Recommend a pair of headphones for me

For indoor use, another "aye" for the Alessandros from here; they look like something from The Dambusters and build quality is v. plasticky but they sound *wonderful* and are very good vfm. I've nothing as swish as Sickly's Meier amp (just a little Headphonia portable amp) but they sound terrific through this and they even sound great from my unamped Sony mp3 player. I often find that I'll stick them on late at night when stereo listening would be too loud for neighbours etc and they really provide that "just one more tune" compulsion.

I'd also put a vote in for the Shure range, I had some E2Cs for a long while and the isolation made them great for commuting (as noted). Have Shure SE530s for travel now, and they are very much better than any other in-ear phones I've ever owned, but with price tag to match (just over £200 when I got them, although a bit of online searching can drive this down).

Personally I don't find Porta Pros terribly comfortable (I've also always thought they looked/felt flimsy, but for indoor use this isn't terribly important.)

x-post : bugger - meant, of course, Mr Mouthy's Meier amp...

Hi. Just for future reference wanted to let you guys know I ended buying the AD700 from Audio Technica after posing the question on the head-fi forum and getting many recommendations for them. They still haven't arrived but if any of you are curious about my opinion of them after I've done an 80+ hour listen, dont hesitate asking.

Here's the thread at head-fi:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/one-best-choice-100-mark-headphones-379879/

http://vaiopocket.up.seesaa.net/image/atrio1.jpg

I like my Atrio M5's sound wise but I have to say, build wise, they are not the greatest. I've already had to send one pair back to the US after a rattling sound developed in the left ear piece. Luckily it was still inside the 1 year warranty.

I recntly got some Sennheisser CX500 in-ear phones - not bad considering how small they are - but not a patch on their cheaper over-the-ear phones.

I tried a pair of the Sennheiser CX300 in-ear phones and thought they were kinda terrible... I just wanted a cheapish pair for my daily commute, but I ended up taking them back and bought some RAM on store credit instead.

I'm looking for an over-the-ear model that won't get in the way when I'm working out and which will also serve as all-purpose headphones. (I'd rather avoid earbuds because I don't want to damage my hearing any further.) Just doing some browsing, would Koss KSC24 fit the bill?

http://www.amazon.com/Koss-KSC24-Portable-Behind-the-neck-Stereophones/product-reviews/B000G0LL8E/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

I've had a few pairs of Koss. Good quality for the money, to be sure.

I currently have a pair of these Sonys, and they're pretty nice. Comfortable, pretty good bass, and good battery life on the noise cancelling. Decent sound with it turned off, too.

Pondering Denon AHD301s (£40) or Grado SR60i (£90).

Any arguments for or against?

Pondering Denon AHD301s (£40) or Grado SR60i (£90).

Any arguments for or against?

Alessandro MS1s, $100 incl shipping. Better than either. Made by Grado.

Aren't you UK-based?

It's a dilemma $99 dollars (63 quid-ish plus possible taxes) for the MS1s (but presumably can't do anything with them if there's a fault) versus the Grados (£90).

Thanks, by the way.

BLARG, where were you a week ago :/

>Alessandro MS1s, $100 incl shipping. Better than either. Made by Grado.

SM speaks the truth - I've had the MS1s for a couple of years (shipped to the UK, managed to avoid import duty but yeah, you roll the dice on that) and love them. They're so simply put together that (barring total driver failure) I reckon I could fix any problems with the cabling, not that I've ever had any. For the price nothing else really comes close to them in terms of sound quality.

after a lil reassuring googling i heard they're more for home use, too quiet for portable -- is that accurate?

the only difference is that ms1s have a more neutral response

Not too quiet for portable, too open; sound leaks. For portable I use Portapros. MS1s & Portapros together = less than SR60s.

portapros are pretty open too!

Not like Grados are!

true! gradosa re the equivalent of having a boombox on your shoulder. still wouldn't wear either in the subway though!

i think my biggest stumbling block is that if i get grados from, say, richer sounds, when they stop working i can walk to the shop and they'll exchange them (even though, rationally, i know that headphones are unlikely to stop working in 12 months).

I wouldn't worry too much about the Grados... I have a pair of SR60s I was given for christmas in 1995 and they still work perfectly. They've been all over the world and the only thing I've ever done was replace the foam earpads a couple times. The pair my brother got that christmas had one driver die a year or two ago.

I've worked with grados before; they're incredibly easy to fix, if you have any experience at all with a soldering iron

Thanks for all this info.
D.

