New headphones?

[BoxWithADot]

So I'm thinking about getting a new pair of headphones here in the near future, and I know there are a few audiophiles here on geekhack so I figured I'd try and get some opinions. I've had the same pair of Phillips HP250 headphones for about ~6 years, and they work great, but my girlfriend has been using them a lot lately so I figured it might just be time to upgrade. I don't really want to spend more than $100, but if added cost will get me a much greater value per dollar headphone, I'd be willing to spend a little more. I prefer over ear headphones, but on ear don't bother me much. I listen to many genres, mostly classic rock and lots of classical music, so I don't need Beats or anything with overwhelming bass haha. So far I've been looking at the Sennheiser HD280's, Grado SR60 and SR80's, and Sony MDR 7506's. I'm not up to speed with headphone technology these days, so I'm feeling pretty clueless right now haha  any help would be appreciated!

[WhiteFireDragon]

I got Audiotechnica ATH-M50 on sale for $100. They're highly recommended headphones on head-fi around this price range.

[devel]

So I'm thinking about getting a new pair of headphones here in the near future, and I know there are a few audiophiles here on geekhack so I figured I'd try and get some opinions. I've had the same pair of Phillips HP250 headphones for about ~6 years, and they work great, but my girlfriend has been using them a lot lately so I figured it might just be time to upgrade. I don't really want to spend more than $100, but if added cost will get me a much greater value per dollar headphone, I'd be willing to spend a little more. I prefer over ear headphones, but on ear don't bother me much. I listen to many genres, mostly classic rock and lots of classical music, so I don't need Beats or anything with overwhelming bass haha. So far I've been looking at the Sennheiser HD280's, Grado SR60 and SR80's, and Sony MDR 7506's. I'm not up to speed with headphone technology these days, so I'm feeling pretty clueless right now haha  any help would be appreciated!

The ath m50 are kinda bassy. It sounds like you aint a basshead. Since you listen to classic rock and lots of classical music. Grado sr60/80 deffinitely. 

[karljs]

Are you planning to use them in a place where sound leaking could be a problem? Most of those open-back headphones will annoy people sitting around you in an office, or similar.

[BoxWithADot]

I took a look at the Audiotechnica ATH M50's and I don't think they're right for me. As devel said, many people seem to find them bassy, which I don't particularly want.

Karljs - They will mostly be used at home by my computer, however I'm sure during finals I'll have them at the library, which could be a problem.

[thegunner100]

If you can shell out a little more money for the dt 770s, they would be a good choice for closed headphones. Though you might want to get an amp to get the most out of that.

Actually, these might be perfect for you
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Professional-Reinforced-Technology-Headphones/dp/B007OWRSLQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346614672&sr=8-1&keywords=noontec+zoro

Tyll Hertsens from inner fidelity has a pretty high opinion of them. Read his review here:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/inexpensive-and-terrific-noontec-zoro

[PointyFox]

I personally owned all these headphones (except the HD800) at the same time and extensively compared them.

If you are going with open-backed headphones:

Sennheiser HD600.  Best headphone under $1000.  Can be had used for $200-$220.  Is very comfortable and has a very neutral response with good soundstage.

Grado are uncomfortable for a lot of people, get their cables twisted frequently, and have no soundstage.

Beyerdynamic have a peak around 8.5 kHz that make them sound hissy, especially when people say something with an 's', and the bass has very little power to it though it is there. Not as uncomfortable as Grado, but less comfortable than Sennheiser.

AKG have very uncomfortable headbands and artificially wide fake sounding soundstage.  Good frequency response, but lacks bass impact like the Beyerdynamic.

Competing headphones in this range should be Sennheiser HD600/HD650, Beyerdynamic DT770/DT880/DT990, AKG K701/K702.

The next level up from the Sennheiser HD600 would be Sennheiser HD800 or upper end Stax electrostatics.

If you can't spend this much, or just need a semi-cheap headphone, I'd recommend the Grado SR80i. Best value for cheap headphones not including the very cheap Koss PortaPro. Has better bass than the SR60i and doesn't cost much more.  Also comes with the soft foam earpads, which are a lot more comfortable than the hard foam bowl earpads.

