trying to achieve the impossible

[philodox]

If I can't get happy with the Donuts as my second headphone, I'm selling them back to steve and getting a pair of MS-Pros.

[ojnihs]

In all honesty, however, the best headphones that I've used for metal are the ER-4's. Well I guess their earphones, but that's besides the point. The clarity and speed of the etys sure do kick some ass with metal.

[aerius]

In all honesty, however, the best headphones that I've used for metal are the ER-4's.

This greatly confuses and upsets aerius' worldview on audio. aerius will have to go meditate and devote much thought to this latest development, and he can't shake the feeling that he's going delusional and seeing things.

[Iron_Dreamer]

I still say the best solution is to have 2 headphones. There are some things which my K340 can't quite do, which is why I have the Grado 225. If I'm going to have a Slayer-fest, I'm reaching for the Grados.

This is definitely how I feel as well. There are headphones that excel at giving an expansive, airy sound (i.e good for symphonic) and headphones which excel at giving ass-kicking bass (good for metal and electronica among other things). The best solution for one who likes music falling into both camps is to have one headphone for each. To me, the L3000 is only satisfactory (not exemplary) for classical music, and I'd certainly like to have an Omega II to complement it. Even the highest levels of headphonedom are not immune to specificgenritis, IMO.

The HD650 (or 600) is an adequate solution to cover both genres, yet excel at neither. The bass is too slow for metal, and I've never heard the soundstage reach the utmost levels of refinement for classical (even with uuuber-toooob amps) that I've heard from the OII, R10, 010, etc. The upside of the Senns is that they lack the capacity to sound grating/tiring which the OP seems concerned with. Back when I was limited to that budget range, I found the harder (perhaps more tiring) edge of the SA5000 tolerable enough to enjoy the superior bass definition and imaging it yielded for the two genres in question. Crazy as some might think me to say it, I'd still rather own that headphone than an HD6x0, K701, DT880, or CD3000.

[Dusty Chalk]

I completely disagree with both of you. If you only listen to part of the music, then maybe, but I tend to listen to the gestalt, so nice bass is nice bass, be it the opening gank on "Sabrina" by Einsturzende Neubauten, or tympani emulating the rumble of thunder in Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite. And impact is impact, be it the electronic opening to Talk Talk's "Happiness is Easy" or the cannon shots in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

And I disagree that you need Grado forwardness for metal. Metal is typically recorded plenty forward; I don't find myself straining to hear anything when I listened to metal on my Sennheiser HD600/AudioValve RKV combo, much less my current listening setup. I can only suspect y'all are deaf at those frequencies, if you need them slightly raised.

[aerius]

And I disagree that you need Grado forwardness for metal. Metal is typically recorded plenty forward; I don't find myself straining to hear anything when I listened to metal on my Sennheiser HD600/AudioValve RKV combo, much less my current listening setup. I can only suspect y'all are deaf at those frequencies, if you need them slightly raised.

For me it's not the Grado forwardness which makes them great for metal, it's the Grado tone, they just get crunchy electric guitars & pounding drums right in a way which I haven't heard in any other headphone.

[postjack]

For me it's not the Grado forwardness which makes them great for metal, it's the Grado tone, they just get crunchy electric guitars & pounding drums right in a way which I haven't heard in any other headphone.

I agree, its the tonality of the RS-1 that makes it one of my favorite cans, and my favorite can overall for rock and jazz (this same tonality that does so well for distorted guitars also makes horns excel, IMO. in fact I think the RS-1 might be a better jazz phone then a rock phone ).

[Dusty Chalk]

Okay. I don't hear it that way, but I'm not disagreeing that you do. At least I understand y'all better.

[Thelonious Monk]

i think i have enough opinions now, and i'll start shopping around again. i wanted to stick with one headphone for simplicity's sake, but may just end up with multiple pairs once more. i could shell out a few thousand for some of the near-unobtainium cans, but i'd rather be spending all of that money on music -- it'd be rather horrible of me to spend so much dough on audio, where it could be going to actually owning half of the albums i pirate. i'll probably end up with a good ss amp (thinking ec/ss, gs1, b22, etc) and hd6x0s/grados.

[postjack]

i'll probably end up with a good ss amp (thinking ec/ss, gs1, b22, etc) and hd6x0s/grados.

I think this is a great idea.