A note about Plantronics. Plantronics makes great communications headsets. Their headsets may be decent for gaming, but not the great sound quality of the companies mentioned here.
Bathroom Monkey: Yes, sound is subjective, but I know cetoole and I know he's done a lot of research in his headphone searches. Although it's opinion, the overwhemling majority will tell you that, for example, Bose sucks. Their design, engineering, quality of the entire headphones - right down to the dynamic transducer coils, is rubbish. Unless you're a totally biased Bose-freak-in-denial, you will easily be able to tell that even a cheap pair of Sennheisers or Grados are FAR superior.
Edit: Oh, I'll say something about Beyerdynamics. I haven't heard them yet, but everything I've read on Head-Fi from people who own Beyers and Senns say that they're similar to the Senns, but more neutral, less dark and laid back sounding. Grado headphones, for example, have a signature sound which makes them not so good for some types of music (but INCREDIBLE for rock). Senns sound great for everything, but still have a dark signature sound. Beyerdynamics are supposed to be more "reference" sounding, more neutral, less or no coloration, no special sound signature. At least that's what I've heard about the DT 880 and other high end Beyers. Oh, and when I talk about signature sound, I'm not talking about say, the DT 770's massive bass. Colorized sound generally changes sound overall, not just adds more bass.
Bathroom Monkey: Yes, sound is subjective, but I know cetoole and I know he's done a lot of research in his headphone searches. Although it's opinion, the overwhemling majority will tell you that, for example, Bose sucks. Their design, engineering, quality of the entire headphones - right down to the dynamic transducer coils, is rubbish. Unless you're a totally biased Bose-freak-in-denial, you will easily be able to tell that even a cheap pair of Sennheisers or Grados are FAR superior.
Edit: Oh, I'll say something about Beyerdynamics. I haven't heard them yet, but everything I've read on Head-Fi from people who own Beyers and Senns say that they're similar to the Senns, but more neutral, less dark and laid back sounding. Grado headphones, for example, have a signature sound which makes them not so good for some types of music (but INCREDIBLE for rock). Senns sound great for everything, but still have a dark signature sound. Beyerdynamics are supposed to be more "reference" sounding, more neutral, less or no coloration, no special sound signature. At least that's what I've heard about the DT 880 and other high end Beyers. Oh, and when I talk about signature sound, I'm not talking about say, the DT 770's massive bass. Colorized sound generally changes sound overall, not just adds more bass.