well then to answer the guys question -   yes they leak.  i think a lot.  pfillion doesnt think its that much.  so the answer is somewhere in that range lol.  Best of luck  

  maybe you have very tolerant coworkers    they leak.  IMO, alot.  which was his concern.  i dont think its really debatable, as everyone seemingly is in agreement that they leak...the degree to which that leakage is tolerable may vary.

  they leak like theyre open.

  Had both.  HE500.  The x00 was fun, certainly a quality phone, and excelled in particular genres. felt the 500 was a better all rounder, was generally better in a lot of regards and was close enough to giving me what the x00 was better at that i would just take the 500 over it.  

  lol that makes me rethink ever buying used headphones ever again....................................

  i thought they were ok with metal.  however thats primarily where i felt the recession of the mids, so the vocals felt more distant, and the guitars were a little more laid back.  That was an issue for me, but it might depend on the genre of metal, or preference on how you like your presentation.

OR you can grab a used one on the classifieds and mod it to taste.  there is no plastic ring on earth they could have jammed in there that can justify what is realistically double the price.  Take the discount on the regulars IMO.

you bought all of this stuff for money didnt you?  Use that as a starting point, depreciate according to condition and check it against whats going on in the classifieds for comparable gear.......i dont understand how anyone can acquire that much gear and not know value for what they have.  you...

Thanks. At some point id consider upgrading the amp, just not soon. If it can scrape by for now thats fine. And i wouldve thought streaming music would be the bigger bottleneck

I've got a magni/modi schiit 2 stack, and use spotify as a source.  that setup sounds fine through my HE500, but would that be enough to utilize an hd800?  Or is the hd800 SO much more revealing and power hungry this wouldnt be a decent enough setup for it?

  well I havent had the IS's that long yet, but i think i prefer them.  there's nothing harsh or fatiguing anymore.  they seem more balanced than before.  I often found myself EQing the I's just to soften it out because it was SHARP as much as i loved them.  I couldnt imagine the e's if they...

So I had a set of I's.....and they were every bit as sharp and high as everyone said.  but i loved them anyways, and sold them to try other things.   just picked up a set of IS's because i missed my grados, and theyre not anywhere NEAR the highs that the I's were.  so either the IS's really...

  awesome thanks so much.  Is there a big difference between these and the e's you think?

were only the is' available in the chrome?  im looking to pick one up, but the guy doesnt know exactly what version it was.  or is there another way to ID versions?

thanks everyone.  i think im just going to find a 325e and call it good.  save some cash, and i know i liked the sound overall