Open Sesame

 

Not in your budget, but here's my AKG open back and (well worn with new velour ear pads) Audio Technica closed . Love the under desk hanger-and my pal Buster D. Cat.

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2016

I have them 950 alongside with dt880. I would say they are surprisingly superb, astonishingly quality closed back cans over the price, not tiring and pretty accurate. As compared to sr850, it has a musical low end (see below), not booming or bursting but good low rumble without drowning the other instruments or vocals. Highs are clean not hiding the unmusical sheen. Both sr850 and sr950 are known for mid range. They are really good for orchestral stuff because of the ranges they cover. Here is the frequency response graph of sr950.

 

AKG K240 MKII. Had for like 4-5 years. Been perfect with my fairly poor M-Audio Fast track Pro interface. I mix well on them and I haven't got good monitors either so I use them mostly for mixing and they do more than an average job for an average/low price.

 

Don't know about dt990, but 880 --- go for it. Google for reviews.

 

This is great. I was actually looking for another pair of closed backs for recording and monitoring. Something less expensive than my ultrasones. Im getting tired of telling people to use 2 hands to remove them. Instead of grabbing one ear and stressing the fvck out of the headband as cups slam together when they snatch them off with one hand. I try to leave my talk back loop open to help prevent this. After about the third time someone does it, it gets hard for me to keep the vibe "positive"