I've been running some AKG ATH-M50 Headphones with Explorer 2 and they sound pretty good, especially for the price and being closed back.

I'm thinking of trying a pair of open back headphones and stepping up a notch.

Thinking of HD650's (or HD600's), maybe HD700's.

Are these a good match for the explorer 2?

Curious about proper impedance matching?

I really want to stay under $500.

You can get the "Massdrop" version of the HD650's for $350.00

Also considerinhg the Shure SRH1540 closed back headphones, if open backs are just too loud for co workers.

Possible the HD700's. Those (along with HD800) look incredibly bulky though. I've heard HD700 and HD800's are not as "Neutral" (not that, it's a requirement).

These will be primarily used at work with a fairly "open" office environment. They are not cubes but it not wide open either (not partitionless). We have random partitions here and there to break it up a little.

A good test that I found for seeing how loud open backs are was to open up a closed set of headphones and that's about how loud it will be it. It seems like it will be Ok. We have a lot of "white noise" from computers too. It's just bairly under the bar as acceptable. My closest co-worker said no problem. I'm not sure I would personally like it if I was concerntrating and could hear it. But I think it's worth a shot. Leakage into them is not an issue.

I hear open backs are closer to what speakers sound like, which I've always preferred. I also read closed backs actually produce deeper bass. I do like my bass.

Any other must try headphones, I keep seeing the HD600/HD650 as the reference standard everyone likes to compare to.

FYI: I plan to keep the Explorer 2 I just got (and not for MQA), I've already canceled my Tidal Trial. I will be trialing Roon soon (maybe afterI get new headphones). I doubt I'll keep any paid streaming service. But I'll see what the hub bub is all about. User interface was very nice on Tidal though.

Last edited by Fiddler; 2017-02-02 18:04.
- Fiddler (IMHO)

If you think listening to music is fun, try learning an instrument.
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