That's a great price.

I thought so too. It was too good of a deal to pass up.

Thanks for all your help guys, I really appreciate it.

kudos on the ebay score :thumb:

the primary difference in open and closed ear headphones is in how the cup is designed and manufactured.

open ear normally has a mesh or some sort of grill covering the outside edge of the cup which allows air and sound to travel freely in both directions.

the biggest pro for open ear is comfort, you don't get that half headache feeling after an extended listening session. the con is that because air flows both ways ambient noise can bleed into what you're listening to and anyone around you WILL hear whatever is coming through your set.

closed ear is, well, the opposite haha basically a hard plastic shell which forces the sound to be rebounded back into your ear. great for sound isolation and shorter listening sessions, but comfort normally diminishes the longer you wear them.

There's also a tremendous difference in fidelity, as well. open air headphones will actually give the sense of there being a 3-dimensional soundstage, instead of the common band-playing-inside-my-head effect that closed ear and in ear monitors are known for. There is a sacrifice in privacy and ambient noise, but to me it's worth it.

I got the headphones in today. I have to say that I am VERY impressed. Unlike the bose headphones I have, the bass is very well balanced. Everything is extremely crisp, and you can hear every detail of the vocals. I am noticing certain things about songs that I had never noticed before, somewhat made me stop for a second, as I'm used to hearing the same things through the phones, then something alien comes out and surprises me. Weird at first, but i'm really starting to like it after listening to them all evening.

check out the HD600's (second hand) very neutral sounding. i've got the HD650's, great sounding but perhaps a little too warm and flattering for some things

If you are not using a dedicated headphone amp or decent hifi amp you will be missing out on a lot, I have run my sennie 414 (real old school) straight from my MP3 player and also through a DIY valve headphone amp. the difference is like night and day and this will improve with better headphones as the impedance tends to be higher (around 300 ohms) on better phones and they need a bit of driving.

Ah... well... Bit too late, but I wouldn't consider Sennheiser in that price range.
I'd go with AKG or Beyer. But that's a bit too late now.
They will definately be a LOT better than your boses, so that's good :)