Recommend a pair of headphones for me

see also http;//www.headphonereviews.org

i know this is more than you wanted to spend... but grado sr-60's frequently out-perform headphones 3 and 4 times it's price.

m.

i yanked the cord on mine on a door and now they don't work. anyone have any experience with their full guarantee thing?

To Osco I will go!

I'd like to think the Etymotic earplugs are like ear diaphragms, Kenan. Lube 'em up and you're good to go for hours, mang.

I want some for home listening but I can't find anywhere to ship them to me

: /

I bought a pair of koss porta-pros which are great but I want a pair of those big bulky ones for lounging about at home; the porta-pros are spindly, and dig into my neck when I'm lying down

anyone have any experience?

I think she bought them from amazon

I picked up the HD20s first, because they were huge earmuffs and because they said on the package, "Perfect for DJs." Well, if they're good enough for DJs... actually, that didn't work. DJs have different needs than I do, apparently. The highs are tinny, the mid-range is muddy, and the bass is ri-freakin-diculous. It's boomy and with wayyyy too much sustain. Real crap for everyday listening. Avoid.

So I brought those back to the store and ended up with the PXC150s, and they sound BEAUTIFUL. Balanced, crisp, and the noise cancelling works wonders. (I'm afraid I'm setting myself up for being hit by a car.) Of course this means that I have an extra piece to my portable audio setup now -- the battery pack -- but I spend so much time with headphones on and they sound so great it's totally worth it to look like a bit of a dork wearing a belt clip.

Just ordered some CX300s for that.

Plane Quiet NC6
Has anybody had any experience with Plane Quiet headphones? Recommendations yea or nay?

Might nbe better to get in ear ones that will block out the noise physically.

I just bought some Shure E2Cs and on the short run out they've had so far they're absolutely fantastic and a mile better than the sonys I've just replaced which I thought were pretty good in the first place but kept losing the sleeve (including once in my ear canal - resluting in some worried rummaging while walking along a tube corridor)

at this point i'm waffling between a pair of $40 soundcore BT noise-canceling headphones (essentially the cheapest option?) and a pair of Sennheisers in the $90 - 120 range.

do I need a headphone amp if I’m already going through a stereo receiver? I’m not having volume issues at all. Do they make music sound better? Warm tubey goodness?

I've gone done that road (without spending all that much) and I would say no. Not unless your receiver sounds obviously noisy or is under-powered (like you're almost maxing it out to listen at a comfortable level).

Light dabbling in tubes I also found kind of a waste of time. And reading accounts of people with higher end stuff (who could be honest about it) it's really kinda like, well the lights look nice. Sort of like digital vs vinyl.

I have a tubey headphone amp, but I needed something as my amp didn't have a headphone jack.

The headphones I have are Beyer Dynamic DT 990's, which I mainly bought because the guy in front of me at the hifi place looked like Jimmy Page, and he bought a pair of them. He wasn't Jimmy Page, but just the fact that he looked like him made me think that there must be something to the product. They're really comfy to wear.

xxp that makes sense, kind of what I suspected. Thanks!

I very much recommend Phillips Fidelio X2HR, very very very comfortable.. and they sound really good to me too.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JL0AFHjfL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

april 2023 to jan 2026 is, i guess, better than the usual 6 months but i'm back again looking for earphones, iems.

actually, i could just buy cable for the existing ones given that they are detachable - the problem this time was the cable near the jack, it's obviously been rubbing against the cuff there. but nobody seems to sell cables with the right connector (qdc) without also being moulded for around-the-ear, and i don't think that'll work with my glasses. i could by around-the-ear cables and cut off the plastic sleeves but i don't really want to mess.

(or given that the current cables are 4 distinct cables, maybe i can trim and solder a replacement plug on. nothing to lose...)

i'd buy an exact copy of the pair i currently have (trn-m10), only they stopped making them.

Sennheiser Momentum TW4 are the best earbuds I've ever used, highly recommended.

i'm not really a wireless person (another thing to charge, bluetooth wasting phone battery). that's also about 10x what i normally pay 8) it's nearly as much as my phone was

Linsoul KZ ZSX

For over-ear iem I like Linsoul 7Hz x Crinacle Zero:2.
Tanchjim One gets good reviews for straight connection.

I need new headphones. A friend convinced me that her Sony noiseless were the greatest thing in the world (she put them on me and they did sound great), so I bought a pair, but prolonged exposure to the noise cancellation makes my ears feel like they’re getting microwaved and I hate them v v much

I have become a Porta Pro true believer over the last several months. I am extremely finicky about headphone comfort. IDK if I just have a weirdly shaped head and ear canals or what. I loathe the way earbuds feel, and every pair of over-ears I've tried give me serious jaw discomfort after a few minutes. So for cheap, lightweight, good-sounding on-ears that don't make my head/ears/jaw hurt, it's Porta Pro all the way. The only disadvantage is that they don't block sound, and I live in a fairly noisy neighborhood.

