OT - Headphone (Can) Shopping

This is off topic, but sometimes OT posts throw a bit of spice in amidst the "will my setup bang more than his" variety.  :-)

Anyway, I spend many long hours sitting at a desk, and will probably continue to do so for at least the next 30 years.  While I'd like to, I rarely get a chance to listen to music on real speakers.  This leaves computer desk speakers at very low volume levels or headphones.  Computer speakers at low volume levels are obviously a bad choice, so I recently upgraded my Sony noise cancelling headphones to Grado 125's.  Initially pleased with the Grados, I've found that they are not easy to listen to for longer than 45 minutes.  First, the pads are simply not comfortable for long listening periods.  I thought this would improve.  It hasn't.  Second, the sound, while very detailed, is fatiguing.  They are a tad bright for my tastes and slightly too analytical.  The vocal region is excellent, and I love that, but the treble gets dry.  I end up setting them down because they aren't comfortable and I find myself uninvolved with the music. 

So, I'm on the search for new cans.  My research has led me to the Sennheiser 580 through 650.  Reviews mark them as very comfortable headphones with smoother sound than the Grado's. 

Does anyone have any experience with these headphones and / or any other suggestions? 

I used to own some Sennheiser hd650 headphones....I loved them...The sound was AMAZING......Very clear vocals bass response great.....Highs were crisp but not deafening....

I loved them till someone broke in my house and decided they loved them too...

Everyone asked me why I paid $450 for a set of headphone...All I said to them was "Put them on" then they knew...

Making the World A Louder Place

haemphyst - I have re-ripped my favorite cd's using flac + exact audio copy w/ secure mode.  Everything I currently listen to is as close to a perfect lossless rip as I can get.  :-)

That said, however, would you then first recommend a product like this http://www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=3&subTopicID=27&productid=0000010004

It takes audio straight from USB  --> onboard DAC --> headphone amplifier section of decent quality. 

The bottom line is that my current solution is not adequate and I am willing to spend up to $1,000 to remedy it.  Less money would be nice, I don't like to get to the point of diminishing returns, but that is my budget.  Any suggestions?

haemphyst wrote: The FLAC compression is a good start (what compression level are you using?), I like FLAC as well. I have noticed, however, even with FLAC and compression level 0, and my good (not great) 24/96 external Philips Aurilium soundcard, if I try to play them on my car system or especially on my home system, fatigue does set in quite a bit faster than it does with Red-Book or .wav... I like to listen to 24/96 (DVD-A ROX... SACD can blow me!) recordings a lot, so even Red-Book can cause some eventual fatigue. The compression, even as good as FLAC is, trashes high frequencies. As an experiment, see if you can listen longer with a .wav source, just don't compress your music at all. Space is so cheap today, I carry a USB powered 80G hard drive with pretty much ALL of my favorite CDs (about 150 of them!) in WAV format... I can listen anywhere!

The compression level should be irrelevant.  Regardless of what compression level is used the resulting decoded audio stream signal is exactly the same as a wave file.  The compression level settings simply affect the speed at which the compression works and the resulting file size.  This is because the slower compression levels allow the program to search for more ideal encoding functions (space / time).  Once the functions are picked, however, they are still lossless.  If you find any references that say otherwise, please shoot them my way.  :-)

Anyway, I may have to go with one of those little usb headphone amplifiers.  I am, sadly to say, still using my Dell laptop's internal soundcard for listening most of the time.  When home at my desk I use the m-audio mobile pre.  In any event, I'm sure the headphone amplifier stage in all two devices is of very low quality.