Headphones for dacmagic plus

I had another long listen to the Philips L1 last night and I am still convinced it's far better than the HD-650 or anything else below $1000 USD.  But sadly, no more than a handful of people on Earth will ever experience that because:

1) Very few people will try it.

2) Those who do will refuse to turn the bass down per my suggestion, and will therefore experience the same thing Innerfidelity reported.

i decided to go with the hd650 in the end. i think they are better purely because they are open headphones: their massive soundstage gives them a '3D' sound (almost like listening to a pair of speakers), whilst the k550 had a more closed-off sound which was tiresome to listen to. still the k550s are a good pair of headphones - they had a better bass extension than the hd650s (and perhaps more 'presence' too) - at first i found it difficult to decide.... basically the two headphones are just completely different.

anyway quadpatch you wanted to know about the isolation of the k550s - sorry this reply is so late. i didnt really have another pair of closed headphones to compare them too, but i would say their isolation was good. this review seems to compare their isolation with the denon ah-d series, and from my research before many seem to agree: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/wonderfully-competent-akg-k550-sealed-headphone-page-2

wilf

Thanks for coming back and letting me know wilfred . It sounds like the K550s are a great closed headphone but very interesting that you picked the HD650 over it. I can certainly testify that the Denon D7000 sucks at sound isolation. For my next high end headphone I am going completely open for sure but I am looking for a closed one for work. The VModa sounds great but it's uncomfortable as hell!!