If anyone else here relates to this and has recs for actually comfortable sound-blocking headphones, I'd love to know

Wow at the price of those Sennheisers!

In mitigation, they sent me them free of charge because I had a pair of TW3s (which were slightly cheaper) that packed up while they were still under warranty.

I ~hate~ noise cancellation. I do not want headphones that have it as an option— you’re not “cancelling noise” you’re just feeding your ears additional information to mitigate that noise. It’s entirely intuitive but I am absolutely sure that they’re terrible for your eardrums and will cause hearing loss

I’m really into the Audeze concept of “open back” headphones that attempt to not “cover” your ears from ambient sound— makes more sense for what I want my headphones to do. They did make open-back buds and a friend of mine swore by them for usage while recording (like having one ear on, one ear off) but they sadly discontinued that line

it's amazing on flights or on busy trains/buses. i never use large noise cancelling headphones day to day tho, too big to carry and i don't need noise-cancelling when walking around.

some of you do not work in an "open concept" office

fgti Option is right.. hope you've turned it off!

Passive noise cancellation is underrated. A chonky IEM can block more sound and in a less aggravating way than many active setups can.

That said I love open back stuff most for when it fits the use case.

+1 on Koss Portapro.. and all their other stuff that uses that driver, or the titanium coated variant (KSC75.. for anyone who can't take headband pressure at all). Wireless forms are great too, and even include wired USB to 3.5mm passthrough that doesn't utilize the battery.. so they won't necessarily be trash when the battery dies out.

Love porta pro. They make everything sound like an LP somehow. Someday I want to try the 3rd party foam pads

I also really dislike noise canceling, but I wear the older wireless Sonys (WH-1000XM4) for commuting, because they also feature the opposite setting: there's an ambient sound pass-through, tilted toward speech frequencies, so you can hear what's happening around you. I didn't especially care about this feature when I bought them, but now I doubt I'd ever buy daily-outside-use headphones without it; even wearing regular closed-backs at home has started to feel slightly claustrophobic. It works well for the obvious handy stuff — catching train announcements, knowing what's happening around you on crowded streets, being able to one-touch dim the music and have quick conversations without taking the cans off — but it also makes the music sound nicely open. So the tools of noise canceling can also be used for good! Instead of phase-canceling ambient sound those mics can be piping it in!

I forget which model I have of those but on mine you can hold your hand over one ear and all the sound comes in. Quite handy.

I typically only use full noise cancelling if I'm locked into an activity or at work, or in a generally noisy environment. nabisco otm that the transparency modes are really nice, especially if you might need to hear certain things.

I don't live somewhere with a subway or commuter trains, but having visited places that do have them it's nice to be able to pop in earbuds with noise attenuation and still be able to hear announcements. Or walking under the L in Chicago, definitely a plus

Love porta pro. They make everything sound like an LP somehow. Someday I want to try the 3rd party foam pads

Kinda like a worn out needle? Drilling some holes in the grilles helps with that!

Yaxi pads overrated imo. Plus makes the things look too big for my head.

are you talking abt the oversized yaxi pads? cos the ones i have are more or less the same size as the stock pads

that said i have a slightly different setup, i call them The Liar's Portapros: KSC75 headphones with the earclip things removed, an aliexpress knockoff portapros band attached (this is very easy), and yaxi pads

image of them (cw: the most cat hair in the world

Yeah those. Good work. Nice and bright sounding I'm sure.

I'll sometimes browse the "kossmods" subreddit for fun.

In all seriousness this stuff is what I'd recommend to someone taking an interest in decent headphones. poke around that lineup until you're good. $20 KSC75 might be enough. I love those earhooks, can wear them all day and forget they're there.

i went with some cheapish KZ-ZSN PRO X ( https://kzmusicstore.com/products/kz-zsn-pro )

haven't worn them in anger yet but a quick two minutes in a zoom meeting sounded fine. lots of passive noise reduction.

around-the-ear is new for me. not sure i like.

annoyingly the cable isn't quite compatible with the previous pair i had (whose cable broke last week)

the KSC 75s are good but the cables are fragile and like to break where they're soldered to the drivers, so I've been through two pairs. I ended up modding mine to connect to an IEM cable, then that broke too :( the Porta Pro cable has so far held up.

Anyone have a recommendation for cheap over-ear wired headphones I can use for backpacking? I think I'd prefer them to be lightweight more than I need them to be super durable. Just something I won't have to worry about getting lost or stolen

koss portapros

the only answer

isn’t that “on ear” rather than “over ear”?

