a headphones recommendation thread

KZ ZS3 are so uncomfortable : /

i'm looking for a good pair of over-ear phones. i've been using the same pair of sennheiser hd280s for years but i'm not that crazy about em. they're sturdy as hell but not super comfortable, kind of heavy. i'm not nuts about how they sound, the mids and highs seem harsh to me.

I bought my Grado SR60 headphones back in 2007 and they're still going strong. They're dorky as hell but the sound is awesome. And "only" $79.00.

HiFiMAN marked down their HE400i Planar from $449 to $249. I'm guessing they're clearing stock to get ready for a new model.

Also the Sennheiser HD 6XX drop starts Monday. Last time it sold out in a few minutes, so they figured they might as well up the price to $249 (it's around $315 in general market).
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-sennheiser-hd6xx

Last 8 hrs of drop, priced dropped to $199.

I've been enjoying the used HifiMAN HE-6 I got a couple weeks ago, the best magnetic planar headphone I've had so far, including the Audeze LCD-2.2. Today a new collaboration with Massdrop was released, the HE4XX. At $170, a no-brainer, as nothing else in that price range comes close. Closest might be the Monoprice Monolith M1060 for $300, that's not as good.

The drop ends in a few hours for the AKG K7XX. At slightly more at $200, these very comfortable, one of the lightest former flagship open headphones at 235g (compare to HE-4XX's 370g, Focal Utopia's 490g, Abyss AB-1266's 620g), it's great for classical, jazz, acoustic and movies with a wide soundstage. I still use my white K701 that I got in 2006 in the living room for movies/TV.

*kicks rock* I fell for the Sennheiser HD 6XX drop

Buyers remorse? Is it because they don't ship 'til December? They're great headphones too -- I was tempted to do it, but don't really need 'em.

yeah I should probably plan for a good headphone amp before I get sad about not having planar magentic phones

er, any chance I could get away with using the headphone jack on this DAC I have sitting around?

oh yeah those Focusrites have nice DACs in them

I've been reading up on iems/earbuds lately because fucking apple earpods should not be a longterm device. The first thing I started googling is "iem soundstage". If I'm willing to drop $150 - $350 on dangles, they ought to at least simulate the headphone experience. Audeze iSine 10 came up in my searches but they are ugly for one thing.

From my searches: "IEMs are like closed headphones while earbuds are more like open headphones. If you want a big soundstage earbuds is the way to go (if it is okay for you to sacrifice sub bass, compared to IEMs)."

Currently I'm looking at the LZ-A4 hybrid.

I really don't like earbuds. I need my bass

Exactly. But from what I've read, earbuds have come a long way in the last few years. The hybrid I mentioned gets stellar reviews.

I still think the beyerdynamic dt770 and audiotechnica Ad700 are the best headphones you can get below $200.

And I still think people that buy headphones above $500 cant tell the difference.

if only I had their golden ears

ive never tried headphones above 500 so i cant say one way or another. would like to

As someone who has spent >$500 on a headphone and listened to headphones >$2k, it's a combination of sound quality, comfort and sound signature. >$1000 you're looking at extremely diminishing returns if not lateral changes in style and tone and there's a ton of products with very poor price performance ratios (MDR-Z1R, HD800S, LCD4, LCDX, Ether C Flow, etc). Clarity and detail is quite variable in headphones above $1k in my trials, and it's more about sound signature preferences, comfort, etc. An HD600 is like 90-95% of what you need for clarity, an HD800 will give you all of it for less than a grand. An LCD2 (which can be found new for $700) is to many a comparable if not better performer than the LCD3 (which is twice the price). Craziness. That said, there's some remarkable sounding gear out there above $500 and if you can't afford a good speaker setup or play music in your house loud, it's a worthy investment if music is more important to you than say television or movies.

The best way to find out is to actually trial some really nice cans. Bring your own and compare. For years I just used a DT-770 until I tried a bunch out in Japan while I was traveling and had a holy shit moment.

If you have a set budget it's perfectly acceptable to believe what you've got is as good as it gets!

For years I used the DT770 Pro and Denon AH-D2000 (which I still use at work) and they are great. It's not like there are crucial bits of range missing. Getting more into the hobby is definitely about gear geekery and appreciating the subtle differences in sound signatures, just like some get into wines or scotches, or musicians who collect different guitars. Not everyone is going to be able to tell the differences or care.

Super budget deal of the moment, the AKG K220 which lists for $160 will be as low as $50 on this Massdrop - https://www.massdrop.com/buy/akg-m220-semi-open-studio-headphones.

Any way to drive the HFM HE400 straight from an iPhone? Or is that missing the point?

The Massdrop HE-4XX is efficient and can be used on an iPhone. You can compare the sensitivity stats of the other versions.

I was searching around because I managed to grab my own rare pokemon of headphones a few years back but only have the short cable for them and having the long one would be nice.

My hopes of people forgetting about them and the price dropping down has again been foiled by an article in 2016
https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/27/11312378/sony-eggo-headphones-mdr-d33

damn it people, stop writing about eggos!

I'd never tried active noise-canceling headphones until recently, and the ones I picked up had terrible sound for a bunch of money, so I sent them back. If you're into good sounding headphones is active noise-cancellation a bad thing? does it end up distorting the sound? because that's how these ones went (they were bluetooth too so maybe that's part of the crappiness?)

