Need Decent Headphones (OT?)

For closed over the ear headphones, I'm going to recommend the Sony V6 which is identical to the Sony MDR-7506 (but do NOT confuse this with the supposedly very inferior MDR-V600 which looks similar). Other options: Sennheiser PX-200, Sennheiser HD-280

For in ear canal phones, I'm suggesting the Shure E2C
Other options: Sony EX-71, Sony EX-51

Now the problem is that both of my recommendations are more than $60 (Street price being between $70-$100). However, many people have apparently had success bargaining at Guitar Center, and have got them down to $55-$70 for either.

Again, this information is coming from having done alot of recent research at head-fi.org which is actually pretty addicting to read.

I had been in serious advice mode for this thread..

Bring back Jean Claude Van Damme, he never fucked about with music people might actually want to hear...

xpost: so you listen to your A500s on the road, then

FUCK Wes Anderson and his boring ear-canal phones playing interesting music from the last 30 years.

Bring back Jean Claude Van Damme, he never fucked about with music people might actually want to listen to.

But seriously, they're not portable *at all* - too big and they'd probably fall off since they don't clamp to your head like some other (uncomfortable) headphones.

I have just got some Shure E2Cs. They are great.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_5008.jpg

i like them. They are like earplugs and you can listen to stuff on the tube at a much lower volume then :)

Shure E2c Sound Isolating ipod Earphones £57.99

Bass is perhaps a little light, but that's largely down to my iPod I suspect, but isolation and clarity and sound-staging are all excellent, good enough to use them with my home hi-fi if I didn't have some Grados.

The RRP is more like £70+ I believe.

It barely drives my koss ksc35's at all (same drivers as yr portapros nick) pretty close to inadequate (i'm no loudness freak either).

1) They completely fill your ear canal like earplugs, obstructing all other sound and rendering them impossible to speak to anyone while wearing them.

2) Even when you "get a good seal" (that is, sealing the plug into your ear so that no sound leaks out), the bass is pretty tame, though...

3) ...b/c the plugs fill your entire ear canal, every step you take while walking makes the thing go, "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" from the low end, totally obstructing the sound.

4) You have to crank the shit out your iPod/mp3 player to get even average volume.

I'm gonna give them another shot or two before returning them, but by and large, these things are just totally disappointing to me and not appropriate for anything other than a commute during which you sit in one place for an hour-plus not talking to anyone.

This is pretty much the whole point of headphones, as far as I'm concerned, and one of the principle reasons I revere my Koss plugs as much as I do. They also don't have the other problems you mention, which I really would see as problems.

HOLY FUCK, $2.99??!??

I'm not talking about carrying on conversations while you're listening to music. I mean (as was mentioned upthread) it blocks at any and all sound, while also taking 10 seconds to dig the thing out of your ear. Meaning, if you use these things for a commute, where someone might have the gall to say, "Excuse me" or "Can I sit there?" you have a bit of a problem.

Actually, after posting that yesterday, I put these on for the last 20 min. of work at my desk. And they sounded pretty good -- but that's not exactly ideal listening. Call me crazy but I like to do things while I listen to music other than sit in one place where no one has to talk to me for hours on end.

just get a set of PortaPros, dude.

Ha! Yes, well, I suspect I should have picked up on that. The irony here is that I like earbuds fine (that is, not the plugs that press against your eardrum and seal any air whatsoever from entering the ear canal).

As for the PortaPros, those look great, but wraparounds aren't as portable (ie, you can't stick the whole iPod in your pocket and just go). Plus, wraparounds look a little dumb in a professional setting.

Any thoughts on the Sennheiser MX-400s?

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-MX400-MX-400-In-Ear-Headphones/dp/B00004Z0BN/sr=8-1/qid=1158254089/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-2575783-5497434?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

Shure E2C headphones have been my first paddle in the waters of in-ear-monitor headphones, and I have enjoyed using them greatly over the last few months. They're not perfect though.

I'd recommend spending quite a bit of time trying the different tips - they're "isolator" headphones, meaning they go literally INSIDE your ear canal and cut out external noise so you only get music, and there are three kinds of tips - soft plastic, rubber, and foam. I used foam ones for the first few months but have been using the rubber and plastic ones for a bit recently, just trying. Each pair fits differently and sounds slightly different too - it's difficult to get good bass response with the rubber ones, for instance, because while comfy and easy to fit, they don't seal / plug very well, and you need them in tight for bass. The soft plastic tips feel very uncomfortable to begin with but this soon passes. Practice and preference with different tips is essential.

The sound is excellent, very clear and open with good bass (when they're sealed well), but if you're using them with an MP3 player they'll show up things encoded at less than good-to-excellent quality (i.e. encode your MP3s at 192kbps).

The sound is also slightly odd in some ways - as other reviewers have mentioned you can hear your own footfalls vibrating through your body, which can be strange and can also "eat away" bass frequencies as your body's rhythms and workings compete with the lower end of the music coming through the headphones. It is a very open sound though - less overwhelming than something like Grado SR60s and more refined than the (excellent, when found cheap) Koss Portapros, both of which I also own and use in certain conditions (Grados for home listening through my hi-fi amp, for instance).

Are they worth £50? RRP is nearer to £70, so yes they are in that sense. I use headphones for several hours a day and have found the Shure's to be comfortable and provide an unfatiguing listen, and have run them comfortably off an iPod, MacBook computer, Denon minisystem and hi-fi separates amplifier. They are perfect for listening to music on the train, for instance, as they do isolate external sound very well. If I had the spare cash right now I'd get some Etymotic ER6is, the E2Cs closest rival product, but not because the Shure's aren't very good - because I'm greedy with headphones!

Matt, you want some Koss Portapros, at a guess. I use Grado SR60s at home, Shures on the train, and Portapros... occasionally elsewhere when I fancy them.

www.headphoenworld.com is a good UK site for sales, and also gives lots of info. Other than that, www.head-fi.org

x-post GOD NO NOT PX200S - the PX100s are FAR superior, the PX200s have no bass.

my slightly painful, hideous (yet wonderful-sounding) Portapros

ha ha. i always thought it was like a portapro secret. i totally put up with pulling my hair out, digging a metal band into my head and crinkling impressions of the plastic eatphones into my ears because they sound so great. i really need to send them off to be fixed sometime soon (elastic band solution amid disintegration), but i don't want to be without them for a couple of weeks. i still regularly notice how good they sound.

grado's sound great, and i love my SR-60s...they are very "open" though and bleed sound both ways, so that might be a problem in a work environment.

Just got my SR80s today and I'm already in love with them. A bit less up-front and punchy than the Portapros, but I'm hearing so many subtle little details I was missing. And they're so comfy!

On flights to and from Oakland for work in August I saw around 5 age 50-something and up guys using Bose headphones. Just got back from a trip to LA and again saw the same number of folks in that same demographic with the Bose headphones. I wonder if I should join them when I hit that age range...

Bose - Better Off Somewhere Else.

Typically you can get better headphones for a lot less.

I use the noise canceling Bose on flights and they work like a charm. I would never have sprung the $350 but since they were a gift I use and enjoy them.

After 50 your range of hearing is typically so reduced that it won't make much difference what you use.