Yes but I given Cattedrale said lightweight maybe they meant on-ear. Over-ear ones are always pretty heavy ime.

i do prefer over-ear because i find that the on-ear ones lead to discomfort. however, maybe these are light enough to not matter. fun look too

the ones i am considering are the Samson SR350, which are cheap enough that i don't think i'd even mind if they fell apart after a year or so. they are also described as "ultra lightweight" by the manufacturer so i think i might give them a go

For wired over the ear, I think you can’t go wrong with Sony MDR-7506, still going for 100 bucks a pair. I’ve had a pair for years and even though the foam is disintegrating they still sound great.

by backpacking do you mean hiking or do you mean eurotripping?

if we're talking non-foldable wired over-ear, may i humbly suggest sennheiser hd 25s. they are gold standard dj headphones, they sound amazing, and they are so fucking durable. i have had mine for 10 years and have beat them to hell and they are holding on, even though some ear pad foam is starting to disintegrate. how you can surgically adjust how they are glued to your head with such a lightness in the build and material is truly a joy to experience. they have been my companions at the gym and on trail runs several times a week for the 10 years i've had them. i had to repair a connection one time - they sell replacement cords which makes that very easy. i have to get another replacement cord now because i stupidly snapped the tip of the 1/8" jack off by throwing my phone across the room. if you get angry occasionally and need to throw something across the room, may i suggest some little bean bags, but that's a different topic.

hd 25s are one of the best expenditures of around $100 i have ever made. worth every penny.

(agree but technically they are on-ear)

a little spendier but Beyerdymamic DT 770s are great

fiio EH11s maybe worth a look too

… though don’t think they have a wired mode

anyway i want to apologize for recommending the portapros as when i initially read yr post i thought you meant hiking, so i thought, well something very lightweight and foldable would be great for hiking, hence portapros. but if you really mean like, backpacking across the country or overseas and you want something truly overear, then i'm assuming you also want something that's closed back and blocks out sound so you can chill out at the hostel or w/e. in that case i think the mdr-7506 recommended upthread is great, or the hd-25s, or audio technica m20x, really anything from a reputable brand that is marketed as closed back and has a big earcup.

i'm actually kind of fond of philips as a budget brand, and it looks like they have a $20 one (shp-2000) that i'd probably try out.

i do mean backpacking overseas, staying in hostels etc. ultra cheap appeals to me so i don’t have to be devastated if they’re lost or stolen

i do have a pair of sony mdr v6 which i cherish not only because they’re discontinued but because i’ve repaired them several times and mixed several records with them and would be sad if something happened to them. getting a pair of 7506s isn’t a bad idea tho, i wouldn’t be as attached to them

also checking out these cheap philips which are appealing

honestly i find the quality of streaming/mp3 on iphone is just barely suitable even with the v6s so i’m not sure how much i am worried about sound quality

also i’m not necessarily opposed to wireless but having to worry about charging anything other than my phone in some senegalese hotel strikes me as somewhat stressful

hd 25s are one of the best expenditures of around $100 i have ever made. worth every penny.

HD25s are very good. They’re not flat though. They have a significant upper-mid boost, designed to aid DJs when mixing in a loud club. But they sound very good. I bought mine more than 25 years ago. I need to get new pads for them though, as the originals have disintegrated and are now falling off.

When I got my Sennheiser HD 650s, I thought they sounded muffled. That was because I was used to the upper-mid boost on the HD 25s.

I’m used to the HD 650s now and really like them. I’m not sure if they’re truly worth the price, but I’m happy with them.

I bought some wireless Sennheiser headphones (Accentum) about a year ago. I don’t like them. The bass is far too much. Even when you reduce it in the app, it’s still too much.

Reading this thread last week, I saw the mention of Koss Porta Pros. I’d not heard of them, so found a website where a lot of headphones were compared in detail, and the author mentioned Porta Pros but said they really liked the Koss KPH30i instead. As those are so cheap (£30), I decided to buy some, and I really like them. To me, they don’t sound that different to the HD 650s, except there’s slightly more bass and slightly more treble, but the overall effect is not dramatically different. The cable isn’t replaceable, so I’ll have to be careful with them, but they are definitely worth it at that price. They can be used as a headset, so with my phone I’ll probably use them (with adaptor) in preference to the Sennheiser Accentums, which I really dislike. I don’t need noise cancellation. I don’t like it.

HD25s are very good. They’re not flat though. They have a significant upper-mid boost, designed to aid DJs when mixing in a loud club.

Erm, a pedant here: technically they are camera person headphones. The flip up ear is for someone doing ENG with a shoulder mount camera and the treble boost is so you can hear the journo or director. They just happen to be the worlds greatest dj headphones as a byproduct of this.

I wasn't aware of that. Nevertheless, they significantly boost the upper-mid range, which must be deliberate, but evidently not for the reason I thought, though it is advantageous for DJ-mixing too.

Wouldn't want to travel with Fiio EH11 or Koss kph30. Great values yes. Portapro more durable. Or, the cheapest Koss the KSC75, just ear clips that'll pack up smaller than any headphone.

I'm into a whole thing with 90s style flathead earbuds and I'll stop here