RedSky

You know I really wish I could try them out somewhere because visceral deep base, articulate and good soundstage for closed phones sounds like something I could really enjoy but alas, living where I am I'm kind of forced to go for more safer/universally accepted options I only meant trashed in the sense that virtually everyone on this forum seems to be totally against them whereas Head-Fi is the opposite

Well yeah of course, it's all relative

Yeah, I seem to be getting the hint from everyone that portable amps will cripple/mutilate/... 300 ohm HD600/650s but ah well. Guess I may as well start out with a mini^3 because I'll be using them on the move most of the time, then later on I'll get a pleasant surprise when I finally get around to grabbing a home amp

I'm starting to lean towards just grabbing a HD600/HD650 and a portable amp (probably second hand HD600s if I can as they're apparently easier to drive). Looking at a few pics of them, they look passably nerdy to walk around in ... plus they're Senns so they're instantly more acceptable I mean, HD-25s sound great but they're maybe $50 cheaper than the aforementioned. Besides, even if I can't get them to sound the best with a portable amp that gives me upgrade potential for a home rig later on. Sure, they're not closed like the HD25 but I'll live with that I guess. ES7 sound interesting too but a bit on the cheap side, think I have enough $50-100 phones already thanks for the suggestions though

Yeah, basically I have some AD700s and iM716s at the moment and even though the iM716s sound mostly great all around, they're a tad too bright and I'm really missing the soundstage with them. I guess if I want portable and good soundstage though, there won't be a lot of options ... maybe it's more worthwhile just saving up for some higher end K701/DT880/HD600 or 650s ... Oh and yeah, the cherry wood ESW9s captivated me ... until I saw the price.

Thanks for the help guys, I hadn't noticed the HD25s before so thanks for pointing them out as an alternative.

Followed both topics where these headphones are trashed. So given that, what would be a good pair of portable (as in not massive sized), reasonably isolating bass emphasised phones around that same price range? The only other phone I've stumbled upon that fits into that category is the ATH-ESW9s and they don't supposedly isolate well, and cost a fortune. The MS2s/325is are said to be more balanced but still with loads of bass, yet they're not closed either and have an even more narrow soundstage than the Denons or Ultrasones supposedly ... ^^ (this is all based on hear-say of course ... )