I would say to get a good sound, dac is the first issue to solve. I rather you purchase a Dac (such as Fiio X3) + a cheaper headphone (Creative Aurvana live) than buying a higher range headphone for direct connection.

DAC is digital to analogue converter. If the analogue data is already not good, pairing with good headphone is meaningless. Unless, you plan to upgrade DAC in short time.

ATH M50, quite decent one. (it's different with other ATH series, consider more bass. Usually ATH headphone is with lesser bass)
If IEM, Vsonic GR07 MKII or bass edition

This post has been edited by liquidgal: Dec 30 2013, 02:37 AM

Hi, ATH M30 is definitely not a good choice. I owned one previously. Focus more on mid, expansion on treble and bass is not as good as superlux. ATH headphone is usually lesser bass.

Superlux, bass not bad. All its headphones also a bit sharp. If you are looking for cheap headphone for sound mixing I would say yes, it fit the purpose but for music appreciation, you can have better options.

DT231 pro, I am not so sure. But usually for lower range, I won't go for big brand.

You can consider Plextor D500 Evo price range RM100+, creative Aurvana Live RM300+
They are not for bass head. But the amount of bass is good enough.

This post has been edited by liquidgal: Dec 30 2013, 02:50 AM

Vsonic gr07 mkii or bass edition is a good one around this range. But without volume control and mic.
How big is the sound quality is really subjective. It also depends on how sensitive is your ear and how good is your sense in music. The best is to audition yourself.

Again have to mention, to get a good sound, DAC is the first issue to solve. Amp is also very important. Understand that you are going to get dac and amp in the future but not sure how soon that would be.
Buying a RM1k headphone for direct plug in to laptop, I would say it is somewhat wasted. Firstly, DAC is the first point that handle the music data. If the analogue data quality is 2/10, no matter how good is your headphone, the improvement is really minimal.
Secondly, put aside the DAP or computer build in amp power, usually headphones density above 100ohm, sensitivity below 90db needs amp. This is only statistic. Take AKG K601 as example. It's 101db and 120 ohm. But it's even harder to drive well as compare to akg K701. Directly plug into IMAC, sounds worst than ATH M30.

Of course there are higher range headphones that have lesser need in amp than K601 but still, they need amp to unleash the potential.

Not so sure how much do you plan to spend on your whole headfi system. This is important to determine what you are going to get and also the sound that you like is a factor as well.

If around 1k+-2k, probably you should at least get a Dac cum amp (more to DAC function such as Aune T1 or X1 MKII) + a mid range headphone, . Then you can slowly add in another headphone amp. If total budget up to 3K then you can get something at sennheiser HD600, beyerdynamic dt880, AKG K701 level + amp (lafigaro/ dark voice 332s) + dac (aune x1 mkii)

There are many choices for mid range headphones depending on what kind of DAC that you choose and the sound that you like.
Sennheiser HD598 (if you like thicker and warmer sound)
AKG K240s or AKG K271 MKII (K240s is consider quite dark in AKG series, K271 has better details and brighter than k240s) AKG are known as neutral, the bass amount not as much as sennheiser and beyerdynamic. AKG K612 pro can consider also, more humble sound than K701 but they are around the same level.
beyerdynamic dt770, DT990. (good dynamic and good for groovy songs).
ATH AD700X, AD900x (it got unique sound signature sound especially good for female vocal and jpop. but overall lesser bass than other brands that I have mentioned)


Everything is about mix and match. Without knowing what kind DAC and amp that you are having, is hard to recommend also.

If you upgrade to higher range headphone( for other brands), E12 might not be on par. It's more for IEM I would say. Of course there are headphones that have lesser need in amp such as ATH, Denon as compare to Sennheiser, beyerdynamic and AKG. But still the higher range one still need amp to unleash its potential.
Vmoda compare to other brands that I mentioned, consider quite bassy. If it is the kind of sound signature that you like then probably you can stick to it.

This post has been edited by liquidgal: Dec 30 2013, 04:19 AM

haha I think you maybe overlook. He wants to try Audeze headphones but not Aune DAC.

RM300+ can consider Creative Aurvana live. The sound is close to Denon 1100/1001.

Can consider Hifiman RE400. Its quite natural and comfortable sounding, not very punchy with strong attack but the sound is balance enough. Hifiman uniqueness is that it sounds like speaker. The details are clear with good separation. If got higher budget can consider Hifiman recently launched portable player HM700 + RE400B. RE400B is with balance output, the sound is even more clean and with better details. Sound more smooth as well.

Else if you can up budget to RM400+ can consider Vsonic GR07 MKII or GR07 bass edition. Gr07 is Vsonic flagship. MKII just stop production recently but you can still buy it in the market. To me MKII's sound is balance enough, only go for bass edition if you really prefer heavier bass. It's more pop sound as compare to hifiman.

If you can up your budget a little bit, I suggest ATH M50. Still the most popular model and even lots of musicians and composers use it for sound monitoring.
It is different with other ATH series. The bass amount is quite sufficient. (usually ATH headphones tend to have lesser bass)
Overall quite balance sound. Lesser need in amping compare to other big brand headphones such as k271, hd598 and so on. To me, suitable for all genres.

