Recommend a pair of headphones for me

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

I find over-the-ear headphones the most comfortable type. They're even more comfortable if I can remove my glasses while listening. The only part that gets uncomfortably is where they press against the temples.

I haven't got on with over ears before but the Anker Q20s are v comfy and sound great for £50.

new earphones have arrived, TRN-M10, and do feel like an upgrade.

the actual in-ear bits are labelled L and R but there's nothing to say which cable plugs into which driver or, indeed, which way around the two-pin connectors go, which could mean they are out of phase. checking L-R ness will be easy enough, i think, but the phase thing? there's a 50/50 chance it's right, i guess...

haha that was fast. You found a down-wired IEM, cool. I think you can just turn that cable around if there are phase issues?

How's it sound?

not listened yet. trying to think of an mp3 i have that i can check the stereo with.

it does mention the L-r thing in the manual

"IMPORTANT NOTE: Whether the left or right earphones are placed in the ear in the correct direction does not affect them Listening experience you experience. L applies to the left ear. R applies to the right ear."

so that's good...

Since they're not ear molded or anything, they are exactly the same. Assuming they wired the polarity right on both!

each individual lead can be attached to the driver in two different ways though, they are completely unmarked. it would be easy to do the earphone equiv of this
https://www.instructables.com/How-to-phase-your-speakers/

that said, this site suggests that they are correct L/R and are in phase.
https://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_polaritycheck.php

and, of course, there's the question of if i'd even notice

tested them in the park this morning. they sound good, obvious inprovement in sound quality (although almost everything that played was unfamiliar. maybe i ought to try it on tracks i know)

the metal cases are slightly bigger and heavier. and colder!

the cable is stiffer and twisted, not smooth, but not importantly so - i was worried it would scrape against clothes

when i pushed them in slightly too far they did some odd kind of bone conductivity thing(?) where my footsteps were really loud. re-seating them helped. not clumping around also helped.

so the cable microphonics aren't bad but the occlusion effect is. You didn't get that with the previous ones? Using smaller silicone tips could help. But this is generally why I prefer flat-head buds if I'm using anything while walking around.

i was thinking the larger tips would stop me putting them in so far (which i think the previous ones did just because of their shape). will experiment.

yeah, you can see here the chamfer meant the body wasn't in my ear at all, just the rubber bit

https://i5.walmartimages.ca/images/Enlarge/658/879/6000198658879.jpg

compared with these where the actual barrel can end up inside

https://trn-audio.com/trn-m10.html

Oh I see. At times I have needed a little extending. There's ways. For example, flipping your tips

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/flip-tips-or-fliptips-prepare-to-have-your-mind-blown.906357/