Most of my clients like the AKG 240's for tracking vocals.

Five hundred clams is gonna get you some serious phones. Grados come to mind as well as all the upper-end AKG,Sennheiser and Sony. At that price they're all good and comfort and application will be all you need for your choices.

I own Grado 225s and AKG 271 and a pile of cheap cans.

Grados sound great, not an accurate freq. response, easy to drive, no isolation. You can have the music loud and here someone whisper across the room and they know everything you are listening too. No Grados will have any better isolation. I would not recommend anything less then the 225s or the 325s (next step up). But I bet the RS1s and RS1000 sound great but have similar coloration. The 225s are my favorite but that might be changing for the AKGs. I have been on the Grados for longer and really enjoy putting them on for casual (if there is such a thing) listening. But I fatigue after about an hour of these.

271 lack accurate bass but are well detailed through the mids. They have about 20db of isolation. Putting them through a generic headphone amp makes them shrivel some, but when given enough power then do just fine. I have listened to the 501s and they sound like a refined version of the 271s with out the isolation. I haven't listened to the 240s but I'm very interested. If it's close to the 271s but half the price it would be a good set of cans. I have never fatigued listening through the 271s.

I own Sony 7506s and they are pretty junky. Little resolution, heavy on the bass, worth the $20 I spent but not the $100 the list for. They go head to head with most 20-30 dollar headphones.

My next will be to try the IEM or In Ear Monitors. I will try the Shure E4 or E500 depending on budget at the time.

I have a few AKG240's left for sale.
let me know if you're interested.
You can see them here.
http://WWW.NaturalSoundRecording.com

Thanks Guys....... 8-)
some great info....
I hear what your saying about the Grado's and AKG's.
There is a set of AKG 701's on Ebay for $515 (Aus) delivered...
These are the next set up from the 501's?? Does this mean they would be simply better?

:oops: Open back vs closed back, can anybody tell me the difference?
Also should I be thinking about getting a headphone amp?
Would a good amp make a cheaper set of phones better than a more expensive pair with out an amp?
I have come to realise there is more to headphones than meets the eye :shock:

AKG 240 are very good quality headphones.

The Sennheiser HD 280 pros are going for $100 now, they used to be twice that. Nice headphones.

I use these

http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/technics_dj/prod_intro_rpdj1200.asp

Girlytech wrote: :oops: Open back vs closed back, can anybody tell me the difference?

If you are monitoring yourself and a music track to sing to with open back headphones, there's a good chance that the microphone will more easily pick up sound from the headphones leakage. Less chance with closed back.

Kapt.Krunch