Viper8547:
The Senn HD555's are a great pair of all-around headphones. Solid bass, clear midrange, and lots of detail. 99 bucks is a great price for them. I'd recommend to buy the HD555's first as I think that they'll be more than enough for regular mp3 usage and gaming.

I'm in a conundrum, myself - birthday's coming up and my parents are being unusually kind lately, so I may just overreach my bounds and ask for some good headphones and money to build an amp! My concern is that, with my typical music load (a lot of alternative, indie, punk, and metal, along with a sizable quantity of house/trance, blues/jazz, classical, and folk/world...yeah, too many CDs, too little time), I won't be able to find a pair of headphones that could do everything justice. I've had my eyes on the Grado SR60s, the Senn HD555s, and the Beyer DT231s, amongst others, but again, my concern is having something that will do everything proper justice when driven by a decent amp (thinking a PIMETA-style solid-state for starters, maybe stealing some tubes from my audiophile friend and building a valve one). Budget is $100 or less, but I can stretch it a bit.

One thing still not clear to me:

- Is using an amp on a headphone port (not lineout) 100% (ok, or 99%) useless, or is it still better than using only the headphone on the headphone port?

My ultra-mini review of the Senn HD280Pro.

Sounds real nice--natural. A bit light on bass.

Painful to wear for extended periods of time (oh the pressure!).

wanting headphones here. I have the sennheiser 212 pro. 3 years now. kid tore up one of the foams and plus over the past few months, it loses sound on one side or the other which i have to get repaired.
im no audiophile but the sound wasnt too solid. hard to explain. the bass wasnt too tight. especially mid-range. primary need is listening to mp3 songs over ipod. (256kbps to lossless). mostly rock and 80's pop. some gaming and movies but not the primary concern. so not worried about surround etc etc.

budget is $70-$150. looking at senn's 280 pro. i mostly look at CNET for the reviews. help needed please.

ever use Icemats? They're cheap but durable , comfortable and great quality. Only problem is i think they stopped making them. You can get them off ebay.

yup icemats aernt widely available. but i dont care too much about price - performance ratio. that may be why senns 280 pro's are rated so high on cnet. i just care about solid sound coming from ipod and even my comp. sometimes.
ive started looking at grado sr125's. Denon AH-D2000 and ultrasone HFI-700.

anyone have experience with these and review of the senn's 280 would also help

Hmm the 280 Pros I tend to find the best value for under $100. Use them all the time for a set of monitoring headphones while I am mixing and love em. I jsut wish they folded up a bit tighter, but I can live with that.

They are plastic, so be careful with em for that. I personally tend to be rough on my equipment, but mine have lasted for several years now. I put to bands of gaff tape around where the padding ends on the headband, one on either end, and the paddding has remained fairly consistent since then. The earcups are not eternally rotating of course, so be careful you don't force them where they don't want to go. Yea that is about it for negatives, some people say they aren't all that heavy on the bass, I tend to listen mch more for accuracy in my work using them, so I don't pay to much attention to them, I enjoy the bass on them myself, but I am not a huge fan of the rattle your entire car so much it overpowers your music with bass, side of life anymore.

Seablade

The 280 Pros are good. The pressure the headphones exert on your head can be quite uncomfortable after awhile though.

Lacks a little bass punch, but sound very clean and musical overall.

anyone with grado's here. ive been looking at some audio forums and reviews. seems to be a love/hate thing with many users.

I have a pair of Grado SR-80s. I also have a 2 year old pair of Senn HD280 Pro and Senn PX100 for portable/work use. The Grados were somewhat of a disappointment. They have tons of detail. So much so, that they sound a bit bright to me. (Overly strong in the mid-highs). Bass is there but it's weak. They are open-air and everyone around you will hear your music regardless of volume.

The HD-280 Pro are my monitoring cans. I use these when editing/mixing audio and for general listening. These are connected to an old JVC receiver's headphone output. The receiver is connected to the secondary line-out on my desktop PC. I have an old Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card and the sound produced is excellent. The receiver's headphone amp is among the best I've heard. The only step up from here would be a dedicated headphone amp. Driven straight from a computer's headphone output, the HD280 Pro do lack bass because they require strong amplification. My headphones are the low impedance version.

I also have a pair of Senn PX-100 that I use with portable players and with my HP NC8430 laptop while at work or while traveling. The sound quality of these small headphones is amazing for their size. Just beware that if you turn them up, everyone around you will also hear what you are listening to as these are an open air design. I love these and spend more time listening to them than the others. Honestly, I will probably sell the Grados as I just don't use them like I use the others.

I also have auditioned the Senn HD-555 and really liked them. Comfy and they have great sound.

I too would highly recommend any kind of Sennheisers. I had a pari of street-style PMX-60's, and the sound was stunning, even if the bass was a little weak. The next ones up, the PMX-100 and PMX-200 have subtle improvements over past headphones, perfect for crystal-clear audio for gaming.

heh long time no posting here. just an update. i got the grado 80's few months back. and this review is pretty much spot on. bass is not that weak and u can control it if u have a 10 band equalizer. and it doesn't lose detail. but yes, every detail is greatly accentuated. even treble, hisses etc. In fact, sounds worse on my onkyo amp. not greatly disappointed but was expecting more. problem is not many places u can try this high end stuff out and very varied sources. mp3's, cd's etc. i heard $120 AKG's at guitar center and they sounded like junk. i'll try senn's next.

i have a cheap chinese headphone..but hey its too good for its price