Closed back headphone recommendation

Correction I meant Sennheiser HD25 pro not Shure in the 2nd paragraph.

The Shure SE846 are the most impressive in ears that I have heard - the bass is realistic to the point you "feel" the kick drum (if you have good speakers or go to live music then you will know what I mean - a sort of compression of air at below audible frequency). They will be even better than closed back headphones for noise leakage and offer an incredible isolation (probably another 10 to 15 db on top of closed back) so that you won’t be disturbed by background noise (wife TV). The isolation is so good you can listen at lower than normal volumes and you won’t get any of the negative effects from a closed over ear can (tends to lose clarity at higher volumes due to echoes or resonances within the closed space).

If you must have closed can then I like the Shure HD Pro 25 as they sit on but not over the ear - this seems to help with both sound isolation (smaller cans pick up less ambient noise) as well as clarity at higher volumes (smaller headphone). Don’t be fooled by their flimsy light weight appearance - they have been THE go to headphone for pros for at least 25 years.

Shure is more of a pro product so if you prefer sugar coated syrupy audiophile sound over ruthless dynamic clarity and accuracy that pros seek then you should look elsewhere.

I have the AKG 240 original 600 ohm - great headphones but the leak a lot! You can hear bleed from these popular headphones on many albums from the 80's - singers used to put their hands over the ear pieces to help isolate - definitely NOT what your are looking for - legendary sound though.

I auditioned a bunch of higher end closed backed phones and ended up happy using the PSB M4U1. A real bargain for the price, plus very comfortable during long sessions. (Not so with the NADs also designed by Paul Barton.
 The Oppo 3 came out later, or that might have been bought without audition based on high level of confidence in Oppo and auditions of their open back models. No experience w/the LCD--XC. Cheers,
Spencer

Considering your sophisticated taste in headphones, the choice for me would be obvious- Audeze LCD-XC (closed-back version of LCD-X).

AKG K240 partially closed. Might be tolerable. Make sure to purchase 600 Ohm version, not aftermarket 55 Ohm re-make.

Audeze EL-8 comes either open or closed back

HD600 is an open back design.  Leakage is a problem for the OP.

Why not the Senn HD600?

A bit polite sounding, but very listenable, very comfortable and very affordable. 

Thanks czarivey,

Appreciate the recommendation, but the K240 is not closed back, so there will be some audible leakage that will probably bother my wife.

Plus, and I’m not being snobbish here, but I’m leaning towards the 1K + price arena. I want to come as close as possible w/ closed cans to the sound of my Stax set-up.

The headphone amp is not an issue. I used to drive my cans directly by my Decware SE84CSEX to very good effect. Then I started modding the hell out of it, ending up using Electraprint interstage transformers and ditching the coupling cap. Because I had a lot or iron in too small a space, I had some hum. So I took it apart to rebuild it on a larger chassis to alleviate the hum problem, but the Stax setup dropped in my lap and I’ve had no desire to rebuild it. I also have a Weiss DAC202 which has a headphone amp in it that does a great job w/ my AKG and Sennheiser cans.

But my wife tells me she misses the old days when we sat in front of the system spinning vinyl. So I’ve been told to have a new amp built by summertime. The amp will drive any cans except stats of course.

So when you guys give recommendations don’t worry about the amp. Not an issue.

As always, thanks in advance.

Cheers, Crazy Bill

If you have a great headphone amp, you can use AKG K240. Good sound isolation, dynamic drivers are placed safely away from ear and very accurate to the point of hearing of overdubbing tracks.