[BoxWithADot]

The DT 770's look great, but I don't know if I can swing $170, plus possibly the price of an amp. Maybe if I decide to wait I'll save a little more, but for right now I think they're probably not going to work. The Zoros look nice, the only think I don't like about them is they try too hard to look like Beats, which makes them look a little cheap. Though if the sound quality is as good as I've read, I could probably overlook that, but I feel like there are other headphones that sound good and don't look as flashy. I hear lots of really good things about the Sennheiser HD 280's, so I may go that route for over ear headphones. The only problem I hear about them is that they are a little uncomfortable.. I dunno, at this point I'm still pretty indecisive..

Pointyfox - $200-220 used is a little high for me, and I feel like I would rather have a new pair at that kind of price anyway. The other options you listed are just more than I'm comfortable spending on a pair of headphones. Maybe I don't have good ears like you audiophiles, but the difference between a $300+ headphone and a $100 headphone has never really been outstandingly noticeable to me, though I do notice it a little bit, and I can tell when I'm listening to really cheap headphones. But the $100 mark is about when I stop noticing significant differences.

[sth]

HD280s are monitors. Are you mixing music or listening to it?
Get a pair of $50 earbuds for the library - leave the nice cans at home where they belong. In your pricerange Grado SR 125i is a hell of a pair and will probably do you just fine. Get the SR80s if you want a pair with 1/8th inch/smaller cable.

[BoxWithADot]

I hadn't looked at the 125i's, but from what I understand they aren't much more of a value over the 80i's. The 80i's are looking pretty good to me, however I kinda wish they were over ear. It's not a deal breaker, but over ear headphones tend to be more comfortable for long hours of use for me.

[sth]

I got a good deal on my 125i pair but i have heard that argument made. Honestly if I hadn't gotten the discount I'd have gone with the 80s. I do agree about the comfort issue but the nice thing about grado is that you can bend them into whatever shape is most comfortable

[BoxWithADot]

So you find the 125i's reasonably comfortable then?

[sth]

yeah for a couple of hours. they dont get too obnoxious but i can definitely 'feel' them more on my head after a while.

[BoxWithADot]

Gotcha. Well I'll consider the 80i's/125i's, I'm hoping I can find somewhere around here that has some and give them a listen and see if they fit me well, but if not, I may go ahead and order some.

[PointyFox]

With the "higher end" Grados you're paying a premium for some hokey gimmicks like "...the Prestige Series SR325is, SR225i and SR125i feature voice-coils that are wound from ultra-high purity, long crystal (UHPLC) oxygen free copper. "

If copper purity and crystal length make such a large difference that you can hear a change in the music signal, why do multimeters that have an accuracy of better than ±0.01% use very cheap Chinese-made wires?

As you can tell, I don't have a very high opinion of many "audiophiles".

Just look at this: http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html?zenid=btbg06fuhct7cobelnil84m5h4

A  $1,323 black box.  That's all it is.  A BOX THAT IS BLACK.  If you read their pseudo-scientifimacul explaination of how it works, it basically says "it works because it causes less interference than other things".
Oh, and they recommend buying multiples.

The ideal solution to this "problem" that never existed it to enclose your audio gear in something black, since black things tend to absorb radiation, a.k.a. "light", which according to them "smears high frequencies" when it gets on electronics.

[The_Beast]

If you don't want a ton of bass, then look at the Audio Technica ATH-AD700 if you want open dynamic or the Audio Technica ATH-A700 if you want closed back

[PointyFox]

If you don't want a ton of bass, then look at the Audio Technica ATH-AD700 if you want open dynamic or the Audio Technica ATH-A700 if you want closed back

 I heard the ATH-AD700 has a pretty large soundstage and is supposed to be pretty comfortable. 

By the way, check out http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/build-a-graph.php
You can compare the response of different headphones here.

