Headphones for Hackers

Nothing beats the Sennheiser HD-280 as an awesome pair of hacker headphones. For ~$80 you get terrific sounds, great noise reduction and amazing comfort.

I've tried previous iterations of the Bose QC line but I was disappointed by a) the battery requirement, b) the sound quality (poor and muddled by active noise cancellation) and c) the build quality---my pair died after a year and those things never did anything but sit at my desk.

I'm going on five years with my HD280s and I don't have a single complaint.

edit: I should add that I do end up using my iPod earbuds a lot. I should really buy another set of HD280s for work.

Be careful if you buy beats from dre on Ebay or Amazon. They are one of the most counterfeited product out there. Probably because the ROI is so high.

I'm surprised to see Klipsch do so poorly. Their Image X10s are my favorite earbuds of all time, especially for classical.

I am shocked that the Sony MDR-V6 cans are so low on the list. Those headphones are legendary and there is still none that can top them in the price range (got mine for $65 on Amazon). Sennheiser is great, but I cannot put the 280 over the V6 after having both, and this is coming from a bass head.

I'm a longtime Head-fi member, first set of workplace cans were HD-280s about 10 years ago. This article is a decent start, but there are many better options in these respective price ranges. Head-fi is there to help - http://www.head-fi.org/

I've moved considerably upmarket over the years and won't talk about the rest of my setup, but my main cans now are Ultrasone Editions 8s. They're very pricey (retail $1500 for the basic model, but you can get them used under $1k if you spend enough time on the Head-fi classifieds). They're considered by many to be the best sounding _closed_ cans out there, and they actually isolate almost as well as good iems. Plus they're very light and comfortable at 260 grams.

So yeah, that's quite a bit of money and I am certainly an audiophile. OTOH, I use them an average of 4 hours a day and bought them used, so when the time comes I can sell them at little to no loss. I get a great deal of enjoyment out of my rig and it helps me to do my work, so I consider it a good investment. Same with my Knoll Life Chair. YMMV. I actually made a profit on limited edition headphones in the past, purchased a used pair of Audio-Technica L3000s for $1500 in 2005, sold them for $2000 in 2007. Today they tend to go in the $2500 range.