Recommend a pair of headphones for me

yeah i think i got spoiled on the controls of the sony 450s, probably their best feature. suuuuuper handy both for skipping tracks in shuffle and for jogging 15 seconds forward/backward in podcasts, without digging my phone out of my pocket and waking it up.

1000Xm series quite comfortable over glasses ime, also allow for ANC customisation through app

Gestures/swipe take getting used to but are in time predictable and reliable

Quality of mic on calls is iffy and they do get warm after a few hours tho

Also work through cable as per above

So has anyone tried out Apples AirPods Max?

So, I've returned my QCIIs and have just forked out for some $299 Shure Anonic 50s. Despite my experience I've been convinced by everyone else that over-ears are more comfortable than on-ears and am hoping that the Boses just didn't suit my head for some reason. Fingers crossed.

anyone using koss porta pros? the treble on my beyer dt990s is getting a bit exhausting

they used to be my main headphones. they’re great!

I picked up a pair of Sennheiser HD350 BT for £42 on the Sennheiser outlet https://en-uk.sennheiser-outlet.com/shops/index.php , marked as B-stock but to my eyes they look as good as new and sound way better than a fourtt quid pair of cans. I'd guess I have average size ears and they fit fine. Not noise cancelling but it's not something I'm fussed about. The Sennheiser smart control is good in that you can tweak the equaliser to your tatse.

Damn typos.

Ach, got the Shure Anonic 50s and they're just as uncomfortable and hot on my ears as the Bose QCIIs were, so going to have to send them back. I think I must just have a very tall head combined with big ears: even pulled down do the maximum band setting, my earlobes still get squashed by the pads.

Koss Portapros still my go-to for our-and-about headphones. Never come across anything close at the price point. Still get comments on how cool they look, too.

Dug out my Grado Alessandro Music Series headphones last night to listen to some Godspeed on. Not used them in ages. Bloody marvellous.

Sony XB-450BT: These were kind of my ideal user experience, no fuss, buttons always worked right. But they're goddamned fragile things! My first pair was one a friend gave me for free and after a year or so, the hanger connecting the left earcup broke apart. I figured, well, they were free, who knows what they'd been put through before, etc. Bought myself another pair, got three solid years out of it and then, bang, same exact break. Never again!

saw this post and i was like "oh wow, never had a problem!" (diff sony headphones though) fast forward a few weeks, the stupid fucking things broke. considered buying new headphones but read enough "these broke" or "these are squishing me" reviews on every other pair that i was like, fuck it, i'm gonna try to fix em.

https://i.imgur.com/k0aIOoe.png
the ones i have i think are the same as the one mh mentioned way upthread, which i also got on a big sale -- i think i paid 150 max CAD for them? and it was a few years ago. i just walked into a box store and bought em because i tried em on and they didn't hurt. and they sounded great! and they lasted a while! then they snapped here. Unusable.

https://i.imgur.com/xMdyIbw.png
So I superglued the shit out of them, all in and around the cracks. And because I felt like that wasn't going to be enough i also superglued some cut-to-length zipties for support.

https://i.imgur.com/55DoTC1.png
Then I wrapped the whole nightmare in tie-dye duct tape. So far so good! They aren't leaving the house again though just in case. They're computer headphones now. Luckily I just upgraded my phone to something with an aux jack again so I can use my decent cheapo earbuds while out.

My 6-year-old AKGs have finally given up the ghost, what can I get out there for about £50 which will sound good? Headphones only, no earphones, would be nice if they folded up, I need then for doing audio restoration work so high frequencies as well are needed.

i appreciate that post, Will, though i have nothing to add

i love my bose quiet comfort wireless headphones. i've owned bose products before but these are the best ones i've ever had

Philip Sherburne over on pitchfork listing recommended wired and wireless headphones:
https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-wired-headphones/
https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-wireless-headphones/

Best 28?

Hey gotta get those referral click$

"Every pair of headphones – ranked from best to worst"

I guess that's rtings.com, actually.

so the headphones in the above thing broke in a new, much harder to fix place, so i said fuck it and ordered a pair of akg open back headphones (k 240). never used open back before, interested to see how this goes!

oh ok i see theybve been brought up a bunch itt, and now im wonderingf if i shouldve ordered a dac too :/

nah man fuck it. they'll be fine

Why do so many cheaper headphones have this ridiculously thin, fragile leatherette on the ear pads?

It inevitably starts to flake and it looks like you have dark dandruff

:(

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/business/john-koss-dead.html

Porta Pro shockingly unmentioned

RIP, porta pro forever

Man, for a while my Sennheiser 6xx had a fucked up cable, and I just didn't bother to replace it for months. Finally did, and oh man I forgot how gd good everything sounds. I've just been sitting here listening to stuff for like 1.5 hours and I can't tear myself away.