I think for guys shouldn't have a problem. But as a girl, I don't like wearing over ear in front of others, because after a while, my hair will be out of shape. Lol

If you were to buy a headphone to direct connect to laptop or iPod, I think the major factor that you have to consider is whether the headphone has lesser needs in amp.
Of course all headphones will sound better with proper amp. But some headphone has higher needs. They may still sound soft when you turn your volume to almost max.

Secondly, Ipod and laptop dac is only so so in terms of audio grade. To get a better sound quality, probably you can spend some money on DAC than to waste your whole budget on headphone. After all, headphones maybe the cheapest gear that you spend for the whole headfi system if you are really into it.

Actually we do send to Singapore also. Same postage fee with sending to West Malaysia. :-)

Usually Sony products will be slightly pricey than other brand which is having the same level sound quality. Of course Sony products do have a good build up quality.
xba-1 is quite entry level as compare to RE400.
Re400 is typical Hifiman sound signature. Natural sounding like a speaker, focus more on mid as the sound expansion on treble and bass is not very much. Not very punchy but comfortable for long time listening. If you prefer more pop sounding IEM, probably can consider sonic.

Or I should say RE400 sounds more flexible, GR07 sounds more direct. RE400 is nice for pop ballad as well.

This post has been edited by liquidgal: Jan 23 2014, 11:33 PM

the amount of bass is not little just that not so punchy and the expansion is not very much. Depends on what kind of music that you listen to the most. If you listen mostly to electronic, rock, punk, kind of stuff, probably go for Vsonic or other brand that with more direct sound. If most of the time you are listening to pop ballad, ost, classical, country, RE400 is a good choice. But maybe I shouldn't categorise them this way because ultimately is the sound signature that you like.

Bass should not be a problem, the key point here is direct (US sound) versus flexible (England sound). We do have demo unit but at Kepong, KL.

If it is for gaming, not so sure about IEM around this range. Usually headphone is more popular. You may want to consider Sades SA-902 which is slightly over RM100. It is a 7.1 surround sound headphone with build in sound card using usb connection (mean for computers). That means can't connect to your handphone.
Tested it before, beyond my expectation actually. For music listening, it sounds like normal music added with a lot of reverb, but for gamer, I guess this is what they are looking for.

If it is only for classical music, try to look for headphone focus in in treble and bass rather than mid. Focus in mid is good for vocal but may make the instruments sound blur. To me, classical music like orchestra and vocal are 2 different area to cover.
And classical music needs big sound stage to perform well. Headphone like beyerdynamic DT990 perform quite well in classical music but it's definitely not for portable and it needs better amp to drive as well.
Understand that you need it for portable use, but even if you spend all RM1.5k budget on headphone, your hand phone as a dac is a limitation.
This really depends on whether you want to upgrade in the future. If yes, then get a good headphone and upgrade other gears later on.
Else I rather you just grab a ATH M50 + fiio x3 /x5.

Sennheiser momentum and emperor are said to be easier to drive version of HD25-i-ii. With good amp, hd25 is definitely a better choice. (Or beyerdynamic DT1350, more refined kindly of sound.)
Sennheiser momentum to me is not a very balance sound headphone. Quite focus in mid, mid is slightly forward, bass is not very punchy, treble expansion is not so much. Suitable for pop and vocal but not big production.
Sennheiser Amperior is more suitable for classical, powerful with good dynamic. Mid bass is quite rich. Probably can go for this. I'm not sure how good E12 can drive it. I just tried it on other set up.

The rest of the headphone listed, KEF is a quite decent headphone but don't think you should go for it as you need headphone that has lesser needs in amp.

M50 as a popular sound monitoring headphone is actually quite balance sound. The reason that it doesn't sound balance to you might due to your set up.
Headphones could sound different over different set up. A proper and healthier M50 sound, is actually quite smooth and comfortable. Though sound stage is not very big, dynamic is not too outstanding but good enough.
When comes to AKG, the traditional AKG sound K701 is actually better for classical and orchestra. Sennheiser HD600 is quite good as well. But not easy to drive well.
Q701 is more pop sound and being released after the US company take over AKG. If you have chance, can try them out.

NAD HP50 received very good reviews at overseas. Its selling point is about the room feel. How they create the room feel is by enhancing the separation and increase the density of mid. So vocal and some instruments and mids will be more outstanding. It's not bad, clean sound, good dynamic and easy to drive. To me it's more suitable for pop.

Anyway, different people have different taste. Ultimately, we will still stick to something that we are comfortable with. Good luck in your headphone sourcing.

usually headphone will be stable after 200 hours burn in. better play in the volume that is half of the normal playing volume. Then can slowly increase after 2-3 days.
Fiio E12 itself is clean and thin. So that would affect also. Can also adjust the sound through DAC and cable.

Vsonic GR series is more punchy bass than VSD series.
Quite clean sound and balance.

ATH is comfortable but lesser bass. If you are considering IEM with stronger bass, since you list out BE version, probably can go for vsonic.
GR06 is within your budget as well.

Not so sure about Sonic Gear EarPump PRO as I never try before. It's not really a popular model among audiophile I think, at least for HK, China and Taiwan.
Sound magic E10 is not bad as well. Not so sure how does it compare to GR02. Never audition GR02 but tried VSD1 before. VSD1 is also quite safe though bass not so strong for Rock and metal. Overall review not bad.
GR06 is higher range than both.

This post has been edited by liquidgal: Feb 13 2014, 01:51 AM