[PurpleCow]

Hey guys, I'm new here but I've visited a handful of times but never really made an account. Anywho I just got myself a Xonar Essence STX and I'm using an old pair of HD555s. I was wondering where can I go from the hd555s, I'm looking for a great pair that is well balanced. To be honest I still don't know much about good quality cans, the only thing I know is that they sound better than my old ipod headphones.
 
Anyway I want to be wowed by my next can, I want it to blow the hd555s out of the water. Can that be had with a 200 dollar budget? how about 300? 
 
what are my options for the 
 
200 range -
300 range -
 
?

 

[wje]

What are you driving the headphones with?  Do you have an amp?

 

[GLdgShDjKsHT]

you d better double your budget cause better means you will need an amp too 
 

 

[PurpleCow]

the Xonar Essence STX has a built in head phone amp

 

[PurpleCow]

what about the HD600?

 

 

[TMRaven]

You will still want a good external amp.  There are a number of decent amps that are quite powerful and are in the sub 200 dollar range.

 

[PurpleCow]

may I ask why the headphone amp on the STX is not enough?

 

 

[TMRaven]

It's rated at 300ohms-- the HD600 is.  There have been a good amount of recent threads where the topic starters were wondering why their headphones sounded off while using the asus card, and the general consensus on all of them was that it wasn't powerful to adequately drive their headphones-- which ranged from some of the 300ohm sennheisers and the akg701-- which has low impedance but very poor sensitivity.  The general consensus is they are driven decently, but not to their potential.  And for spending as much money on a headphone as the HD600, ideally you'd want them to sound their best to justify the type of money you spent on them.
 
Then again I could be quite wrong.  This is one of the few times where I'm commenting out of my means and moreso relaying other people's information instead of having any person experience with the subjects of discussion.