iPod Thinking about new headphones

Beats is overpriced, the company that produces them is shady (Monster Cable), look elsewhere. You can get the sound quality of the Beats line at half the price. Unless you care about your image more than sound quality.

Sennheiser HD280 Pros, Grado Prestige SR80i, Sennheiser HD595s are all great head phones.

head phones work fine when walking, running, bending over, etc. Though the cheaper models tend to fall off after awhile from being stretched. I own Sennheiser HD485s, Bose Around the Ear and I have never had a problem with them falling off.

If you have the budget for a Beats Pro, just get an ultrasone pro 900. Grados and Sennhesiser's open offerings won't satisfy both your suspected sound preferences and portability needs.

If you want a good stay at home bassy closed headphone with exceptional quality and comfort, I'd look no further than either Denon D2000 or 5000. You'll want an amp with them, though.

You won't see anybody else who's halfway knowledgable in audio recommend the Beats line. They sound horrible.

TMRaven said:

If you have the budget for a Beats Pro, just get an ultrasone pro 900. Grados and Sennhesiser's open offerings won't satisfy both your suspected sound preferences and portability needs.

If you want a good stay at home bassy closed headphone with exceptional quality, I'd look no further than either Denon D2000 or 5000. You'll want an amp with them, though.

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Yeah you are right, Sennheisers and Grados are more balanced rather than just heavy bass.

TMRaven said:

If you have the budget for a Beats Pro, just get an ultrasone pro 900. Grados and Sennhesiser's open offerings won't satisfy both your suspected sound preferences and portability needs.

If you want a good stay at home bassy closed headphone with exceptional quality and comfort, I'd look no further than either Denon D2000 or 5000. You'll want an amp with them, though.

You won't see anybody else who's halfway knowledgable in audio recommend the Beats line. They sound horrible.

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Seconded, but for a similar budget I'd also recommend the Grado SR 225i/325i or even Sennheiser HD 595. =)

q

Sennheisers are easily the best value for money. I went and got myself a pair of Bose IEs (In Ears) and I've got to say the sound is so clear and rich. They've updated them as well, to the IE2s. The downside of bose is that they are a bit pricey though ^^

q

^this

lykranian said:

Sennheiser is not necessarily the best bang for buck. If you want the highest quality open air headphones, then yes, I'd recommend them all day long. But if you want a pair of closed cans, meaning physical isolation from the surrounding environment, closing your ears in with the drivers, there are many other options. Denon D-1100's or Audiotechnica ATH-M50's are the mid range headphones most often recommended. D-2000's are amazing, but D-5000's are overpriced for only adding wooden cups. You'd want a nice amp with either of those, as well. Definitely head over to head-fi.org for any more questions.

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head-fi.org FTW

Although, you will probably get flamed for mentioning Beats in the forums.

maconservative said:

head-fi.org FTW

Although, you will probably get flamed for mentioning Beats in the forums.

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Rightfully so, Beats is nothing but a gimmick and what's more, developed by a really shady company to begin with. It's the same company that fooled a bunch of people into believing their $50 super-dooper elite platnium gold HDMI cable is better than the $1.50 ones you can find on amazon.

They only sell because the general public doesn't have any knowledge about what makes head phones good and what doesn't (which is unfortunate because a lot of money could have been saved, can pay literally HALF the price to get overall better quality than the Beats). The price tag and "Dr. Dre" are enough to make the general consumer assume they are great. There's more to great sound than just flooding every song with bass.

Other very prestigious companies like Beyerdynamic, AKG, Grado and Stax have something to say about Sennheiser being bar none the best for open-backed cans. Then of course there's the black-horse of the high-end offerings in Audeze.

D5000 adds the wooden cups and supposedly a better quality cable compared to the D2000, and it makes for a slightly more refined sound, but I wouldn't buy a D5000 over the D2000 as well.

I've tried out a decent amount of headphones out there, and I think the next one to come on my owner's list is the Fischer Audio FA-011. If it's anything like an open D2000 then color me happy.

q

Koss PortaPros

Bailey156 said:

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Hi, I'm plaining on buying a new pair of headphones. I have two in mind beats tour and beats pro. Just wondering what do ye think are better. Furthermore I've never had a pair of overear headphones so I want to know are overear headphones practical while walking. And do the tours have good sound.

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Buy anything else but Bose and Beats. If you're putting out excellent products, charge whatever you want, but both companies fail miserably in sound quality and product quality. Truly overpriced.

Here a few of the phones I currently own or have owned over the years, and the prices are from Amazon:

Sennheiser HD555 $105 - are a truly great pair for the price. Great highs and lows, and punchy bass that reproduces your music faithfully.

AKG K 272 $199 - these will show every flaw you have in your mp3 collection. If you have any bad quality song you won't want to listen to them after you purchase these AKG's. Great quality all around.

Altec UHP326NP $30 - you can find these for $20 from time to time, and I own two just in case I break one during running, exercise, etc. These sound on par to phones in $60 to $100 range. They have a powerful, tight, not overwhelming bass response, and crystal clear quality in the highs and middle. Not to mention the feeling of openness and space in their reproduction. These and the Sennheiser CX300 II Precison ($40) are the best quality for the price, although I prefer the altec's for their excellent balanced, neutral sound. These altec's kill anything bose has ever put out.

Woodees IESW100L BLUES $61 - heavy!! bass with good reproduction of highs and lows, and pretty much no bleeding in between, comes with mic and controls for apple gadgets, but it's not as open as I'd like them to be. Although the sound is great, the sound stage sounds a bit compressed to me. It feels as if you're in a closet with 10 speakers on top of you, instead of a comfortable room with an equidistant sound source.

MEElectronics A151 $60 - they sound brilliant for their price, I've used 4 balanced armature drivers in the below $100 field and these are the best. If you've never used balanced armature drivers, these are the ones to pick up. Although I must say you will not find a punchy bass in these. But them for the quality of sound and detail.

As always, consider head-fi.org. For your needs, you may want to look at IEM. Etymotics are great, especially for isolation.