Recommend a pair of headphones for me

An extra thank you to everyone who led me to my Audio Technica ATH-M50s. Don't think these can be beat for value (among other things).

^^ agree re: ATH-M50, i got my pair earlier this year, totally sick headphone

My gf would like to buy decent headphones (regular ones, no earbuds or sports models) somewhere in the price range of 40-50 euros. Any suggestions?

I need some headphones for listening to music around the house (have neighbours and a girlfriend who is studying for a degree, but I'm tired of turning my music down). Would prefer over-ear type - maybe noise-cancelling? Any recommendations for wireless ones?

hey ilm: looking for a decent pair of earbuds, or perhaps something with some kind of external support (head band, behind-the-ear thingies). I have some good cans for home & leisure use, but I need something to use w/ my ipod whilst jogging/biking/gym-going.

Still need to buy these. I recently came across what seems like a really good deal n some 'Beats By Dre' earbuds. Celebrity endorsements notwithstanding, I've heard mixed reviews of the brand in general, mainly that they are overpriced. But at 50-60% off retail, perhaps they would be a more reasonable option? If not, I think I'm going to go w/ Klipsch or Sennheiser at this point.

Audio Technica has some good and reasonably priced IEMs

I'd avoid the Beats buds.

What's your budget? I picked up some Shure SE 215s last week and have been very happy with them, but they sell for around $100. I was happy to see they have replaceable cables, and that they're reinforced where they wrap over your ears; they replaced an older pair that were fraying pretty badly after years of use.

really want some good in-ear buds, what do you all recommend? i like the sony pair i recommended upthread but curious what else is good. need to be a good fit for running too...

The Klipsch S4's are great sounding headphones that are let down by some seriously poor build quality. I've been through 2 pairs within 18 months. Wankers.

Local Garda -

i just bought a pair of these for running. come recommended by the world record holder in all-time 100 mile race victories (30+ to date... look him up!) as a very durable, and good sounding headphone for runners.

$36 on Amazon

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/sport-headphones-sport-earphones-sennheiser-adidas-sport_504046

The (now $25) Klipsch S2 ($35 for the S2m with microphone) seem to have been discontinued due to an incompatibility of the S2m jack and the iPhone 4, but these are easily the most comfortable of the half-dozen in-ear headphones I've purchased. Aside from the self-destructing Shures, the others have fallen prey to dog, door jam, or rolling car tire. Since I'm content with my iPhone 3gs, I purchased another pair of S2m just in case. I've worn the current pair for a couple hours every day for 6 months, with no apparent damage.

S2/S2m sound quality is comparable with the entry level Etymotic and Shure models, and infinitely better than the bassy Skullcandy and tuned for speech Apple branded in-ear buds. They seem to have been replaced by the $90 ($50 discounted) Klipsh X1s, which appear identical in every respect. The various Klipsch S4 models had better sound qualitiy, but I found them unusable, as I tend to lodge my buds at least a cm into my ear canal.

I'm getting some Sennheiser PXC 250 II headphones second-hand, £50 not bad.

Any ideas on cheap but sturdy earbuds - thinking probably $20, not completely isolating?

kinda thinking about buying these after trying on a pair and loving them
http://www.erwincomp.com/hd25-1-ii-closed-back-headphon-sennheiser-electronic-hd25-1ii.html
should probably cntrl+f but anyone have any experience

aaaaaand there's six positive mentions; guess i'll give em a try. Real noiseproof huh? that's not really a good thing when i'm on the street.

They're still the professional go-to and have been a favorite of many a music listener/dj. I've not purchased them, even though I had considered it heavily for a while. I think my TMA-1 headphones are somewhat in a similar space?

I got some really nice closed-ear cans from Sennheiser. Perfect for the train cos they block out all the carriage noise, however the wire's three metres long and really impractical outside of a DJ setting.

Rediscovering my TMA-1 - these are great

Aren't they? I'll go a couple weeks without using them, then get back into it and reappreciate them. They're kind of built in their own style, not really at all like any other headphones I own as far as the band tension, materials, or size

Can anyone recommend a pair of over-the-ear headphones that have noise cancellation, are fairly comfortable to wear, and cost somewhere in the $50 or less range?

xposts: How will you be using HD-25s?

