So as I continue my most excellent journey through this world of headphones and portable audio, I find little areas where I clearly prefer one "type" over another. My latest revelation is that I think I much prefer on-ear cans over circumaural ones. This may be one of the reasons why I fell in love with the Grados so much.
Yesterday I took delivery on a pair of BeyerDynamic DT880s, the 600 ohm version. As a disclaimer, let me say that I have not yet heard them with a proper amp. All I had on hand was my little Fiio E11 portable, which surprisingly drove them to adequate listening levels, but I know it's not a appropriate source of amplification for a 600 ohm phone. But anyway, although they already sounded far better than the Sennheiser 518s that I sold after a couple months, I have to say that I still don't like the way it has this "you're in a cave" presentation of a circumaural headphone. I know that MOST headphones seem to be the type that go over your ears like these two, but I don't really see anyone else taking issue with it except me. There is just something weird about the sound to me when it's "cupped in" like that, whereas the on-ear style of the Grado was nice and open, as if the music were in the room and not cupped to my head.
Can any of you guys relate to this at all, or am I the weirdo here?
