Looking for closed back headphone advice

With your $700 budget, I would look to Sennheiser, Denon or Beyerdynamic. There's a pair of Beyerdynamic T-1s for sale here now. You decide.

Ok before you choose cans what are you driving them with?If you don't have a good front end your wasting $...If you have a decent front end look at the Planar Magnetic headphones from Audeze,HiFiMan or Mr.Speakers...If you don't have a good amp look at the Sennheisers between $100.00 & $200.00 or the Planar Magnetics,again from Audeze & HiFiMan...Pay attention to sensitivity & impedance rating.That will give you an idea how a certain headphone will sound with your amp..You don't want to run a 600 ohm headphone on an amp with 50 ohm output impedance...

The LCD-XC are really nice. Too nice for traveling IMO. They are really beautiful and it would be a shame to have them get all scratched up. They are also really heavy and would be uncomfortable to travel with. I would take a look at the Sony MDR-Z1R if you can stretch your budget. Or get an inexpensive set of cans for travel and leave the LCD-XC at home. Something like the DROP + FOSTEX T-X0 II when they come out. 

Isolation keeps out air conditioning noise, dogs barking outside, etc.

I have been looking for a new pair of closed back phones.

Stopped by a dealer today and ended up with a pair of Sony mdr 1am2.

Was looking for something closed back not too far off from Open back Grados.
These really hit the mark.


Clean but not as lively through the midrange as Grado but a wonderful balanced delivery with lots of detail top to bottom and with nice wide soundstage for closed phones.

Also very lightweight and comfortable.

You hear everything and everything sounds good.

Also only 16 ohm: easy to drive.

A winner at $299.