SO you think I should order the SR60 and the HD-497, compare the two and return one? I think I will do that. Which of the two is better, in your opinion?

IMO - It depends on YOU

I prefer the SR-60's ONLY because I already have the HD-580 and I didnt need ANOTHER Sennheiser of lesser ability.

I recommend you get both of them and try for yourself. I dont want to influence your choice. Keep me posted and updated on your activities...

You will not believe how much fun you can have in this hobby...I have 6 pairs of headphones ranging from $60.00 to $800.00 with me and I love all of them. Fotunately not all of them are mine...

So stop well before you get to my situation

I have a pair of Sennheiser RS-30 wireless headphones...they are pretty decent check the sale section if your interested in purchasing them.

If for some reason you want something good and cheap, I went with the Koss KSC-35's, and they were great. No ear fatigue from wearing them either. A .great thing for excercising or anytime you don't want something overbearin

gsferrari, you ever hear of Audiotechnica? Good friend of mine bought two pairs from them and loves them both.

Audiotechnica make some decent cans. I dont like their expensive clip-ons though...got better sound from cheap earbuds

Their woody headphones (W series with the wood finish) are pretty decent but beaten by other cheaper headphones...not bad though...

gsferrari, I think I will probably go with the HD497 due to their more comfortable ear-muff like design. However, while browsing Sennheiser's website I ran into a few sister-models, HD490-I, HD495-I, and HD500. The reason is, all three models have a more rugged design than the 497 and better frequency response. (Although I am not sure how freq. response for headphones are measured. I think it is not the same as freq.resp for speakers.) The HD500 is actually a circumaural headphone. What's the deal with these models? Why doesn't headphone.com carry them? Should I steer away from these? Thanks.

Yeah - they strike extremes in treble. You will like the 497 better. Dont discount the SR-60 - just order one anyway - you never know which one will tickle your taste buds...

What do you think of noise cancelling headphones? Are they open or sealed? Are they worth anything?

They are worthless...get Shure E2c or E3c instead...

They are obviously sealed with a reactive driver that returns sound outwards and out of phase with the incoming noise to counter it. More crap and trouble than its worth...
They concentrate on the noise cancelling, make you pay and give you crap sound to boot

I guess I will buy the SR60 and HD497 as soon as I get my laptop. But this following question has to do with the laptop: users of the Voodoo M:460 complain that the sound is weak even when using the headphone port, while Apple PowerBooks have very powerful sound. Is that possible? I assumed that sound output through the headphone/line-out port on laptops would be exactly the same for all laptops, since they use the same chip and probably the same D/A with minimal amplification, if any at all. So should I get an amp for use with laptops, since they have such weak sound?

I wouldnt decide on this issue until I have both the headphones and the laptop. I doubt its that weak - the headphone port on the 5660 was more powerful than my CD Player and I actually broke in my 580's using my notebook

Thank you very much gsferrari. You've been very helpful in cluing me into the trade. I just have one last question, and it's something you mentioned in another thread. How does one simulate surround sound when the source is not a binaural recording? I think you mentioned some software that converts any stereo source into a binaural one using customized HRTFs. Can said software convert, say, AC-3 audio into binaural? What about EAX based surround games? You may want to check out Dolby Headphone technology, which I think is very similar to converting surround sound into binaural. Based on your existing on algorithms that produces binaural, you may be able to tell whether Dolby Headphone is in fact of that nature. Also, the software you use, does it prerender all the audio or does it render on the fly? Thanks.

Here is the link to the sample :-

http://headwize2.powerpill.org/mmedia/am3d_intro.zip

I cant find the link to the software right now...will put up the link asap. But why dont you google this topic - plenty of info out there.

Anything can be converted "to a degree" to surround. Binaural is different from surround - Binaural is a technique and surround sound is a perception. Dolby headphones emulate this and some of them are pretty good at it. The software I use cant be used with all games - music is done with a buffer (I have to change the settings to suit my needs - I can place speakers anywhere in the imaginary space and the sound is faithfully replicated in my headphones) and games are done on the fly because of optimised algorithms in the game code. Only games that support this sort of stuff can do this - very realistic - Hitman 2 was just stunning and very VERY frightening with the surround sound effects

Do you know how much power does a headphone port from a portable have? The headphone port almost always double as a line-out, so I imagine the power is at a minimum, lest countless amplifiers be fried. Is there such a thing as a dedicated headphone port that is more amplified than a line-out port?

Headphone ports have a max of about 500mw - 1w I think line out is signal level approx 500 mw

not sure what your point is...