Circumaureal phone recommendation?

[Gizchops]

Hello Folks!

After two years of traveling, I'll be returning to England in a few days. and will be looking straight away to purchase something decent at last to listen to my music on. I'm ashamed to say that all I have currently is an iPod classic and apple ear-buds (I know). So...with the help of previous posts, I'm going to try and describe what I think I'm after. On my travels, I pop in high end music equipment retailers from time to time, and I've been surprised at the differences you can notice between sets of Phones. So, here goes...

Firstly, budget. Preferably under £250, however I'd consider being flexible if a tad more gets me a better pair.

Secondly, I live just outside Birmingham in England.

I'm thinking I would like some circumaureal style Phones. I'm not fussy whether they are open or closed style. I think I would enjoy a tighter soundstage. However, don't want there to be too much distortion, as I prefer as natural a sound as possible. I don't want them to leak too much sound, as I don't want to disturb other people or have them be able to hear my music. I want them to be as noise canceling as possible though.

They will be mostly for home use, however sometimes for out and about, on journeys/ traveling. I don't like too much physical activity so they won't be getting sweaty or anything.

I like my music to sound as natural and well balanced as possible. I like a nice warm, deep bass, but not overpowering. (Seismic?). I like vocals to be clear and intelligible as possible. Trebles and mids to be clear and detailed. Trebles not to be too sharp though. Overall, warm, sweet, liquid, transparent, with good transient response. Hope that's not too much to ask!

Stuff I will listen to/ Genres I like mainly... Rock stuff like Pink Floyd/ 60s stuff... Acoustic stuff like Neil Young/ Angus & Julia Stone... Indie & Alternative stuff like James/ Radiohead... Electronic stuff like M83/ Pet Shop boys... and I'll also be listening to movies on them too, and using them for practice on a digital Piano.

I'm also going to be buying a Cowon player, I think. Probably the popular J3. I'm also planning on plugging them into a macbook, and using them with a high end system I'll be buying from Music Matters.

Finally as well as the phones, I was wondering if you guys could recommend a pocket amp that would work well with whatever suggestions you have, as I'm new to this whole game, and any advice you have in laymans terms would be much appreciated!

Many thanks in advance
Keep on groovin'
Gary

P.S, I will be putting all my music into lossless or 320 bit MP3 format.

[CrowdAds]

[jupitreas]

AKG K550 (£175)
Nice balanced sound signature with slightly emphasized bass. Very comfortable and you won't even need an amp for them as they have an impedance of 32 Ohms.

[The DarkSide]

Those akg's are said to be excellent. I'd love to try them myself,...

[Mikerman]

You might want to check out Aiaiai phones. I like the look, personally, and the sound is good, from my limited trial of them. I have to say, though, that I wish that the headband was padded underneath--the hard band can be, well, hard. I wonder what mods might be possible there . . . .

[Gizchops]

Thanks for the recommendations folks. I'm back home now so can start looking.

So at what impedance does one start to require a pocket amp?

[jupitreas]

Originally Posted by Gizchops

Thanks for the recommendations folks. I'm back home now so can start looking.

So at what impedance does one start to require a pocket amp?

This is somewhat difficult to answer as impedance is not the only factor in play here. Sensitivity is also very important, among other things.

With this said, I'd say that about 100 Ohms is probably an impedance number that might indicate the need for a headphone amp. This is obviously a broad generalization but its a place to start.

[Gizchops]

Thank you Jupitreas, I will try and look more into this.