found two exceptional pairs of headphones, after looking for something to replace my flimsy, battered Sony MDR v700’s
* excellent compared to average cans, but bass heavy, dull & distort abit (good for djs i guess, but that was the target market).
* construction is utter crap, too much plastic, designed to break no matter how much you care for them. the novelty swivel hinges always snap & after afew years the leather always starts to flake off.
needed something which was sonically flat, uncoloured & ‘affordable’ & good as a subsitute for studio monitors on the move & solid enough for live mixing.
the two i found to be truely excellent (there are many crap headphones out there, due to bad design), are the:
AKG K702 - £200-370:
* open back (‘best’ disphram loading, but poor isolation)
* excellent, uncolored, crisp sound ..so flat, some people may initially perceive them as a little bright.
* as typical of open backs tho, they are a little light on bass.
* somewhat insenstive, need the volume ramping up a little to get them going.
* plasticy construction, but never the less, solid & exhudes quality due to thoughtful, good design.
and for the win, is:
Denon - A-HD2000 - £200:
* closed back (good isolation)
* sound is on par with that of the k702’s
* good senstivity, plenty of volume vs input level.
* Has bass !
* built like sodding tanks, plenty of aluminum & attention to engineering detail.
…works well all round 
cans compared:
not so sure about the distortion measurment, as i dont quite hear that with the akgs in reality & the sonys definately generate a good wedge of distortion (possibly imd ..which is not accounted for here ?) ..and also i suspect that the objectionables occur at certain levels/ranges outside of their benchmark standard ? curious, in anycase.
denon 2000 & 5000 compared:
flatter hf response available in the 5000 version with the wooden can ends (about £500 !), but they exhibit marginally higher distortion it seems.. thinner cone comprimise ?
(a little general hf boost/or low cut on monitoring should level out the response of the 2000’s nicely )
(test info source) - a wealth of info on many cans here:
http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/
..ended up with both pairs, as i bought the akgs in from the states first.
