11–20 of 188 posts
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.
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…
1) They're heavy, so they cause cranial irritation.
2) The padding at the top has come loose, though that's easily fixable with some glue or tape.
3) They're not wireless. This is the biggest thing for me. After getting some LG Bluetooth headphones to use with my Android phone for listening to music on the go, wired headphones are really starting to bug me. However, wireless isn't practical for the hours-on-end of music listening that goes on while working, since the battery would probably run out (not sure about that though - the LG's are supposed to last 10 hours).
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…
I've been using 280s at work for a few weeks now and I'm not really digging them. At home I have Shure SRH-440s, but replaced the stock pads with pads from the 840s (about $20 off amazon). They're monitor headphones so the response is meant to be flatter; the net result is notably quieter bass that sounds more "present" than pounding your ears. At first I disliked it but once you start listening for a bit you grow to appreciate it.
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…
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.
* Shure SRH-640. Amazing sound, but a bit heavy and annoyingly prone to creak every time I move my head a millimeter. I keep these at home for light use.
* Beyerdynamic DT-235. By far the tinniest sound of the three, light and comfortable for short period, but boy do they make my ears feel hot after a while. I might start taking them on planes; otherwise I don't use them.
* KRK KNS-8400. A noticeable step below the Shures in quality, but still better e.g. than the HD-280 which I've also tried. No creaking and comfortable even for long-term wear. These are my every-day phones at work, even though the extra-wide headband does look kind of goofy.
I'm no audiophile by any stretch of the imagination, but even I can tell that some of the popular brands are absolute crap. It's too bad more people haven't heard of brands like Beyerdynamic and KRK, because they actually do make much better-sounding 'phones at prices that any geek should consider quite reasonable.
For a real geeky good time, go to http://www.headphone.com (no relationship except that I bought the Beyerdynamic and KRK from them) to check out the frequency response curves and such.
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.
Edit: Oh and they are comfortable. Which for long listening is essential to me.
While the sound quality was phenomenal, they were really loud outside the headphones, meaning I wouldn't be able to wear them at a quiet workspace. Does anyone know if other audiophile headphones have that issue?