I spent a half hour over the weekend trying to repair the headband on my mdr-d66sl sonys again. I think it's doable, since it's just the structural wire that I need to replace. I miss the hell out of using them regularly, even though they're not the best headphones.

Has sony made any eggo-style one that's still available that's not horrible? Or is there some place on the web where someone has a hidden stock of the originals? I missed someone on head-fi selling some earlier this month :(

Would you say it's worth getting the Grado SR60is or Alessandro MS1s if they're primarily going to be used for listening to high bitrate MP3s on an iPod Touch? This is for bedroom listening while abroad, not wandering around on the streets. I've got earbuds for that.

Oh god yes.

Just replaced my not very old AKG in-ears with Sennheisers, after the rubber surround went. OMG the Sennheisers sound so much better. Fuller, rounder, bassier.

I have some Sennheiser CX300 in-ears which sound OK but distinctly not full or bassy, which I wouldn't mind except everyone else says they are. There's an Amazon review saying if they sound tinny you're wearing the wrong ear fitting, but only the small ones fit at all, so I don't have any choice. sadface.jpg

(I had some Goldring in-ears before this and at first I thought they sounded terrible, tinny and weird stereo image, but after I got the knack of pushing them in just right they sounded great! Unfortunately I then lost one of the ear fittings and couldn't buy a spare. So I would really like a sudden breakthrough with my Sennheisers too. The Goldrings went in pretty deep, formed a seal and blocked out most outside sound, whereas the Sennheisers don't go in far, but I was thinking that was by design rather than poor fitting.)

mine are mx660, standard earbuds not actual in-ear or ear-canal or whatever the hell the terminology is. seems they have a higher impedance than the cx300, whatever that means.

Tried to order some Alessandro M1s, and they sent me a plaintext email a couple days later asking for more credit card details. Not inspiring. If they can't even manage a credit card transaction, how could they possibly make good headphones?

The Alessandro people don't make them; Grado do. Alessandro are very net naive; persevere!

What do the Alessandro people do to them after Grado makes them?

I had to buy some Grados from Amazon... not knowing how long Alessandro would take to ship, I couldn't risk have to leave without some good headphones.

Alessandro do nowt to them; they're tuned for them by Grado.

Headphones are a black art.

All audio is.

grados: hearing things on a johann johannsson album that i didn't know were there. marvellous stuff.

I feel I should point out that my credit card problems with Alessandro turned out to be MY FAULT and they are blameless. Go buy some headphones from them.

Is there actually anything to the idea of "burning in" headphones or is that just more audiophile snakeoil?

I think there is - but the great thing about it is that it's free to try. there's a very lightweight and good program here:

http://www.burninwave.com/

I splurged and bought a pair of Grado SR125s today. Cranked up A Storm In Heaven and OMG.

So yeah, they're dorky looking but there is nothing better.

anyone got any recommendations for the gen3 shuffle?

Obviously I ditched the apple phones asap as they are crap, now have my in-ear Sennheisers plugged in through a belkin adapter which lets you have the in-line controls the only way to control the thing). The sound is ok, but the controller is crap, way too easy to switch off the shuffle and not greatly made it's rattling already.

Koss Portapros.

Argh, 3gen, maybe not.

nope, they'd still have to go through he adapter, plus, don't they have sponges? Not too good at the gym...

I have some Sennheiser CX300 in-ears which sound OK but distinctly not full or bassy, which I wouldn't mind except everyone else says they are.

i've been meaning to get a pair of these for a month or two now but i keep getting spooked by stories about really well-made counterfeits everywhere. (official retailer rrp is like £30-40 and then there's dodgy looking ebay/amazon dudes selling for £11.) anyone have an idea where might be cheapest and most trustworthy?

I actually bought a pair of legit CX300 IIs from Amazon for about £12 last week. For the price they are not bad, although don't offer much isolation. Plenty of bass (if a bit indistinct).

Got them because my Shure SE530s have crapped out again. That's my 4th pair of them, all previous ones having a fault which manifests in the cable stiffening and cracking after a period of time. Am now in heated discussion with Shure about getting a (free) replacement as I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a £250 pair of headphones to last longer than 2.5 years. They sound *superb* but this problem with the cable now prevents me from recommending them at all.

In fact, there I am upthread stanning the Shures back in the good old days of November 2008. It's very frustrating because they are so wonderful in terms of sound and so lousy in terms of build quality.

Same thing happened to two pairs of Shures I've owned. Wonderful in-ears, but can't something be done about those cracking cables? It's inexcusable.

I'd only buy Grado again if they came up with a better design for the junction where the L and R cables join the main cables. Just stupid.