Recommend a pair of headphones for me

not bad, but the lack of a detachable cable might be a dealbreaker unless the stock cable is very very solid

Not sub-$100 but these things could be run over by a truck and wouldn't even get scratched:

That's true. The cable is not replaceable. However, one thing I like about these is that there is no cable connecting the left and right side. Those cables tend to be rather thin - in fact in my last pair of headphones, that was the part that broke first. So the simplicity of the design seems like a plus for durability.

xp

Xposts
How much is B&H charging for replacement sennheiser cables? I’m getting close to needing one and that was going to be my plan...

I love my new headphones. I am sure they have whatever faults but it's a big step up from using airplane earbuds. Now I have to maybe buy a ps4. I am starting this decade less than a decade behind!

How much is B&H charging for replacement sennheiser cables?

the basic 3.5mm to dual 2.5mm Sennheiser cable (currently out of stock) is $19.99 plus shipping on B&H's site, up from $13.40 a little over a year ago. I finally got an email from Sennheiser saying that the cable is no longer available on their own site, so I wonder if it's been discontinued. I don't think their newer models use that type of cable.

there don't seem to be a lot of decent alternatives to the proprietary 3.5mm-to-2.5mm cable. I bought a generic cable once but wasn't too thrilled by it — too short, came unplugged from my mp3 player too easily (probably because of the bulky adaptable plug), and only lasted about a year. other ones I bookmarked but didn't buy (and which might not fit depending on the diameter of the rubber/plastic piece that secures the earphone plugs):

https://www.amazon.com/NEW-NEOMUSICIA-Replacement-Compatible-Headphones/dp/B07H6SPVX5/ (same brand as the one I bought, but it may be a bit more durable)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/6-35mm3-5mm-to-2-5mm-Replacement-Audio-upgrade-Cable-For-Bose-oe2-oe2i-Headphone/281212520541 (ships directly from China, so idk)

of course none of the above will help unless your headphones use the same type of cable. fwiw I ended up buying a new pair of Phillips SHP9500 headphones, so I'll be retiring my old Sennheisers unless I decide to use them as a backup

Ali express is your answer here. Whatever cable configuration you want you can get it with a little searching.

Quality is can be. pretty good too.

I think i'm finally gonna bite and get a portable DAC/preamp for my iPhone. Is Dragonfly (which color) still the one to get?

yerac did you take the plunge with those sonys or something else

no! I got the cheaper ones that I had mentioned above. They are totally fine. Will see how they hold up. Using them more than I thought but still not a lot. I don't think I would ever walk around with them.

My main gear has been Denon AH-D2000 (10 years running, currently used at work) and HiFiMAN HE6se. My involvement with the Head-Fi community inevitably results in buying some crazy gear, including an iFi Pro stack, with an energizer for electrostatics. I tried MrSpeakers Voce and HiFiMAN Shangri-La Jr., both of which were pretty excellent, but I couldn't stop thinking, damn these are expensive! Also I mostly listen to punk, psych and metal, so it's not exactly worthwhile, so I sold/traded them. The metal community at Head-Fi have been going bananas over the ZMF Verite closed. I finally pulled the trigger a couple weeks ago, and ended up with the special run of leopardwood. Mine are still being assembled: https://www.zmfheadphones.com/zmf-originals/verite-closed-ltd

The best headphones I've heard the last couple years for under $500 are the Drop x Sennheiser 58X Jubilee. I'm doing a drawing tomorrow, actually, to give away a new pair: https://fastnbulbous.com/list-search-enhanced-contest-ends-friday/

Can anyone recommend a sub-$100 pair of bluetooth headphones that have a decent microphone? All the ones I've ever had have been let down massively by call quality, with people at the other end reporting that I sound muffled. Maybe it's not the microphone but something in the bluetooth, as I've never had this problem with wired ones.

I'm sure AirPods are great but I don't really want to stretch to that cost.

I'm hesitant to recommend products, but I've been using Anker Soundcore Q20s, and finding them ok for music and calls. And comfortable, and cheap .

Thank you. They were the ones that came up when I googled this question too so they look like a way the way to go, and only $45 at the moment.

Does anyone have experiences with the Danish Aiaiai TMA-2? Their concept of modular headphones sounds very appealing to me: the headband, ear cushions, chord, and the actual speaker parts can be replaced separately, and they have various options for each... Regular and bluetooth headbands, 4 different speaker types with a different sound, on-ear and over-ear cushions, etc.

https://miro.medium.com/max/7726/1*Ss3abBdf1SaOAaVmXAGY9Q.jpeg

With most hifi headphones you can typically replace just the chord if it breaks, or maybe also the headband and cushions, but the idea of every part being replacable and updatable feels smart. I was just wondering how the actual sound is on these, when compared to, say, Beyerdynamic DT770. Has anyone here used these?

