i doubt those would be more comfortable.
they both appear to be a form of non adjustable plastic clam shell design.
i suggest looking into headphones with metal chassis that can be bent to fit you better.
(example beyer DT)
or those that have a top strap independent of the bow-clamp by design.
(example meze 99)
horizontal swivel is a good bonus too, but its not crucial if clamping strenght can be adjusted.
I have a pair of these in a drawer, in good shape because I moved on to other devices. I should dig them out and start using them again. But, I agree, not for synth stuff.
They are great, arenāt they? The cord broke on mine after a lot of fairly demanding use. I think the HF5 I replaced them with are also pretty great but I guess those are discontinued too. But yes, definitely not for sound design, etc. - when youāre learning FM itās good to be able to rip off the cans ASAP. 
Ty. I should have been clearer that these would be for my partner and, while they have good ears, it wouldnāt be for critical listening ;).
Iāll check out the ones you mentioned. Thanks.
I just picked up these HEDD Heddphones and as someone who has been producing almost exclusively on <Ā£500 headphones for years, theyāve completely changed the game. The detail is like nothing Iāve ever heard in my life, including professional studios.
Just some perspective: these are the ER6i. Ignore the discoloration - they were bright white when new. You can see that the drivers are tiny - these entire IEMs nearly fit inside your ear canal. I found that the triple flange tips fit my ears well and did a great job of eliminating outside sound, but they came with foam tips and two sizes of double flange tips.
I would probably lean towards a gift certificate, and a few curated reviews, if trying to gift IEMs to family / friend / partner. Some people have extremely sensitive ears or otherwise have strong feelings about inserting things into their bodies.
I get extremely skeptical when I see huge, bulky IEMs. Maybe they generate a tiny bit more bass, but the ER6i already had more bass than the benchmark Sony 7506. Also, the convenience of being able to rest on a pillow while listening canāt be underestimated. Again - this is a personal preference.
Edit: I just did a quick A/B between the Etymotic ER6i and the Hifiman HE400SE while listening to a dark industrial techno set on youtube. The HE400SE have a bit more bass and a bit more clarity, I would prefer them for creating music. But the ER6i have plenty of bass and clarity. They are still great for listening. I would recommend whatever Etymotic is producing today that comes closest to the ER6i as a good balance between cost and performance.
Getting a pair of these tomorrow: Neumann NDH 30 Dynamic Open-Back Headphone
Iāll update with impressions once I get my ears on them.
Nice, I didnāt know they had released these! Iāve got the NDH 20 and I love them. They donāt seem to be very well known but they sound amazing and the music I make on them translates to other speakers much better than when I was using DT770 (I know they cost like 3x so it should do!). Theyāre also super comfy and pleasant to listen to music on, and look pretty cool IMO (the metal scratches pretty easily so be careful if that bothers you, I just decided to roll with it).
Iād like to upgrade my DT770 Proās with something a little better but Iām finding that all the impedence ratings out there are very low - even at 80ohms the headphone volume on my XONE never goes above 1 out of 11 (in a home studio environment anyway). Ideally Iād have something 150+.
The HD600ās are quite appealing but Iām worried about open back for most usecases - my studio is far from silent - I want more of an all-round studio headphone, unfortunately the closed back Sennheisers in the same price range all have low impedencesā¦
Anyone have any good recommendations? Seems I might need to push my budget further than I feel comfortableā¦
What do you want to use them for primarily?
Iāve got DT770s that I use for tracking (definitely acoustic/mic source tracking), some general use, sometimes referencing mixes.
Iāve got HD25s that I use for performing and general messing around. I really like the instant vibe/sound of HD25ās and I find theyāre great when youāre in the creative zone.
Iāve got DT900 Pro Xās for mixing and general listening to music for reference. Theyāre open back, and Iām always asking my missus if she can hear what Iām listening to when weāre in the same room. She always can. Theyāre great, but I find open back/clean cans lack spirit. Neutral though.
