Sony MDR-XB700 Extra Bass—should I encode MP3 at higher rate to match?, [was “SONY MDR[…] and Ripping method”] Options

[zentopia7]

Hi, I'm planning on purchasing a pair of MDR-XB700 Extra Bass Headphones soon: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/5948...ass_Stereo.html or http://bhpho.to/JlW021

And my question is, is the quality of this model enough that I should be ripping my lame mp3's (VBR) at a higher rate? I tend to rip almost everything at V2 ~192 VBR lame 3.99.5 at the moment, I realize I'd need to do an ABX test (is that the right acronym?) but I just was curious of people's experience with these headphones and also if music that doesn't have a lot of bass to the music would sound decent too (like Classical for example)

I was also thinking of getting Sony V6 headphones too

Currently I use Sennheiser HD429's but I wanted some new cans with more bass...

Thanks for any input in advance

[hlloyge]

I've listened to XB300, and found that they don't have highs at all. I've tried adjusting the headphones on my head, considering the eaprieces construction, thinking that I misaligned them, but no. The highs were so attenuated I couldn't listen to them. Even my cheap Sennheiser 201 sound bright compared to them.
If XB700 are anything like those, and I can't help noticing that they might be even worse seeing the size of ear cushins, I would strongly suggest listening to them first, because you might as well encode in 64 kbps and not noticing hihats at all.

If you need more bass, go for Sennheiser HD212 Pro.

And no, V2 is just fine. If you are unsure about that, do an ABX test.