I have a pair of HD 280, I haven`t compared them to others in that price range, but I think they sound good and detailed and I don`t think they have a light low end. I bought mine a few months ago.

Well bitflipper did say his were old. I THINK I remember seeing people talk about the model being updated. One thing pretty much everyone said was that the bottom end filled out a bit after letting them burn in for about 50 hours. But that brings us back to the burn in debate from a few days ago. Maybe that stuff is different than with monitors. Many of the people using the HD280s said they were checking the tone after first opening the package, plugging them in with tunes cranked for a couple days and rechecking so there wouldn't be the same "getting used to the sound" effect that was being brought up in the monitor thread. It would have to be a purely psychological phenomena. Screw it. I'll just get the HD280s for now and if I run into some cash down the road I'll revisit the issue and maybe grab the Audio Tecnicas. That way I'd have even more reference options.

I had a pair of HD280's and they were comfortable and too me sounded okay.  I replaced them with a pair of AT ATH M50's and they are less comfortable but I think they sound much better and more accurate.

Dan

But you can't learn what you can't hear. If a pair of headphones have a very poor response over 6KHz or below 100Hz, for example, they're going to have limited applications.

If you sweep with a band-pass filter through those frequency ranges you'll actually find little you can't hear, IOW little you can't learn...  The response over 6KHz is fine, I concede it may be better/different on others but that's different to saying there ain't enough full-range consistency to work with.  I've got so used to them, and how they are going to translate now I'd probably find it difficult using anything else.  Likewise if I was coming from a pair of M50's or anything else I may not like them because I'd got used to those.

Below 60Hz is the only area I have to employ some methodology to measure the actual energy down there rather than trust my ears. For example if a sub 50hz rumble is coming from a Piccolo patch it ain't likely to be anything that I'd want.  So in actual fact you can even learn procedurally to counter what you can't hear.  So the idea of a/ not being able to learn what you can't hear AND b/ these particular 'phones aren't adequate enough to learn are both spurious claims...  I can however understand when IF one has a choice they may not be the best choice out of a set of alternatives but I'd merely venture they are one of the better all-rounders in the given price range.

Granted they are not ideal but what pair of cans is?  Certainly nothing sub 100 quid.

Being as the original question here was actually:

Best studio headphones for under £100?

Not to have included the HD280's would have been a glaring omission IMO.

Good read. I'll change jobs starting July, and I will be a lot on the road and in hotels. So I'll be needing some good headphones to mix.

I've got KRK monitors and am starting to 'understand' them a bit. So what's the main difference between the KNS 8400 and 6400's? Anyone had the chance to compare them?

So I've had the HD280's for a few days now. I like them. They were kind of disappointing at first (sounded very hollow and thin" but I blasted Alice In Chains "Dirt" through them then walked away. After that they came right to life. Best headphones I've ever owned. I think I'll pick up some of those ATH MT-50s at some point though. Then I'll have two decent sets and perhaps use the Senns for tracking and the ATs for mixing. That won't happen for another year or so though.

Beepster: I have many sets of headphones around my project studio, but my two primaries are a set of HD-280's and ATH-M50's. They are both new (purchased during 2011, 280's purchased first) and I have no complaints about either one.

You will not regret your purchase of the HD-280's. They will always have a place in your studio. I lean toward those for tracking my acoustic instruments (guitar, mandolin, dobro, etc...) but also do a little reference mixing on them.

If you add something like the M50's later - it will just give you another option. IMO, I think they sound a little better than the HD-280's (for mixing), but the cancellation is not as good (for recording). And they certainly cost more. I would not say they replace the 280's, they just added to my choice!

@codamedia... Yeah, man. I'm really liking them. As soon as I loaded up my little test project I immediately heard some undesirable noise on one of the tracks that wasn't apparent before. Exactly what I wanted. Now I can get right into the tunes and fix stuff like that. Cheers.

I have and really like - AKG K240-Studio. Self adjusting and very compfortable.

I was looking at those as well but they are semi-open which I didn't really want just in case I ever need to record drums again at some point. They do look very nice though and were highly recommended by my retailer.