Headphone Advice

[kovalchuk71]

Hello guys, I am relatively new to headphone buying and am looking for some reccomendations/ pointing in the right direction. I am looking to spend anywhere from 150-250 on on-ear headphones. Looking for comfort, as I will be wearing these on planes and around campus. Open or closed is fine. I listen to about 40% rock/Alternative 40% Hip-Hop/Rap, and 20% Techno. I will be using these with an ipod if that helps. Any reccomendations? I would prefer outside sound muffling, but its not a total necessity. Thanks for helping the newbie!

[hyroboarder]

Open cans won't be good for airplanes or sound 'muffling' of any kind, so look for a closed pair. At your flexible budget, look for sennheiser. They make very nice cans and you won't be disappointed if you spend what your comfortable budget will allow. As for the percentages, sennheisers usually make good all around phones. Normally if you spend enough, no particular genre is actually going to sound bad.

[dimmer]

You need the Sennheiser HD25-1 (not the HD25-SP its cheaper cousin). Closed so they let not too much sound in or out, small enough to be still portable, and very robust. Sound quality is well above average for its class (maybe still the best sounding portable out there, depending on your opinion of some more cost effective Audio-Technica models like the ATH-ES7). For your stated price range there is not that much competition, unless you go to much larger sized headphones like some Denon, ATH or Beyer models, but these are no longer portable, and there is no guarantee that an iPod will drive them particularly well without an additional amp.