I got these 5 or 6 years ago. I don’t know if they’ve changed in meantime but mine are pretty standard non-modulable. They are bass heavy and geared for electronic music. Never used them much because found them pretty uncomfortable

I think there's an older model named TMA-1 that's not modular, maybe you have that one? The TMA-2 has 4 or 5 speaker types you can choose from; one of them is bass heavy, but I'm not planning on getting that one rather than the "all-around" one which, at least according to them, is supposed to have a more neutral sound.

4 different speaker types with a different sound

^this sets my snake oil bullshit meter off the charts

this doesn't inspire much confidence

https://www.techhive.com/article/3512661/aiaiai-tma-2-headphone-review.html

Yeah, I read that review, as well as other more positive ones. None of them seem to suggest that modularity thing is a scam though, only that the headphones are pricey for what you get. But I found a pair being sold for half the price mentioned in that review, so if they really work as promised and the sound is good, they'd be ideal for me.

I just worry about internal and cable connections (mentioned in the review) getting loose or breaking over time, it's made to be taken apart

for half, sure, but I kinda feel like why? you'll probably just end up gravitating to one setup you like and not using the modularity

all my b.s. aside, baader says they are uncomfortable which I pretty much run if I see that in a review, probably matters as much if not more than the sound

fwiw about replaceable, you can fully disassemble the Sennheiser 600 series without tools. On-ear is a no go for me (can't wear more than an hour), just wanted something over-ear and pretty flat that would respond well to being EQ'd too.. and there's always pad swapping and stuff if you really want to experiment. "6XX" is pretty much the start and end of fancy headphones for me.

my Beyerdynamic 770s have been good work headphones. great support, one side went out and they fixed it free

i use tma-2 for Djing at home. for comparison, my last pair of dj headphones were phonon smb-02, and before that i used pioneer hdj-2000.

i have a friend who opened a boutique hi-fi store and he is an authorized dealer. i wanted to support him, so I decided to buy a pair. since his store is in town, i was able to going in and listen to all of the different drivers. the differences are subtle, but real, and like any other subtle difference ymmv.

I went with "S04 · Vibrant sound - Ultra-light diaphragm"

as far as the non-driver parts, the tma-2s are extremely comfortable and have excellent isolation. i use a rotary mixer and play a wide range of music and they sound quite good in general. i like the isolation because when i'm practicing i can keep the volume low and save my hearing, and i appreciate the comfort for obvious reasons.

in comparison to the phonons, they have much better isolation and better detail, but are nowhere near as "thumpin" w/r/t to the bass. they are also nowhere near as sturdy or flexible. so, i kept the phonons and use them as my work pair (i.e. they leave the house with me, whereas the tma-2s don't). i would extend this comparison even further to the pioneers, which sounded worse than the phonons (but even more bassy) and even more flexible.

i'm happy with the purchase but i'm not sure i would have been comfortable picking between the drivers if i wasn't able to thoroughly audition them with my own records.

oh also when i bought my set the S05 had just been released but my friend didn't have them in stock yet, so i wasn't able to try them.

at that time the s04s were the same price as the s05, which was definitely the top price point and iirc was around $110. it looks like they've increased the price of the s05 to $130 and dropped the price of the s04 to $70, which is cheaper now than the two titanium models. this makes me think maybe they're trying to get rid of them (possibly being discontinued?). anyway it seems like a good deal.

my configuration is s04 / e04 / h04 / c03, i think i paid around $200 (because it's my friend shop and he gave me a discount) and like i said i'm pretty happy with them. it's been a year of near-daily home use, and i generally practice 1- 3 hrs at a time so i'm guessing they're well past the 500 hr mark and they still look, feel and sound brand new

all that said, i definitely would not take them out of the house, not only because they're the sort of cool looking thing someone would want to jack but also because the headband is just not that flexible and the bass is just not that loud. the phonons look way less fancy (nobody really knows what they are) and are way more durable so i take them with me when i play out

i got the phonons on ebay for $160 as new open-box which was also a great deal. the phonons have a 3.5 mm jack with non-standard threading for a 1/4" adapter and the adapter was missing. headphones usually come with a pouch and while i'm not sure if smb-02s actually come with one or not there wasn't one in the box. luckily a garden-variety snap-on non-threaded 1/4" adapter works just fine with the phonons because the 3.5 mm jack is not short.

finally my head might be weirdly shaped compared to baader's, or maybe baader's is weirdly shaped, or maybe ours are differently shaped but both normal and yours is weirdly shaped, tuomas. i find headphone comfort is a really personal thing and like i said i would definitely "try before you buy".