Having done a lot of research for headphones of that ilk last summer, I can vouch for them sounding amazing, and being comfortable (at least momentarily) and light, too. Indeed, I came thiiis close to getting a pair, but didn't because: I found a pair of ATH-M50s that were crazy marked down (whereas HD25s lean toward the pricey, at least in Canada), and because bad experiences with open ear headphones have left me scared that HD25s will give me a lot of ear pain (this is obv only a problem if used for regular extended listening), and cause I think the ATH-M50s actually sound better, at least insofar as they have a rich, thick low end (which is what I was looking for).

Anyways, I'm presently living away from home, so everything I listen to is either through laptop speakers or my best beloved ATH-M50s, which I just cannot recommend enough.

I'm living away from home, so

hey, has anyone else noticed a heartbreaking decline in the quality of koss portapros? i don't mean the headphones, but the way they're put together. they changed the jack, so it's straight rather than right angled, i guess for ipod reasons, a while ago, & since then i've got through like three pairs or something. they break & i order a new one because i can't do without headphones & now i have several pairs ready to bag up and return.

I'm too poor to buy cheap stuff

ha. i know. they were £16 for a while, so i could always sorta justify recklessly buying another pair, or couldn't avoid caving. it really sucks because they're my fav & i don't even really feel like i want or need better sounding headphones. it's just they keep breaking.

enjoying the eskuche 'kassette' model.. (over-ear), super basic in appearance. can find em on the net for $39, but i hear they sell em at like urban outfitters and record shops (like skull candy, but not atrocious-looking)

i have moderate tinnitus, and used to rely on $10 sony in-ear throwaways, but in-ear phones generally exacerbate the problem. i've been told that noise-cancelling phones also potentially aggravate the ears.

Yeah I'm pretty much done with portapros because even with the replacement policy they're just too fragile. Have a pair of decent headphones for work. Thinking of going back to earbuds for "commuting" headphones. Need a recommendation for something durable whose cord is hard to get too tangled. Since I'm going to be listening in lots of noisy circumstances (trains, etc.), sound quality comes a distant second in concerns.

still sendin' back my portapros, i basically have broken over 1000000 headphones in my lifetime and the pps dont seem any more fragile than most

lately i have started using some nu force ne-700x earbuds. can't always quite get the fit perfect but even when i can't the sound is great. i don't know how durable they are, sterl, but the cord seems fine.

i had been using some cheap koss 'plug' earbuds, and before that some nicer ones, and before that some higher-end sorny earbuds, all variously satisfying (though breaking or wearing out easily), but these nu-force are the best-sounding, fidelity-wise, i've had in a long time.

i think once i get into a rhythm of owning two pairs of portapros, & sending back a pair when one breaks, i'll be fine, cyclically exchanging and refreshing my headphones. but yeah i just wish they'd use thicker wire covering at the jack? i don't want to have to become someone who's carrying their headphones around in the small leather pouch provided but i'll do it if i have to.

I have a pair of Klipsch S4i headphones that sounded good and had the inline iphone mic and controller thing that I love so much. One year into the two year warranty, the plug area started shorting out so I got them replaced. I kind of hoped that maybe they'd had to replace lots of these under warranty and would have redesigned the plug, but the new pair seems to have an even flimsier plug than the previous ones.

I get the feeling that these weren't really designed to actually carry around around with you and use on a daily basis.

iirc someone recommended some cheap no-name earbuds that you could get off ebay or amazon, and said they break pretty regularly but they sound great so they just order like 10 pairs at a time; anybody remember this? can't find the post

I have a pair of Klipsch S4i headphones that sounded good and had the inline iphone mic and controller thing that I love so much. One year into the two year warranty, the plug area started shorting out so I got them replaced. I kind of hoped that maybe they'd had to replace lots of these under warranty and would have redesigned the plug, but the new pair seems to have an even flimsier plug than the previous ones.

I get the feeling that these weren't really designed to actually carry around around with you and use on a daily basis.

mine just shorted out this morning (6 months into owning). ugh. i guess i'll buy a new pair and then send these back for warranty so i always have one around. it's already driving me crazy to only hear through one ear...when i had the jack that was l-shaped, it seemed to last longer, but these ones don't seem to come that way?

when i had the jack that was l-shaped, it seemed to last longer, but these ones don't seem to come that way?

