Choose a headphone for me
-
So my headphones (Creative Aurvana Lives) just died. By died I mean there's a loose connection somewhere inside the cord near the left ear cup and I can't be assed to fix it.
Sennheiser HD 558's for $80, HD598's for $150 or Game One's for $170.
Go.
For reference, my work headset is a HD 439's which I haven't modded yet, but probably will soon just to see how they are.
I'm open to other suggestions as well.
-
@JazzyJosh I like my HD439's. But I only use headphones on the road and at work.
-
I like Sennheisers. My current pair were relatively expensive, but are now 20 years old, and still going strong (on their third set of foams, though).
The open back ones do leak sound, and if you crank them up they might be as annoying as not having headphones...
-
I recently bought TASCAM's TH-MX2 mixing headphones. They were pretty cheap at ~$25 and sound better than all the more expensive headphones I've owned. (I've never paid more than $100 for headphones.)
-
@mott555 said in Choose a headphone for me:
They were pretty cheap at ~$25 and sound better than all the more expensive headphones I've owned. (I've never paid more than $100 for headphones.)
Rule of thumb: Good headphones start at $120, so you should never buy any in the $60-80 price range. They're almost always just crappy headphones with a different price tag.
I'm very happy with my beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones, BTW. (80 ohm, so I can use them with my MP3 player. The 250 ohm variant sounds a bit better in the shop, though.) They're $137.54 on amazon.com.
-
@asdf said in Choose a headphone for me:
Rule of thumb: Good headphones start at $120, so you should never buy any in the $60-80 price range
Wat. The Sennheiser 429s are truly good. My upgrade was to the monitor-grade Audio-technica M70x's, which are good for their purpose and better built but less fun for listening.
-
@pydsigner said in Choose a headphone for me:
Sennheiser 429
I'll try them when I get the chance, just to check whether my rule is BS. (I won't need new ones for a long time.) But all ~$80 headphones I've tried in the shop when I bought my current ones were pretty disappointing for the price.
-
@asdf meh, I'm happy with my $20 HD201s. Not audiophile quality, but solid.
-
@Maciejasjmj said in Choose a headphone for me:
meh, I'm happy with my $20 HD201s. Not audiophile quality, but solid.
That would kinda confirm my point that there's not much difference between $30 headphones and $80 headphones. Maybe I shouldn't have written "crappy", but I like to exaggerate. This is WTDWTF, after all.
If you want decent headphones, look in the $30-$40 price range until you find some you like. But if you want really good ones, you usually need to spend more than double that.
-
@Maciejasjmj said in Choose a headphone for me:
$20 HD201s.
I threw a set of those in the trash after getting my TASCAM set. They worked, but got uncomfortable way too quickly for me.
-
@asdf There's a mod you can do to the 439's that apparently increases bass response (you pull the drivers off, and remove some/all of the tape covering three holes behind the driver)
-
@mott555 said in Choose a headphone for me:
@Maciejasjmj said in Choose a headphone for me:
$20 HD201s.
I threw a set of those in the trash after getting my TASCAM set. They worked, but got uncomfortable way too quickly for me.
Hm, they rest almost perfectly over the ear for me, so that's nice. The ear cavities, or however you call them, could be deeper, and they do have a more cheap, plasticky feel compared to my other pair of PXC450s, but I have nothing bad to say about sound quality.
Then again, I wouldn't recognize good sound if it hit me in the face, so.
-
@tufty I've always rated these, even the cheapo £20 ones I bought for work are excellent audio quality.
-
@JazzyJosh Will have to do that when I get home (they currently reside in my travel kit instead of on my desk. Really need to buy a second pair)
-
I tried headphones for 7$ and 25$.
The 7$ ones were completely satisfactory and better then the 25$ ones.
According to the gradient descent method, there is no point in getting anything more expensive :)
-
@asdf Grado Labs SR-60...
-
I have HD 555s and they're very nice. Music sounds great, they sit well on my head, and the cord reaches to the back of my tower. I have not done the modification to make them 595s, but I might one of these days. It's the same sort of thing: take off the pads, remove some foam, put it back together, and afterwards the only difference is labeling.
Other concerns: the 55x/59x series are open, so your audio will bleed out. There's no microphone.
While I don't know what all they've changed (other than coloring), if you don't need the microphone, I'd expect the HD 558s to be very good for you.
Aside: Are 558s on the way out? I ask because the MSRP is $180. Which price do you use to auto-sort your products? :)
-
@Parody said in Choose a headphone for me:
if you don't need the microphone
Using my webcam for a mic now, which seems to work ok
-
@asdf said in Choose a headphone for me:
@Maciejasjmj said in Choose a headphone for me:
meh, I'm happy with my $20 HD201s. Not audiophile quality, but solid.
That would kinda confirm my point that there's not much difference between $30 headphones and $80 headphones. Maybe I shouldn't have written "crappy", but I like to exaggerate. This is WTDWTF, after all.
If you want decent headphones, look in the $30-$40 price range until you find some you like. But if you want really good ones, you usually need to spend more than double that.
I paid 30 for my HD429s refurb, but I would have been willing to pay 70 after experiencing them.
-
@Adynathos said in Choose a headphone for me:
I tried headphones for 7$ and 25$.
The 7$ ones were completely satisfactory and better then the 25$ ones.
According to the gradient descent method, there is no point in getting anything more expensive :)Proceed directly to remedial statistics and probability. Do not pass go, do not collect $200(±10 w/certainty 95%).
-
@Captain said in Choose a headphone for me:
@asdf Grado Labs SR-60...
These are the headphones I have, and they are very good for $80.
-
@MZH Hell yes they are. I guess I do agree with @asdf that most headphones for $80 suck. Especially if you're buying at Best Buy or Target or whatever. But they don't all suck. $80 is enough to pay for good drivers and relative comfort.
I like NHT for loudspeakers, by the way. I've had a pair of Super One bookshelf speakers for like 15 years now. Recording engineers I respect all personally recommended them to me.
