Fidelity of headphones

[Bass-desires]

Fidelity, no not having to do with marriage.

I need some quality phones, and have noticed the trend is for 'in the ear' styles. Can one get a quality bass tone out of those little things or should I get some DJ phones? The quality of the output is way better than the quality of my current phones, and its messing with my head.

Thanks guys

[WarThumb]

I have both a set of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro cans and a set of Ultimate Ears Super.Fi5 in-ears. They both sound very nice, with plenty of bass. The UEs don't lack bass compared to the DT770s, maybe a hair. Det UEs are a bit more "in your head", and the DT770s are a bit heavy load on a small portable player. I use a small portable amp with the DT770 if I bring them with me. Indoors I prefer the DT770 for comfort and the added "airness". I had a pair of Crative EP-630 before, and the difference to the UEs are amazing! Both the DT770 and UEs are around 200$ i think.

[Bass-desires]

Ok cool, thank you. The size of the drivers had me wondering....but I guess size doesn't matter. heheh

[Bardley]

If you buy higher end in-ear phones (the higherend Shures, Ultimate Ears, Westone, etc.) you will not be lacking in bass. People use IEMs all the time in live performances and the quality ones work great.

[Jazzdogg]

My choice of headphones depends on the conditions under which I'll be using them.

I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 590 headphones that sound great at home, but - because of their open backs - they're totally unsat for use in the studio or monitoring a live performance; under those conditions a pair of GK Ultraphones is hard to beat, but they're not my favorites when I'm relaxing at home.

[Foamy]

Agreed with Jazzdogg...
My Sennheiser 585's are wonderful for relaxing and listening to music. I use my 280's though for monitoring. But they heat up my ears pretty quickly, so I use them as little as possible.
To answer your question, I "feel" that they both have outstanding fidelity.