Headphone upgrade advice

[Tee71]

Hi all. I'm after some advice on upgrading my headphones.
Most of the time these days when I sit down and listen to music, it tends to be late-ish at night after the kids have gone to bed, so the headphones are a must. I currently have some Grado SR80es, which I listen to plugged into the headphone socket on a Marantz CD6007. It sounds good, but I feel that there is a bit of a lack of 'sparkle/liveliness' for want of a better word, compared to when I listen to the CD6007 through the amp and speakers (Musical Fidelity integrated and Monitor Audio floorstanders, from about 25ish years ago). There are some tracks I listen to through the speakers that never fail to give me that 'shiver down the spine' feeling, but I just don't get that with headphones.

Given a budget of £2-300, I'm contemplating upgrading the SR80s to something like the Grado SR225 or 325x (or something else), or would it be better to keep the SR80s, but use them through a dedicated headphone amp (I've no idea how good or not the headphone output on the CD6007 is). Or would a headphone amp/DAC combo be better? Or is it the case that headphones are never going to deliver the same sort of musical experience that speakers can?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Friesiansam]

Try the better Grados and see if they give you what you want. Buy from somewhere that won't be a problem to send back to, if you don't like them. If better headphones don't make much of a difference, then consider a headphone amp/DAC.

 

[WayneKerr]

I have a set of SR225's and they're ok but uncomfortable, my primary choice is Sennheiser. If you like the sound signature of Grado then stick with them but don't be afraid to try some other brands too.