[redoctober]

It's 5 AM, I'm sitting in a university library the night before finals, and I have a problem.
 
I should be studying, but instead I'm just sitting here listening to my recently re-discovered Phish and Beatles remaster flacs, writing my first post on here, and can't decide which pair of headphones to invest in.
 
Ever since I borrowed my friend's sony mdr-700djs last night (and a pair of studio Beats now...I know, I know) when my Bose IEMs finally broke after years of cable held together with electrical tape, I've been looking for the perfect first pair of cans to buy.  I've never had anything better than the aforementioned Bose IEMs, other than a (borrowed) pair of QC2s for a summer about five years ago, and decided that for my birthday in a few weeks I want a legitimate set of headphones.  After hours of searching-mostly through old threads on here-the two front-runners for me seem to be the Sennheiser PXC 450s or the HD 600s.  I mostly (read: exclusively) listen to music through my Macbook and iPhone/iPod, and realize I'll also need an amp, and am looking at the FiiO E7 and a dock-to-RCA cord for the iPhone.  At first I was leaning towards the 450s, but the reviews of the 600s seemed almost overwhelmingly positive compared to the 450s somewhat lukewarm descriptions on here.  Noise canceling isn't a huge sell point to me, especially with a trade-off of sound quality, but my only concern with the 600s at this point is that I've read that they're quite loud to observers, and a lot of my listening now (and for the foreseeable future) is done in libraries studying.  I also travel on occasion and want to be able to use them on the plane, which is how I initially came to the 450s.  How much of a problem is it really?  I've also read a few disappointing reviews of the 600s durability, but they seem fairly sturdy in the videos I've seen.  I also think I saw a figure that said the 600s impedance was around 300 ohms, and the stats I read for the E7 put that right at the top of it's range.  Would they still work well together?
 
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  I'm perfectly open and willing to look at suggestions besides these two, but would love any insights into these two in particular.
 
With that, I'm glad to finally be getting involved in the audiophile community-my friend with the mdr-700s is heavy into DJing and mixing and I've had to help him set up or adjust his rig pretty regularly since he got into it a few years ago and he's been pushing me into it ever since, but all I ever gave in to was a great deal on a Bose Companion 3 set.  Sitting here now listening to Beatles on the Beats is amazing, and I can only imagine what it would sound like on a quality setup.
 
I hope now I can finally stop worrying about this and focus on my OChem....

 

[Melvins]

haha same here. Needa be studying my poli sci and algebra

 

[Digital-Pride]

If you plan on using your headphones in places like the library and on flights then open-backed headphones are not the way to go.  Not only do they not isolate noise at all(which will be a big issue on flights) they leak sound as well.  Not a large amount, but just enough that it likely become an anoyance in places like the library.  So instead here are some suggestions for ya:
 
Audio-Technica ATH-M50, A900
 
AKG K272HD
 
Beyerdynamic DT 770(32 or 250 Ohm version)
 
Denon AH-D1100
 
Sennheiser HD380PRO
 
Shure SRH840
 
Ultrasone HFi-780, PRO750
 
With all of these options you get great sound quality and the noise isolation needed outdoor situations.