Those might be the best headphone deal of all time (at the old price)

I’ve had a pair of Beyer Dynamic headphones for maybe 12 years now and they still sound great but the rubber parts have gotten sticky and it’s kinda gross to handle them.

i picked up a fiio E10K for £30 on ebay last week, and it's improved my listening like 200%. i have DT990s, and compared to my macbooks onboard DAC, it's opened up the sound so noticeably. i was always suspicious/curious of the difference, and have never really had any money to spend on hardware, but for so little money, the change is amazing. the low end is tighter, the highs aren't as harsh, and i can turn up my headphones pretty loud without them feeling painful or fatiguing. maybe i'll upgrade in time...

gah, went deaf in one ear whilst walking around this morning, and that was my backup pair.

these were the cheapest skullcandy earbuds which i normally buy two at a time whenever i see them on sale. they are ok, comfortable, symmetrical leads, sound fine.

in my experience things costing 4x as much don't last 4x as long.

an holding off on wireless earbuds until i have no choice - i have old devices that need wires and I'm not sure how the Bluetooth will lessen battery life.

these have actually gone at the plug end, what are the chances of me replacing the plug? i an imagining tiny wires...

oh, "mmcx" seems to be the search term of you want detachable cables. i wonder whether that'll sort all my problems? (or it could mean 3 points of failure)

yeah that or 2-pin (and recessed 2 pin).. which seems to be largely replacing MMCX but they're both still going.

Not sure what I'd recommend as a step up from Skullcandy. I bought some stuff a few years ago and stopped. Maybe something from Tin or BLON.

just what i wanted, competing standards... proprietary takes on those standards as well from what i read. didn't like it when it was Sinclair joysticks, don't like it now.

Alternatively if you just want some good replacement budget earbuds I can recommend these Soundmagic ones, reviewed here at £80 but now available for as little as £34

https://www.whathifi.com/soundmagic/e80c/review

lol yeah. fwiw I've found 0.75 and 0.78 2-pin to be interchangeable but ymmv :)

MMCX is nice for being rotatable, and you can get an adapter from it to 2-pin. And hey, bluetooth adapters eventually?

not sure my time was well spent on these things.

34 quid is budget? I'm in the wrong business...

yep, the wires were tiny, and no inner sleeves so i think the wires must be coated in something so they don't short. i tried running them over a flame to burn it off but no dice

Sorry for appearing to be a moneybags. Apple successfully recalibrated my idea of what budget means by charging £150 for AiPods. That and every Wirecutter article ever.

these are technically dj headphones but by far the most indestructible, best-sounding headphones i've ever had are my sennheiser hd-25s. i have them on at the gym, on trail runs, dj gigs, everywhere i want to listen to something and they're lightweight & solid. the l joint on the cord eventually wore out but you can replace it for $30. a few weeks ago one of the joints above the ear came loose during a gig but i was able to find everything that had fallen off and it all screwed back on just fine, turns out i need to make sure they're tight every few months.

they are around $120 but worth every cent.

i didn't realize this until last year but the head band splits into two bands which makes keeping a tight fit on your head wonderfully easy. i don't even know how long i've had them now, maybe 5 years? feel like i never need another wired pair of headphones again. oh and they sound amazing.

Does anyone have a weird head like me that finds over-ear headphones impossible to wear for more than about three hours before either the top or the sides of my head starts hurting? I've tried three pairs now: Bose QuietComfort 35 II, Shure Aonic 50 and Philips SHP9600, and had to return them all.

All the experts online say over-ear are meant to be more comfortable for prolonged periods than smaller on-ear ones, but the only ones I can wear all day are a cheap pair of on-ear JBLs.

I mean, I'm assuming my head shape must be weird based on this, but I'm not sure how it is weird.

Ime my ears become over heated before i notice any head strain

Re: cheap earbuds, there is a pretty big difference in sound between the cheapest and something of some quality that is worth some $ imho

the skullcandy ones have been fine. i bought the first pair in a supermarket as a replacement for a ~£20 pair that broke when i was on my way somewhere (crystal palace) and they were better than those and 1/4 the price (on sale). i think they may be recently discontinued though.

(actually, if i'd've kept the receipt they are still under warranty. or were before i cut them to pieces)

have also noticed that 90% of the detachable cable alternatives are those around-the-back-of-the-ear type which is not great if you wear glasses. it's probably to get the weight of the cable off the connector but still...

amazon have some that meet all my criteria for £13 so maybe i'll try those first. after that they jump to ~£40

yeah not a whole lot of cable-down IEMs around with removable cable. Though you can find cheap cables without the loop-around molding that should be ok worn downwards on anything that isn't shaped like the inside of an ear.

You might have more luck if you are open to the old style, flat head earbud. Something like the TRN EMA fits the budget. I haven't heard it.

Alba I got a couple of pairs of these for the family during lockdown and they’re very comfortable. Almost “loose”. Hard to imagine them hurting.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AKG-K72-Performance-Closed-Back-Monitoring/dp/B01AYSNHVQ