[sth]

With the "higher end" Grados you're paying a premium for some hokey gimmicks like "...the Prestige Series SR325is, SR225i and SR125i feature voice-coils that are wound from ultra-high purity, long crystal (UHPLC) oxygen free copper. "

If copper purity and crystal length make such a large difference that you can hear a change in the music signal, why do multimeters that have an accuracy of better than ±0.01% use very cheap Chinese-made wires?

who knows? i'm speaking from my experience, and in my experience, the SR125i model sounds pretty damned good, even at the retail price ($150). $50 better than SR80? No idea. Probably not.
Also... your ears are not multimeters. They are easy to fool with marketing gimmicks for sure, but I don't think straight up electrical analysis paints a very good picture of the end result.

[The_Beast]

If you don't want a ton of bass, then look at the Audio Technica ATH-AD700 if you want open dynamic or the Audio Technica ATH-A700 if you want closed back

 I heard the ATH-AD700 has a pretty large soundstage and is supposed to be pretty comfortable. 

I have a pair, they have a HUGE soundstage and I can wear them for 6+ hours straight no problem

[PointyFox]

With the "higher end" Grados you're paying a premium for some hokey gimmicks like "...the Prestige Series SR325is, SR225i and SR125i feature voice-coils that are wound from ultra-high purity, long crystal (UHPLC) oxygen free copper. "

If copper purity and crystal length make such a large difference that you can hear a change in the music signal, why do multimeters that have an accuracy of better than ±0.01% use very cheap Chinese-made wires?

who knows? i'm speaking from my experience, and in my experience, the SR125i model sounds pretty damned good, even at the retail price ($150). $50 better than SR80? No idea. Probably not.
Also... your ears are not multimeters. They are easy to fool with marketing gimmicks for sure, but I don't think straight up electrical analysis paints a very good picture of the end result.

Electrical analysis?  No.
Frequency response analysis?  Yes.

http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/build-a-graph.php

[PointyFox]

Above is a frequency response graph of SR80 vs SR125i.  The SR80 data may or may not be the "improved version".

Here you can see that the low-bass on the SR125i is something like 30% louder than the SR80.

There is also a spike around 4kHz on the SR80, which is something like 150% louder than the SR125i.
This means that the SR80 will sound more brash, thin, and distant, and will increase the loudness of "unvoiced consonants" in human voice.

Both have pretty early bass roll-off, which will result in less warmth and bass impact, but will decrease "muddiness".

So, technically speaking, the SR125i should sound more pleasant to listen to

[BoxWithADot]

Haha and here I thought choosing a new pair of headphones would be easy..

[The_Beast]

It took me 2 weeks of research before I bought mine

[BoxWithADot]

I just want to get a pair I will be happy with and will last a long time haha, because I don't want to be buying multiple pairs of headphones until I find the right ones... I already have enough stuff lying around as it is! My Phillips HP250's were nice because they lasted me a loooooong time.

[laotian]

Tight on budget, then look up the Superlux HD668B headphone.  I bought it off of Amazon for around $50 and I did a few mods for it.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/597712/superlux-hd668b-stock-or-modded-post-your-mods-here (Headphone mods)

[neuraxis]

Although I practically "swear by" Beyerdynamic now, I recommend the Shure SRH840. They're closed-back, fairly neutral sounding, don't require amp'ing, and perhaps the best value in their price-range. If that's above your budget, the SRH440 is the cheaper equivalent, and just as good for the price.

[jeroplane]

Shure SRH440. Did a lot of research when I was buying my headphones, and these had the best reviews at the price point. And they haven't let me down. Another friend of mine ended up getting these too after his own independent research and then trying my pair in person.

[Will@Drop]

It sounds like you want something thats fairly neutral, doesn't leak too much, and can be worn for a few hours at a time.

I recommend the Sony MDR-V6 Monitors. Punchy bass, crystalline highs, caramel mids. Top headphone under $150 hands down and it gives the $200 models some serious competition. Another important factor is that these headphones can take a beating. Actually, they could probably be used to fend off a mugger if you needed to. Replacement parts are also everywhere from velour ear pads to replacement headbands. They also fold for easy storage.

