I'm thinking about getting some headphones because my wife doesn't always appreciate my selection of music.

I've been doing research and reading reviews in magazines and online. I also did a search under the 990 section to see if anyone has discussed headphones at any length. Not much going on.

Can I get some feedback on what headphones everyone is using and comments on how they sound with the 990 (proud owner for about 6 months now).

If I do get headphones I'll use them to listen to stereo music. I haven't listened to music through headphones in 30 years and what I used back then were pretty cheap.

Any comments on listening to music through headphones as compared to speakers would be welcome also. I've killed the brain cells that held any memory of what it was like to listen to music through headphones and have never experienced listening through quality headphones.

This could be an interesting thread. Like you, I haven't used headphones any significant amount in quite a few years, and I haven't tried the 990's headphone jack except to figure out how it worked.

Depending on your budget and type of music, there are many quality headphones that you can purchase for your pleasure. Anyway here are my recommendation for following price range:

Under $50 - Koss Porta Pro
Under $100 - Grado SR 60
Under $250 - Grado SR 225 (best for rock&roll type of music)
(Grado generally feels little uncomfortable for me since I have BIG ears but with slight modification of headbend, they can be quite comfortable)
Under $300 - Sennheiser HD 580 (this one you can buy around $200 street price now since it is no longer their top model)

Best sealed ear-canal headphone - Etymotic ER4S (this one gives you 23db isolation, great for commute, air travels, and noisy environment but requires quality headphone amp to reach full potential)

And if price is no object and you love classical and jazz music, you might want to look into electrostatic headphones instead of dynamic headphones. Generally they are very expensive.

If I wanted to just plug my headphone into any available jacks (990, portable, computer, iPOD etc.) without the headphone amp, Grado SR60 will be my choice. However, for my 990 headphone listening, Sennheiser HD580 gets most usage and it sounds great. Try to audition as many headphones you can get with your favorate musics. Hope this info helps you to make informed buying decision.

Thanks justhavingfun, excellent feedback. I was looking to go as high as $250 to $300 but the problem I'm having is finding a local dealer to audition a set. I'm in the north Dallas area and have used different manufacturers website to locate local dealers but I'm having minimal success. Circuit City and Best Buy don't carry the higher-end models and Tweeter (suppose to be a dealer for Sennheiser) doesn't have anything in stock. Grado gave me one possible source but it's kind of far but maybe I'll make the trip.

Headroom seems to have a good price for the HD600 but I hate to buy without listening and I hate to take advantage of brick&mortor stores and then buy online. I may have to go the route of buying online from someone who has a money back guarantee if I'm not satisfied.

I've owned Grados RS-1 Headphones, Sennheiser HD-590s, and Sony's latest MDRSA-1000 and MDRSA-5000 brands and I have to say I like the Sonys best. Grados are awesome good but your ears hurt if you have them on for, say, 2 hours. Plus the build quality is not the most robust. My brother has owned several grados and the headband broke on both. This was surely due to treating them a little roughtly, but Sennhesier's and Sony's headphones can handle a little rough handling.
Between Sonys new SA line and Sennheisers is sort of a toss up. The Sony MDR-SA1000 can be found for $100 and is an *excellent* set of headphones. If I only had $100 for headphones I would buy those in a second, as I think they are quite comperable to the Sennheiser HD-590s which run for $140 or so on the used market. The MDR-SA5000 can be found for about $350 and sounds better better than the 1000, but I think most of the extra money went into excellent build quailty (leather pads, all metal frame).

If you are interested in all things headphone's here is a link you might try.

http://www.headphone.com/

You're right Oil Can it is a good site. They even seem to bust some headphones that they sell.

audvid,

If you plan to purchase HD600, you might want to invest on some good quality headphone amp to go with it later whether it's home use or portable. When I auditioned both HD580 and HD600, I preferred HD580 for non-headphone amp setup while HD600 really shined with the quality headphone amp. Now Sennheiser's top model headphone is HD650 which I didn't have a chance to listen to it yet. Here is another website for all headphone discussions, www.headwize.com; they have all kinds of reviews, info, suggestions for diy, etc.

Probably a dumb question, but since the 990 can use the Dolby Headphone processing, would different sets of headphones be better than others at getting the most from this capability? (I haven't even plugged in my 30+ year old headphones yet.)