Then my last main ones, Sony WH-1000XM5, I bought purely for travelling, esp long haul flightsā¦ Bluetooth noise cancelling active headphones, quite hyped and coloured sounding, but I love themā¦ they sound great, I love the solitude of the NC, and they connect to everything I listen to music on fast, either wired or by Bluetooth.
If I had to have only one pair, Iād have the Sonysā¦or maybe the HD25s.
I sort of do everything at once - I jam, mix/master, record all within the session and work mostly DAWless with hardware - so a solid closed or at least semi-closed studio set is probably the best for me - bluetoothās out, and over-ear, comfy is important to me, the 770ās have been good for that but some of their pitfalls/quirks are becomming more obvious to me (not that theyāre bad headphones by any stretch) - Iād like to step up a little. My understanding is that the 1770 Proās are much better but itās stretching my budget a bit - Iād much rather meet somewhere in the middle.
I also have the 770 and bought a 1770 Pro last year. The difference in sound quality is very much audible, in favor of the 1770 pro. They are very comfortable to wear, even for multiple hours with glasses on. And they are 250 Ohm.
Highly recommendable, if I would need new headphones today I would buy them again.
Had the 770, 880 and then 1770. MUCH better! Though if you donāt need closed the 1990 would be better personally. Sold my 1770 as I only used them for tracking acoustic guitar in the end after getting some Audeze LCD-1
Quick update on the Neumann NDH 30āsā¦ just got them a few hours ago.
VERY VERY comfortable.
Audio is crispy, and wide. Iām digging the open back, and the first time I used them (all my headphones so far have been closed back).
Impressed so far.
The only downside is that that cloth cable makes a bit of noise if you move and it rubs something.
Not a deal breaker, but did surprise me a bit.
In normal use I donāt see this as a problem, but when playing guitar I had to move the cable around to get it out of the way. The good news is that itās a nice long (10ā) high quality cable, and it better be for the price! 
Edit: Wellā¦ 
itās sad, but the next day I ended up returning these beautiful beautiful headphones because of the clearly audible cord vibration. What I thought wouldnāt be a problem, turned out to be a big problem when I sat down to work on music. Any slight moment, and you hear a loud scratchy noise due to the textured cable rubbing something. Could be your shoulder, the arm rest of your chair, etc. And I mean small head movements, like tilting your head slightly, or reaching for a knob. All headphones have some of this transfer when you hit or rub the cable, but Iāve never used headphones where itās this loud and distracting. I could literally tap on the cable 6 feet away from the connector to make a loud kick drum.
Maybe itās due to my inexperience with open-back headphones, and they are all susceptible to external vibrations from the cable. The cable has what looks like a custom connection, so I didnāt want to get into buying an alternate cable, as these were already a pricey set. The sad part is that the build quality, comfort, and sound quality on these was fantastic. I already miss them.
None of the reviews I saw mentioned this. Maybe Iām weird, but I canāt see how anyone could ignore the cord sound while working on a track.
This sounds like a poor design decision on the part of Neumann.
My old semi-open AKG K240 Mk2 set had no issues with cable noise, even after I replaced the original cable with a braided style cable.
My current extremely open (I can look through the ear cups and see my LCD display) Hifiman HE400se also have no cable noise with the stock rubberized cables.
Sennheiser HD650s are open but they do not have this issue
The dt1990 was one of my best investments, i use them everyday, absolutly worth it.
Update on Etymotic HF series: apparently the coating they use on the colorful bit goes sticky after a few years so I can only conditionally recommend them. Still sounding great but I need to do a bit of work to make them not gross to touch.
I really like DT 990 Pros (250 ohm). Open back so if thatās not your thing Iād skip. For the price I got two. One for my hardware setup when not routed to the interface, and one for the computer when running Hybrid or just deep in my DAW. They were a little too crisp for me at first but seems break-in fixes that right up. Quite a large sound stage! These are great for mixing/producing. I also have big ears and they go all the way around which is nice!
