100% batting on the headphones I have compared to his video's.  The one and only time he failed me was in a paid telegram chat where he recommended some pads for my t50rp and I almost vomited when I first took a listen, but after a while I found that while niche they make some music amazing, just not most of it.

[CTR640]

@PsittacI don't know this GoXLR thing but Amiron Home is efficient and easy to drive despite it being 250ohm. DT series on the other hand are harder to drive, yes.

[DemandedGoblin]

15 hours ago, Psittac said:

Are you in the united states?  A quick google search says that the goXLR isn't designed for high impedance headphones, though this is coming from a community post and the product page says nothing.  Given that the thread was talking about it having a difficult time pushing 250ohm headphones to an acceptable volume I would avoid higher impedance headphones.  The mentioned headphones were the DT 990pro 250ohm which has a 96db sensitivity, that's about middle of the road.  So I would assume that you can get away with something that has a higher sensitivity, but I would stick to the lower ohm at any sensitivity category of headphones.  You could take a chance and tickle the HD650 which is 300ohm but 103db sensitivity.  My understanding is that the 6xx is a rebranded 650 but the massdrop link doesn't show the sensitivity.  They have a 30 day no questions asked policy so you could see if there are any glaring mismatches.  But given your budget I've heard excellent things about the 660s which would be easily run given the limited information I have to work with.  I would at least look at some reviews of this product.  If you're thinking of pulling the trigger on the 6xx you would have enough to purchase a separate amp just to power them and run the output of the goXLR to it while staying under budget.  I ADORE my 6xx because it is unlike anything I own, very intimate and it plays well with everything I own for dac's and amp's and shows the characteristics of each (they LOVE tubes for music).  The 660s isn't this way I believe IE: so critical, I would take a hard look at the 660s.

 

Another headphone to take a serious look at would be the HiFi-man Sundara, people Adore them and claim them among the best in the price range, but I couldn't tell you why.  Again do your due diligence in looking for reviews.

 

I intentionally left out Beyerdynamic because they always have a headphone to fit any need, of all of them.  I love every Beyerdynamic headphone I've listened to but that's only 3, the 770pro-80 880edition-600 and 1990pro-250 two of which I own.  They are very robust and will last years, same with the Sennheiser.  The DT lineup offers replaceable parts but given the only part that should have a problem on a good pair of headphones is the earpads and cable both should last for many years.  A friend of mine who is blind ran a pair of Sennheisers HD559 jubilee for 7 or 8 years at 10-12+ hours a day and the pads went flat before anything broke.  Hifiman has had a few issues with build quality but I ran a pair for about 5 years with zero issues.  All three of these brands will serve you well so long as you consider the power available to you from your source, or plan on adding an amp.

 

Oh and DO NOT let one or two reviews become a pitty party for something you may have been leaning towards.  I have umpteen headphones and the majority of them have a few reviewers that crap all over them even though I love them.  Zeos is my favorite reviewer, he's like a car salesman, looking for the best in everything so don't get hype trained right away and give a little more credit to the negatives he presents, but he is 100% batting on the headphones I have compared to his video's.  The one and only time he failed me was in a paid telegram chat where he recommended some pads for my t50rp and I almost vomited when I first took a listen, but after a while I found that while niche they make some music amazing, just not most of it.

No I am in the UK so very limited in terms of actual stores and realistically have to order online somewhat blindly to test but with the amount of great recommendations thats a lot of choice. From a brief google I couldnt quite understand the difference between the sennheiser 600, 650 and 660 (apart from slight price differences) but not gonna lie all this ohm and db sensitivity doesnt mean anything to me just confusing numbers. Thanks for the advice

[Psittac]

On 3/20/2023 at 1:47 PM, DemandedGoblin said:

No I am in the UK so very limited in terms of actual stores and realistically have to order online somewhat blindly to test but with the amount of great recommendations thats a lot of choice. From a brief google I couldnt quite understand the difference between the sennheiser 600, 650 and 660 (apart from slight price differences) but not gonna lie all this ohm and db sensitivity doesnt mean anything to me just confusing numbers. Thanks for the advice

The way I look at Ohm's and Sensitivity is that the ohm is how much force it takes to move and sensitivity is how much is produced when it actually moves.  Lower ohm takes less power, lower sensitivity makes less sound with the power it has.  Higher Ohm takes more force, higher sensitivity makes more noise with the power it has.

 

There is a type of headphone called Planar Magnetic that typically has a low ohm but also low sensitivity, So they need more power to run.  The Amiron that @CTR640 is talking about is higher ohm but also higher sensitivity so you don't need as much power.

 

Think of it like torque and horsepower, some cars have a lot of one and a little of the other and vice versa, but both can be fast in their own way.

[DemandedGoblin]

11 hours ago, Psittac said:

The way I look at Ohm's and Sensitivity is that the ohm is how much force it takes to move and sensitivity is how much is produced when it actually moves.  Lower ohm takes less power, lower sensitivity makes less sound with the power it has.  Higher Ohm takes more force, higher sensitivity makes more noise with the power it has.

 

There is a type of headphone called Planar Magnetic that typically has a low ohm but also low sensitivity, So they need more power to run.  The Amiron that @CTR640 is talking about is higher ohm but also higher sensitivity so you don't need as much power.

 

Think of it like torque and horsepower, some cars have a lot of one and a little of the other and vice versa, but both can be fast in their own way.

Thanks for all the help