My Senn HD580's sound pretty nice on the 990. As justhavingfun said, the 600's do sound better with a good headphone amp.

The Grados are also nice, but leaky to the surrounding environment.

I find the Senn 580's/600's to be among the most comfortable headphones I've ever had the pleasure of wearing. They're circumaural, and sit on your head, not on your ears. I love Grados for sound, but they're among the least comfortable for me. Aftermarket ear pads can make a big difference.

You can find 580's for under $150 from legit sources if you shop around online.

Yet another forum: http://www.headfi.com/

www.headwize.com seems to be down.

Yep, those Grado lines of headphone used to be extremely uncomfortable for me to wear longer than 30 min for me until I modified headband to fit on top of my head better. But for comfort, I still prefer HD580 any day over Grado lines. BTW, www.headwize.com website is working now. I believe the moderator over there is Chu Moy, the guy who popularized portable headphone amp with his cmoy design few years back. I think 990's Dolby headphone processing is designed with regular headphone in mind not any specially designed one. Comparing to old Sennheiser Cinema Pro? headphone processor, 990's processing does farely good job with it for headphone listening. It is nice feature to watch movies without disturbing others.

I'm a Grado guy now (rs-2s), though I've had some Senns (580s, 590s, 650s), and have some Ety ER4Ps.. for movies, I think I'd take Senns any day, for their comfort and great sound. I prefer the Grados for 2 channel, but they really do suck as far as comfort is concerned, and the cable is kind of cheesy too. Senn HD580s are awesome, and cheap ($120-150), but they are hard to drive - I really doubt the 990s headphone out would drive them worth a darn. HD595s are supposed to be much easier to drive, and sound better, tho they are closer to $200. Personally, I tried the headphone out on the 990 with my ER4Ps (extremely easy to drive), and I disappointed, so I would factor a headphone amp in regardless, and probably grab the HD580s if cost is a factor (but only if you get a headphone amp!). head-fi.org is a great site to find out more about phones, and pick up good deals in the classified section.

Regards

Rob

I spent some time with the 990's headphone jack over this weekend. Grado SR80, Senn HD580, and Ety ER4S were headphones that I tried. First of all, over the two channel music materials, it sounded fairly decent but nothing like having an headphone amp to drive the headphones. The highs were rather soft and little muddy sound. Mid range and bass seemed like all bunched up together without clear distinction among instruments. However, out of three headphones, I prefer HD580 to be most pleasing over others. The sound coming off Ety ER4S was harsh and very thin sounding. I guess I am used to listen to my headphones using quality separate headphone amp for musics. If you have never had a chance to use separate headphone amp, 990's headphone jack is par with other receivers, pre/pros that I used before. Although nature of Dolby processing gave little more wide sound stage, I still prefered to listen in two channel unprocessed sound of headphone. However, Headroom amp's (www.headphone.com) internal crossfeed circuit can be wonderful sounding on various music sources if you like those kinds of music processing. It is not same as cheap gimmicky sound of DSP (likes of jazz room, stadium, concert halls, etc....).

However, when I put the DVD movies for listen with the headphone, it simulated very decent movie soundstages with real sense of surround effects and directionality. True that I prefer watching movies with external speakers setup but if it is between listening at very lower volume externally vs. headphone at decent volume, I will take this Dolby headphone anytime. I used to use Sennheiser DSP Pro headphone processor for my late movie watching which I still do in my other two channel system but with the inclusion of Dolby headphone processing in 990, I tend to use its feature at late night viewing in my main HT system more often. If I am listening to two channel music only, I prefer to use my separate headphone amp portable rig. But if you don't own separate headphone amp, 990's inclusion of Dolby headphone processing will be welcome feature. BTW, separate headphone amp will bring out the full potential of many quality headphones out there but with not-so "good" quality cheap headphones will benefit very little sound improvement. So in my 990 system, the only time that I use its Dolby headphone feature is watching movies at late night. Again, this inclusion of Dolby headphone processing feature in 990 wasn't the deal breaker for me but it shows what an incredible bargain 990 really is. Outlaw design/research team really did a nice job bringing us one of the best full featured pre/pro out there.

I have the 580s and have had them for years. They are very good when you have a good contact but the cord connections to the phones themselves are very bad.

You constantly have to fiddle with them to get a good contact. This has been fixed in the 650 headphone design, but not the 600.