^^ key problem of our era imo, & downfall of koss portapro

i just bought koss kdx300. evidently it comes with a lifetime warranty?

and is cheaper than klipsch

do not sleep on the industry standard

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-MDR7506/

every time i break one of these nice earphones, i pull out my old crappy earbuds and am reminded of the vast difference in sound and i sigh and shell out $$ for the fancy kind.

The Klipsch S4's are great sounding headphones that are let down by some seriously poor build quality. I've been through 2 pairs within 18 months. Wankers.

My experience as well. I'm about six months into my second pair, where my first pair lasted just a little more than a year. Juuuuust enough to get beyond the factory warranty.

But to be fair, I'm not easy on earphones. I use them every single day, and you may need to shell out a few extra bucks if they're going to get that kind of use.

lately i have started using some nu force ne-700x earbuds. can't always quite get the fit perfect but even when i can't the sound is great. i don't know how durable they are, sterl, but the cord seems fine.

sigh. the cord was shit.

I was slightly disappointed my first pair of Portapros only lasted 4 years, but the 2nd pair have started crackling in the left earphone after just 4 months.

i've had my Klipsch S4's for more than two years and they're going strong. Maybe the build quality has gone down?

I was sold a pair of AudioTechina ATH-ES7 by a mate who runs a headphones store in WA... dont know if it was as much "need to shift this stock" as it was a genuine recommend but I love them, they have a punchy, solid sound and the cans block out external noise well, if theyre a little too small (they dont completely encase the ears). My only gripe is the stupidly short, frail lead on them.

A friend told me that his replacement porta pros went after a couple of months...

also I noticed that my new ones have a straight headphone jack, rather than a l-shaped one.

maybe the new batch just aren't up to the old ones' standards.

mine are still fine though, had them for about 3 months.

yeah the era of portapros is over i think?, & uh huh it's since they changed the jack. i have burned through a bunch of pairs. out of inability to work out which headphones i should get instead, last time they broke i bought these, which are twice as expensive but have a nylon lead instead of the rubber kind. they're okay so far! but it has only been two months or something:

http://www.materiel.net/casque-compact/koss-porta-pro-bbc-the-plug-61512.html

i have pioneer HDJ-2000s

i would not really recommend them ... they are super lush headphones w/ excellent sound and a lot of nice features. for example the ear cushions rotate 180 degrees independently and on springs, so you can easily achieve all of the various pro-dj headphone positions, for example, canted sideways on your head with one ear cushion on one ear and the other one sitting over your eye like a pirate eyepatch. and they are made of really solid metal and have leather and memory foam ear cushions, etc etc etc

*but*

i have broken the 1/8 jack on the cables twice, and one of the springs on the ear cushion part has already broken. it cost me about 40 bucks each time to fix the 1/8 jack and it's going to cost, i dunno, probably 100 bucks to fix the spring.

so in essence i've had them two years, i paid about four bills for them and i've already put in two bills on repairs

fuckers

they are pretty sweet though and certainly "complete the look" if you really wanna be mr bedroom dj

if anybody is interested i have a pair of knockoff hdj-2000s, they are not built of the same materials and they lack some of the articulation but it looks like they're built with the same dies and molds and as far as i can tell the cones and drivers are of comparable quality if not actually the exact same thing

I have those TMA-1 headphones, and a million pairs of portable/backpack/small headphones because I am a nerd with a headphones buying issue.

do those sound any good? because they are damn good looking

that is insane. i've never had a pair of headphones for over a year - one ear usually going out tends to be the problem. plus, i don't treat them totally well: their either on my head or stuffed in a backpack, admidst whatever.

my porta-pros i only keep returning to b/c of the lifetime warranty. as for the jack being l-shaped, the ones i just got back from the refurb place are just that. that said, i wonder if these are refurbed ones i'm getting or entirely new pairs? i notice all my scratches are gone on them, leading me to think they're just trashing the ones i send in. i don't particularly care either way, just saying.

i meant to quote this:

I was slightly disappointed my first pair of Portapros only lasted 4 years, but the 2nd pair have started crackling in the left earphone after just 4 months.

― useless chamber, Tuesday, 7 August 2012 13:32 (6 days ago) Permalink