How much do they cost though? $68 on amazon with prime availability (free prime accounts for .edu addresses if you didn't know). Read some reviews and make an informed decision.

[tcv]

Shure SRH440. Did a lot of research when I was buying my headphones, and these had the best reviews at the price point. And they haven't let me down. Another friend of mine ended up getting these too after his own independent research and then trying my pair in person.

Agree with all of this.

Shure makes great headphones. I own the same pair as the poster above and I love them.

The only brand I would check in to besides Shure is Sennheiser.

[BoxWithADot]

Thanks for all the tips guys! I actually listened to one of my buddies SRH440s and they sounded great, but weren't very comfortable. They were causing discomfort after about ~30 minutes of use, which isn't gonna work.. I'm looking around to see if I can try some Audio Technica ATH-AD700's, read a lot of good reviews on them. So I'll try that next!

[Excaliborg]

I have really liked my Denon set that I have had for the past 3 years or so.
http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AH-D1100-Advanced-Over-Ear-Headphones/dp/B0042ETXRQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349010929&sr=8-1&keywords=AH-D1100

[OddOne]

How are all these suggestions for gaming?

I don't particularly want a gaming headset(they all seem cheesy) but would like better sound than my $15 Sony headphones. My criteria would be very similar to BoxWithADot: at or around $100, comfort, good sound. I'm no audio file, so I bet pretty much anything would be an improvement. So, some music, mostly gaming, what's my best options?

[nullstring]

AD700 are the best headphones in the price range if you can stand their bad looks and openness.

Another headphone you may consider are the Denon D1001 or Creative Aurvana Live! [Same headphone, different branding]
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-EF0060-Aurvana-Live-Headphones/dp/B000ZJZ7OA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349013192&sr=8-1&keywords=creative+aurvana+live

[tcv]

How are all these suggestions for gaming?

I don't particularly want a gaming headset(they all seem cheesy) but would like better sound than my $15 Sony headphones. My criteria would be very similar to BoxWithADot: at or around $100, comfort, good sound. I'm no audio file, so I bet pretty much anything would be an improvement. So, some music, mostly gaming, what's my best options?

It depends on if you want closed ear or open ear head phones.

For gaming I enjoyed closed ear because it drowned out all the sound around me and I could focus solely on the game.

Now if you're going to be playing with others in person or if you need to hear your family or friends while still getting great sound, I would do open ear.

This is just slightly above your $100 price range but it's a great open ear headset.

 http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0042A68R8/ref=aw_d_detail?pd=1&qid=1349013098&sr=8-28

[nullstring]

How are all these suggestions for gaming?

I don't particularly want a gaming headset(they all seem cheesy) but would like better sound than my $15 Sony headphones. My criteria would be very similar to BoxWithADot: at or around $100, comfort, good sound. I'm no audio file, so I bet pretty much anything would be an improvement. So, some music, mostly gaming, what's my best options?

AD700's are widely consider one of the best headphones for gaming. Just as I said above, if you can stand their look and open is OK, they are definately your best choice.
There are options you can use to attach a mic onto the AD700, and turn it into a headset. Let me see if I can find one of them.

[swagpiratex]

Another vote for AD700 or something from Grado. Remember that anything above the SR80 should be driven by sum ampz.

[BoxWithADot]

How are all these suggestions for gaming?

I don't particularly want a gaming headset(they all seem cheesy) but would like better sound than my $15 Sony headphones. My criteria would be very similar to BoxWithADot: at or around $100, comfort, good sound. I'm no audio file, so I bet pretty much anything would be an improvement. So, some music, mostly gaming, what's my best options?

What I'm going to do is grab a set of new headphones (likely Audio Technica ATH-AD700's) and then grab one of these. Looks neat, and the sound quality seemed on par with other headset microphones.

http://www.modmic.com/

[sth]

It sounds like you want something thats fairly neutral, doesn't leak too much, and can be worn for a few hours at a time.

