I was going to buy myself a nice pair of cans for listening to tunes at my desk at work. I pretty much decided on some AKG's (K242's or similar) because the big AKG's were the real deal in my old studio days.
A requirement was that they were the closed type so that I would not irritate others around me.
I was about to get them on ebay, but then decided to call past a local headphone shop here in Perth that specializes only in headphones, and they let you try before you buy. I went in with my ipod and the guy lined up a whole bunch. I started with the AKG's and thought, yep. pretty sweet.
My audition tune was "the world has turned and left me here" from what I think is one of the greatest sounding albums of modernish times. Guitar tone to die for (I think anyway)
Then the guy put some cans on me and said "these are open type, but just have a listen"
My world changed at that moment.
When I went back to the AKG's or to Senheiser's or whatever for under $400, all I could hear was tizz and thump. Flaccid.
It was very puzzling to think how we train our ears to think something is normal and the best it can be, and then have a stark demonstration of how it is not.
These headphones were "Alessandro MS1's", made by Grado and were only $139. Sadly no good for the office because they were too loud for my neighbors (I have been back to buy some though). So from then on my auditioning process was to find something as close to that sound as possible, but in a closed style. I settled on Audio Technica ATH-ESW9's (which I highly recommend, except they are 3 times the price of the Alessandro).
So, My 20 cents says, if you can go open style, do so. So much more of a open, natural and balanced sound. And much better sound for your $. If I was still in the mixing business I would have loved to try these Allesandros. Yeah, Grado is a "audiophile" type of company and probably not accepted in pro audio circles, but who cares.
Oh and another thing - Apparently headphones are a big counterfeit market, so beware of cheap deals on Ebay (and my AT's are a model for which there are many fakes floating around)
Cheers,
T