Thanks for the comments, TLG. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anyone selling Aiaiais in Finland, so it's not feasible for me to try them out before buying... But I've never really had big comfort issues with any of the headphones I've used; the only one I can think of is when on-ear models push my ear towards the skull, with the handle of my glasses in between, which starts to feel uncomfortable after an hour or so. But this is an issue I've had with all on-ear headphones I've used, so I would want to use the over-ear cushions for the TMA-2 anyway.

fwiw about replaceable, you can fully disassemble the Sennheiser 600 series without tools.

Ah, I didn't know that, but unfortunately these are a bit out of my price range since they seem to cost 300-400 euros depending on the seller. Just out of curiosity, do you know how these sound when compared to Sennheiser HD-25? I used to use the HD-25s for many years, but eventually I got tired of its bass-heavy sound... Switching from those to Beyerdynamic DT-770 was a revelation, especially when listening to classical music or jazz. So these days I try to look for headphones with a more neutral sound.

sorry for late reply. I'd think the 6--'s are totally different to the 25's. I think they're worth you looking into as they're known for neutrality. I have the "6XX" which is Massdrop's cheaper apparently identical version of the 650. I would also look into the new HD560S, they're apparently really nice and the 5-- series is cheaper.

I came back to post about far cheaper things. I love my Koss KSC75 clips (~$20 US) so I got the headphone-form KPH30i as well... but I really wear much of anything clamped on top of my ears for more than an hour. This ridiculous mod has fixed that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL4tXT67vME

(at around 20 minutes he realizes it's best to also remove the pads that came on them)

can't* really wear

I found the DT-770s I had to be bass heavy in a rather sloppy. Didn't like them much, although it might have had something to do with the amp as well. One driver eventually went and you can replace them but I haven't bothered.

* sloppy way ;)

I don't tend to spend much more than £10-£15 on earbuds because I can't be trusted with nice things but, given how much I'm listening to music on earbuds at the moment, I'd like to try something more in the £30-£50 department. Is there an obvious place to start? I'm not fussed about Bluetooth so happy with wired.

Ha, that modding video is funny. I was a little skeptical first because of the anime girls - and also because the giant foam cups look absurd, but this might be a fun cheap project for me.
The only thing I wonder is, is it safe to actually have the metal of the headphone drivers touching your ears (as when he removes the old foam)?

he's a lot

drivers aren't touching your ears (the foam is about 1cm thick around it), it would sound terrible if it did. No there isn't any harm that tiny bit of foam was protecting you from. If you get a hair on the membrane you'll notice in how it sounds... that'll probably happen more with these than it does already with my KSC75 clips (through the foam)

anybody got recommendations for cheap comfy over-ear headphones that i can give my kids for their homeschooling and the occasional spotify playlist? something like £30 would be ideal.

NB i already got them two pairs of 'volume reduced' headphones for kids. one of the the puppy chewed up. the other one they hate because it's not loud enough and it's true - it's really not, particularly when the teacher isn't speaking very loudly and someone's making lunch in the same room, etc

sony wh-ch510 headphones - they're about £34, sound is great and they charge up really quickly (they're bluetooth). also they come in different colours (white, blue or black) so you can tell which are whose

really comfy and lightweight too, i go running in mine all the time

I've had these JBL T450 over-ears for a couple of years. They're very comfy and surprisingly good sound for the price

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/6162234

Though, maybe wired ones a better bet for your needs – one thing about the JBLs is that the battery life isn't that great.

yeah i should have said, wired is preferable because i just Can’t with un-pairing and re-pairing bluetooth to different devices. i’ll take at these suggestions though, thanks.

Most options at that price will be on-ear rather than over.. are you looking for overs only?

Look up the resistance in ohms on the kids ones that you had so that you're sure to get something with a lower resistance. The Koss 60-ohm driver variations in the Portapro, KSC75 or KPH-30i can't be beat for lower than $100 ime.

i guess on-ear is okay? would be good to screen out as much room sound as possible though

actually maybe bluetooth would be okay. they can just stay paired to their 'partner' computer and whoever's using that computer uses those headphones.

Just checking. In a more general forum like this, i did figure you were just differentiating from in-ear stuff.

Nevermind on the Koss's as they are very open, you can easily hear what's going on around you unless they are turned up loud. Over or on, you'll want something closed back for isolation.

I have a pair of AKG K52s. They're closed-back, over-the-ear, wired headphones that sound pretty good for the price.

thanks!