I recommend the Sony MDR-V6 Monitors. Punchy bass, crystalline highs, caramel mids. Top headphone under $150 hands down and it gives the $200 models some serious competition. Another important factor is that these headphones can take a beating. Actually, they could probably be used to fend off a mugger if you needed to. Replacement parts are also everywhere from velour ear pads to replacement headbands. They also fold for easy storage.

How much do they cost though? $68 on amazon with prime availability (free prime accounts for .edu addresses if you didn't know). Read some reviews and make an informed decision.

For the price you might as well save and get sennheiser or grado or any other brand. V6 is the renamed mdr7506 iirc which has the weakest unfocused bass and shrillest, harshest highs I've heard from and headphone between 50-125. I used the for years before trying something better and I couldn't believe that I'd put my ears through that for so long )

[OddOne]

Great, thanks guys. Open ear for sure for me. I'm wearing the headphones as to not wake a sleeping toddler, but need to hear said toddler at the same time. Based on the numerous suggestions here I will start looking at Audio Technica ATH-AD700 headphones as well.

Thanks again.

[Will@Drop]

It sounds like you want something thats fairly neutral, doesn't leak too much, and can be worn for a few hours at a time.

I recommend the Sony MDR-V6 Monitors. Punchy bass, crystalline highs, caramel mids. Top headphone under $150 hands down and it gives the $200 models some serious competition. Another important factor is that these headphones can take a beating. Actually, they could probably be used to fend off a mugger if you needed to. Replacement parts are also everywhere from velour ear pads to replacement headbands. They also fold for easy storage.

How much do they cost though? $68 on amazon with prime availability (free prime accounts for .edu addresses if you didn't know). Read some reviews and make an informed decision.

For the price you might as well save and get sennheiser or grado or any other brand. V6 is the renamed mdr7506 iirc which has the weakest unfocused bass and shrillest, harshest highs I've heard from and headphone between 50-125. I used the for years before trying something better and I couldn't believe that I'd put my ears through that for so long )

Them's some fighting words to be posting without frequency response tables

The AD-700 is a great choice if you dont plan on taking them outside with you. I've got a gigantic head so the wings work better than any headband but they dont stay on if your moving around very much. They are also open

[TheProfosist]

I have sony mdr-v6's and am looking at a pair denon ah-d2000's to replace them. Also looking at beyerdynamic dv 797 PV's for a nice headset. I also have maudio bx5a v2's which i place to replace with Adam A3X's. I have no clue if all of these even have the same sound profile but i have found the all at leat decent.

[Will@Drop]

I have sony mdr-v6's and am looking at a pair denon ah-d2000's to replace them. Also looking at beyerdynamic dv 797 PV's for a nice headset. I also have maudio bx5a v2's which i place to replace with Adam A3X's. I have no clue if all of these even have the same sound profile but i have found the all at leat decent.

The D2000's are great. It's a shame the new Dennon line has been so disappointing : (

[tcv]

No love for Sennheiser in this thread?

[TheProfosist]

I have sony mdr-v6's and am looking at a pair denon ah-d2000's to replace them. Also looking at beyerdynamic dv 797 PV's for a nice headset. I also have maudio bx5a v2's which i place to replace with Adam A3X's. I have no clue if all of these even have the same sound profile but i have found the all at leat decent.

The D2000's are great. It's a shame the new Dennon line has been so disappointing : (

didnt know they got a new line now i know to stay away , thanks

[PointyFox]

The Sennheiser HD600 has much higher performance/value than the Denon D2000.  The only reason to consider the D2000 is if you need closed back headphones.

[TheProfosist]

The Sennheiser HD600 has much higher performance/value than the Denon D2000.  The only reason to consider the D2000 is if you need closed back headphones.

yea i much prefer closed back headphones actually its more like i dont like open ones.

[The_Beast]

The AD-700 is a great choice if you dont plan on taking them outside with you. I've got a gigantic head so the wings work better than any headband but they dont stay on if your moving around very much. They are also open

That and the fact that they look stupid. I would never wear mine outdoors because I'd be laughed back indoors


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