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I want compact headphones to use on my iPod (nano, the previous gen one.). Will probably sell my AKG’s and use these for gaming to.

Was thinking off
Grado SR60i or SR80i.

Any other suggestions? Max budget ~160 euro’s.

I will probably use a fiio e1 or e5+lod with it, since those are cheap. Don’t have that much money to blow on an amp.

I got a pair of Grado SR80. They’re nice but they hurt like a bitch until you’ve worn them in a bit. Also not very good if you don’t wish to annoy people in your surroundings.

I got Sennheisers and I wouldn’t want any other. They never hurt when you have them on, they have immens cable-length, incredible sound. But are expensive. Sennheiser is the best for me

http://etf2l.org/forum/off-topic/topic-15623/

Can definitely recommend the Alessandros. I personally have the Music Series One version and have the 4th gen Nano (basically the same as your 5th gen) and can say that it’s fully capable of driving the MS-1s without any amplification, and they sound so awesome.

I would describe the sound as extremely clear and crisp, so it’s not meant for the bass-heaviest tracks. They do lack a bit on the bass-end but not much, for example — my favourite band — the Arctic Monkeys sound very good on it, and I do enjoy listening to some Metallica on them too :)

But, as they are basically rebranded (and a bit improved) SR80s, they do indeed hurt until you’ve worn them in; for me it took about a week of multi-hour listening.
And as wolve said, they aren’t the best if you’ve got people sitting next to you, for example in a bus (have gotten some nasty looks on the bus myself :P )

I’m no expert when it comes to audio products but I do appreciate high quality audio, so this is just my uneducated evalution.

EDIT: Might not be the best headphones if you play games like BC2 where you have a lot of explosions and shit going on, but I’ve personally found them fully satisfying, not the best but satisfying.

Quoted from Shabbaman

[…]

I know you know more about audio than I do so I won’t recommend you a headphone… but is the quality of the mp3’s and/or the ipod enough to warrant an expensive headphone?

Yes. v0 is pretty much transparent. I will bypass the ipod’s amp (only have to deal with the shitty dac then, but the amps probably the worst anyways).

Quoted from dauk

also a hijack question : will senheiser hd555 will do ok with ipod nano older one ( i think its 3d or 4th )?

If unsure:

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/fiio-e5-3-5mm-earphone-volume-booster-power-amplifier-black-18350

Fiio E5, $17,40, and that’s including shipping! This iPod Shuffle-shaped baby can provide some extra juice to drive nearly any headphone under ~250 euros. With headphones with an impedance below 80ohm you should be fine in most cases (exceptions excluded).

Quoted from tesco

http://etf2l.org/forum/off-topic/topic-15623/

Sorry, but tobyy’s guide is not really accurate and mostly based on vague assumptions.

And yeah, 32ohm Grado/Alessandro models never need any additional amping. They are fine being driven by anything. Although my X-Can V8 helps ;D ;D

Shabbaman: Yes. This was also recently discussed in a similar topic. It’s still a controversial debate, but with most music I dare people to differentiate between a properly encoded V0 or V2 LAME mp3 and a lossless version of the same song. It’s a fact that when you look at the harmonic distortion and frequency response of any driver (be it speaker or headphone), the same variables measured at the source become quite insignificant.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. I don’t know what to do. Namu, help me.