Hi there

Forgive me as a humble newbie posting two consecutive posts, but I
spent a few days doing research and then spent about an hour testing
sealed cans, so I thought it might be useful for others seeking the
same info if I put my results down here.

I have a background working in professional live music, but as a
promoter and production manager and not as an engineer. I've worked in
most of London's large seated venues, and unseated up to about 1500
capacity (no arenas). Most of my experience with cans has been with
DT100s and some cheaper AKG units and Sennheiser HD212.

I wanted one pair of cans for a home studio to serve two basic
functions:

- recording vocals and acoustic instruments
- another for checking mixes against my monitors (along with hifi,
crappy stereos all used for checking mixes), and latenight music
making.

For these purposes the cans needed to be comfortable, reasonably
accurate and sealed (closed).

Based on reviews, price and opinions I was primarily looking at the
following:

Beyerdynamic DT250/250 - £75
Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro - £80
Sennheiser HD280 Pro - £75
AKG K271S - £85
AKG K171S - £76
Equation RP-20 - £80 - not available for test in the end

NB: I didn't look at Sony 7506 because these retail at £119 in the UK,
£40 to £45 more than most of the models here

So given that I know (that means I don't need to be told by someone
from Pedantopolis) that closed cans have their limitations and that
cans in general do not give an accurate stereo picture, here are my
entirely subjective opinions for anyone else who's looking.

Cans were tested with Gaslighting Abbie by Steely Dan played from an
Ipod through the stores (invisible) headphone amp.

Sennheiser HD280 Pro

Very nice balanced sound; decent amount of bass; flimsy not removable
cable (but not as bad as a lot of Sennheisers - I bust the cable on a
pair of £79 noise cancelling phones within about 3 weeks); good
siolation; very poor comfort - cans felt heavy and really pressed on
the head. This ruled them out for me.

Beyer DT250/250

Warm sound with good spread across the frequencies (some cans have no
mids), reasonable definition, reasonable bass response (much better
than DT100); pretty comfortable cans, much better than HD280; excellent
isolation; removable cable and replaceable parts

Beyer DT770 Pro

Very hard for to detect much difference between these and the DT250s -
both are 250 ohm impedence with similar response (and probably the same
drivers); isolation seemed the same (altho it is spec'ed as better);
quite comfortable but for me a slightly boomy bass gave the DT250s the
edge; seem well-built with a hard plastic casing

AKG K171S

these are not circumaural (covering the ear) but sit on top of the ear
- good for DJs or for foldback engineers, but too much noise for close
mic recording IMO, so i ruled them out.

AKG K271S

I am biased towards AKG phones as I think they are well thought out and
well made; these were by far the most comfortable and lightest phones
to wear; in my experience they are sturdy with a metal construction;
isolation was good; the sound was very detailed and engaging but
definitely light on the bass


CONCLUSION

I would say that the HD280 and the K271S had the best sound of the
bunch - neither compares with the K240S, but they're too noisy for my
requirements - with the K271S, DT250 and DT770 coming very close
behind. But there was no way I was buying the HD280 because of the poor
comfort and bad experiences with flimsy Sennheiser cables.

I couldn't decide at all between the DT770 and DT250, but since the
DT250 was cheaper and the bass seemed better controlled they seemed a
better choice.

So it came down to K271S or DT250, aware that the K271S had a very
detailed sound but was lacking in bass response - I was prepared to put
up with this since they would work well for tracking and as a contrast
to my monitors* - but they weren't in stock, and neither were the
DT250/250 (!) so I came home with a pair of DT250/80s (see my last
post).

First impression is that they're not as comfortably as I remembered :
). Anyhow I just put that down in case anyone else is also looking for
cans at that price point. Apologies for length.

Abdul


* I rercently bought a pair of the Samson Rubicon 6a powered monitored
with ribbon tweaters. If anyone's interested I'll post a brief review.