I feel like studio cans that have really good sound isolation are just as good noise wise and sound so much better...

i haven't heard high end noise canceling ones by sony or bose though

i have a pair for the bus and they pretty much suck but were cheap (cowin) and i don't care if they get wrecked

active noise cancelling headphones do change the sound yeah. i own some nicer audio techinica ones but dont really care for them for music listening. great for movies on an airplane tho

yeah, different tools for different purposes

if all you care about is sound quality, you will get a lot more bang for your buck by skipping active noise cancellation

for work environments (incl conference/video calls) and travel, to me ANC is worth the price. I’ve field-tested the current Bose, Beats and Sony offerings. All are good, tho I was shocked to find I actually prefer the Beats.

Bose is the strongest noise cancellation, which some equate with best. For me it was almost obtrusive as white noise and a noticeable feeling of pressure. Great for air travel but otherwise a little much.

Sony is probably the overall winner for sound quality/comfort/noise cancellation. Touch controls felt a little fussy and I’m not the kind to open an app to fine tune my experience for every track.

Beats... sounds good, ANC is gentle but works well, W1 pairs brilliantly if you’re already inside the Apple garden, and are most comfortable for my ears/head.

Still figuring out which of the three sounds best on the other side of a call...

as bad luck would have it, i broke my only pair of headphones (Shure SRH440)last night. i superglued it back together, but i can tell the days are numbered...which i guess means i'm in the market for a budget-nice pair of headphones, in the $100-$200 range.

i guess i may be going back to the good ol' Sennheiser HD280PRO, which i enjoyed for years before breaking a few years ago.

Sony is probably the overall winner for sound quality/comfort/noise cancellation. Touch controls felt a little fussy and I’m not the kind to open an app to fine tune my experience for every track.

This is my experience with the MDR1000X. I like be them, perfect for an open plan hot desk environment. I’ve then although the headband has cracked after a year and it’s 200 bucks to fix.

My colleague has these and is raving about them. I might want these at some point. They came out of a startup accelerator I mentor at.

https://au.nuraphone.com/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2F

my pioneer hdj-500s crapped out so i bought some phonon smb-02s

they get in tomorrow afternoon ... will report back soon

this is useful! I had bought the noise cancelling cans for my daughter, for whom the quality was still an update on her apple earbuds but to me not worth the 100+ €. we want the noise cancellation for her because our house can be noisy, so not for air travel. but then I was wondering if I'd like a pair like that. currently I'm happy with my sennheiser cx 3 earbuds (30 €) for on the run listening (at home I'm still in love with my grado sr-80s.

The Bose ones recently had a firmware update that lets you set the level of ANC. This is good for windy environments or for when you don't want to be so isolated.

thanks for that tip! still have bose and beats here duking it out...

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-x-sennheiser-hd-58x-jubilee-headphones

I use the Bose Quietcomforts for listening on the road and have become addicted to them - yes, the sound is distorted, but the noise-cancellation makes all the difference when you're listening in the metro, on a busy street, etc. Feel like it's a good way of protecting my ears too, since I don't need to crank it. Never going back to non-noise-cancellation hps.

I also have a few pairs of those chi-fi KZ-ATE in-ears, use them when I want something lighter. They're unmatched at the price.

Recently got a pair of Sony MDR-7605 for production use. They're crystal clear, quite comfortable, cable is practical, but they're unrealistically light in the sound - impossible to use them for EQing. A friend of mine recommended the Marshalls for this purpose, apparently they're realistically bassy/muffled.

those nuraphones look p interesting!

Dunno about the Nura - either that or a complete scam

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/02/21/17-year-old-girl-electrocuted-as-her-headphones-melted-in-her-ears.html

My question is, were they Bose or Beats?

the nuraphones look interesting but yeah that has my snakeoil radar going off

I've had these for a bit now...and I haven't ever had the nicer 600 series Sennheisers, so I'm not gonna parrot the "Sennheiser killer" thing you see some places...but. For open headphones that cost $50 these are ASTONISHING...I do think they are the Grado killers (SR60/80), I think the soundstage is better and the sound is less harsh and they are far more comfortable and well built (the comfort and build quality is really extraordinary at this price)

so if you are saving up for some more expensive cans, and want some opens for home use (these are super open would terrible in office environment btw), I've found these to be great, and I would expect match or outperform stuff that's 2X-3X the cost

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826138190&cm_re=Philips_SHP9500S-_-26-138-190-_-Product

Those look like they might be an updated version of a pair I have:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O2Y2MZG/

I mostly use them at home when I'm reading in bed because the open back is a bit much for the office, and they're a little on the large side for walking around too much. Really nice sound, though.

inova™

nura’s patented in & over architecture

Gettit?

xpost - yeah i bet they both say 50mm neodynium drivers the same way

I think philips tried breaking into the more expensive headphones market and didn't quite do it and they're using the same components in less expensive ones now? I'm sure some headphones nerds have dissected them all and are posting about it somewhere.

im wanting to buy those SHPs just to compare to the Senn 6XX i got

Audio Advisor has the HiFiMAN 400i for $219.

http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=HMHE400I

If like me, you go through sets of earbuds quickly, check these out, they really are the best I've ever had, not even just for the money.

I especially like that they have a nice way of rendering those awkward mid frequencies that affect my aging ears.

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/review-kz-ate-hi-fi-earphones/

If like me, you go through sets of earbuds quickly, check these out, they really are the best I've ever had, not even just for the money.

I especially like that they have a nice way of rendering those awkward mid frequencies that affect my aging ears.

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/review-kz-ate-hi-fi-earphones🕸/

do they not have standard tips that you can buy some comply brand ones for?