If your going to be using these at 2am with room mates you might want to limit your choices to a closed headphone. I own both the Grado 125's and Sennheiser HD280's and power both of them with Grado RA-1 amps, Sound wise they both have their strenghts. The grados sound the best, no doubt but comfort is an issue. After a couple hours i simply cannot wear them anymore. The sennheisers do sound somewhat nasal and boxed in compared to the grado's, however its not as easy to recognize unless your doing straight a/b comparisons. The sennheisers are alot more comfortable and offer significant noise reduction due to the closed design where the grado's offer none.

Overall for headphones Im not necessaraly looking for the best sound, because there are other factors that need to be considered so in this case i would vote for the Sennheisers. The grado's DO sound better but theyre not as comfortable, theyre more expensive, and they dont offer any isolation. If I want ultimate sound quality i'll turn on my stereo, The headphones arent meant to be an alternative, or replacement. Only a different way of listening when I cant turn the stereo on.

You can get the Sennheiser HD280's for around $75 from amazon, which is the cheapest ive found.

Last edited by Haoleb; 09/12/06 12:31 AM.
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