In the aftermath of my son destroying my headphones (careless accident) I need to replace them. I don’t want any of those sort of ear bud things. All I’m after is good sound quality.

I know I could easily just google headphones but descriptions and pictures don’t really give me much idea if they are much cop or not.

Max budget = £70, I’d prefer less if possible in case of future accidents!

You can get these for £50 now

http://www.whathifi.com/review/akg-k451

Brilliant sound and quality for the price.

Oooh!

Nice spot!

The above akg-k451 are great for Apple, but not so great if you’re using them with an Android device.

Go for the akg-k452 instead. (its the same headphones just with a controller on the lead that works with both Apple and Android)

a friend recommended the third one down on this list.

http://www.stuff.tv/headphones/top-ten

boom… http://www.superfi.co.uk/p-13567-akg-k452-headphones.aspx

Looked online yesterday and Tesco is doing £40 off any headphones over a £100 and with the double club points managed to get some HD Beats for £65

Little bit over budget, but superb sound quality:

Grado SR60i

Not great for on the move, but if you’re listening at home they’re amazing.

If you want really cheap, get some Koss PortaPros. Bear in mind that they are open so they have no isolation but they sound great for the price. You can pick them up for around 20 quid off amazon IIRC.

I’ll mainly be listening at home so the Grados might fit the bill. It will mean a trip to Cambridge though so I can have a listen at John Lewis.

I bought these. Beautiful sound – completely neutral and very detailed. Be a crime not to:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AKG-K99-Semi-Open-Circumaural-Headphones/dp/B001GF7WRW

Got 3 pairs of these for studio and home use. Superb for the money.Superlux HD662

Man I really want a pair of Grados but there’s no way I can justify a third set of cans.

Get some K99’s then.

Does anyone use Sony MDR-7506s. What do you think of them?

Beautiful sound – completely neutral and very detailed.

lol!

The silly thin cable on my expensive Sennheisers failed so I had a look through some STW threads before going out shopping for some phones to use with the phone, various guitare amps and the hi-fi. The AKG451 please many here so got a hearing. Well thanks for the tip gents (ladies don’t post on headphone threads). they are not far off Grados on the powerful amps and produce very satisfactory noises from the phone for just 55e.

I’ve got some of these and they’re great for sound quality.

http://www.ibuygou.com/p-original_xiaomi_piston_earphone_updated_version_brown-5708.html#review

Search hifi forums for Xiaomi Piston for reviews.

Only $23, took about 2 weeks to arrive from ibuygou.

edit: reviews:
http://www.head-fi.org/products/xiaomi-pistons-2-0-mk301

I own some very expensive Sony and Sennheiser phones and I prefer these now.

I quite like Goldring DR150’s myself, shop around and they can be had for less than £50

retro83: Didn’t see your post before, I’m tempted by those Xiaomi headphones.

How long did they take to arrive, and also does the remote work for you?

I had a look at the reviews and it seems the latest version seems to have the remote working with more devices.

In the STW spirit of recommending what you use; Beyerdynamic DT 231. Cheap as chips, tough as old boots (mine must be 10 years old and still look new). Never missed a beat (ha!) & sound good to my ears.

£40 or less

Go for chinese.. these Takstar 80 pro (ignore the name) are amazing for the money..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Takstar-HI-FI-Headphone-Pro-80-Earphone-DJ-Professional-Monitoring-Headset-/171350287357?pt=US_Headphones&var=&hash=item27e545e3fd

I’m a hi-fi geek… directional cables and Italian speakers and everyfing, but in my opinion you can’t go far wrong with the Sony jobbies from Tesco for about a tenner

*raises eyebrow at yunki*

hypnotoad – Member

retro83: Didn’t see your post before, I’m tempted by those Xiaomi headphones.

How long did they take to arrive, and also does the remote work for you?

I had a look at the reviews and it seems the latest version seems to have the remote working with more devices.

Mine are the newer version (as in the ibuygou link), and the remote does work with my Galaxy Nexus phone. Haven’t tried the buttons on anything else yet.

I think they took about two weeks or so to arrive.

One thing I will say is that the back (metal part) of the ‘phones is quite big, so if you have small lugholes like wot I do, they can be a bit uncomfortable until you get them sitting right.

yunki – Member

I’m a hi-fi geek… directional cables and Italian speakers and everyfing…

I’m voting for RHA.

Have the SA950i over ear cans meself and I love them. The in-ear aluminium noise cancelling ones come well recommended also according to reviews. British company if I remember rightly, customer service when my (replaceable) cable developed a problem was spot on, the replacement sent immediately .

Sound is balanced, nice bass and detail – for the price quite astonishing.

I’ll mainly be listening at home so the Grados might fit the bill. It will mean a trip to Cambridge though so I can have a listen at John Lewis.

Why bother? Just click and collect them from your local Waitrose or get them delivered straight to home. If you’re not happy just return them.

Mine are the newer version (as in the ibuygou link), and the remote does work with my Galaxy Nexus phone. Haven’t tried the buttons on anything else yet.

I think they took about two weeks or so to arrive.

One thing I will say is that the back (metal part) of the ‘phones is quite big, so if you have small lugholes like wot I do, they can be a bit uncomfortable until you get them sitting right.
Thanks, I’ve ordered a pair, I have an GS3 so fingers crossed the remote will work but it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t.

I’ll experiment with getting them to fit well, it’s handy that they include different sized rubbery bits.

Kuco – Member
Looked online yesterday and Tesco is doing £40 off any headphones over a £100 and with the double club points managed to get some HD Beats for £65

Out of interest, what are you using them with?

Sennheiser px100-ii for about £30 at john lewis. Had a few pairs over the years, but these I find are great. Portable, foldup, lightweight, decent soundstage, good bass

Please don’t buy beats headphones. If you appreciate good music quality then avoid them. Sennheiser are highly recommended. I use HD25’s for music production and DJ’ing. They are expensive but something similar in budget would be good.
I use Sennheiser Cx 400’s for general listening to music purposes and the sound quality is fantastic.
Don’t know how they manage it but you can feel the bass .

My Sennheiser px100 have just given up, cables are flimsy on them, but otherwise the sound quality has been superb. I’m looking for a replacement, was thinking about bluetooth but not sure. Most likely be Sennheiser again though.

Thats the only bad thing about the px100’s, the cable goes after a year. But i have had a few pairs of the 100’s and got all replaced under the 2 year warranty through richer sounds. last pair i bought where from john lewis, as richer sounds dont stock the px100’s. still had my money back after 18 months. which is good. i also have sennheiser cx300ii’s but much prefer the px100’s as more comfortable and bit more bass. avoid beats and anything like that (BOSE included) sound awful over bassy on the beats and no bass on bose. my px100’s are better…

Sennheiser HD 202 MK II
cheap, sound great, crazy long cable

I cherry picked the first good review i found http://www.whathifi.com/sennheiser/hd-202/review

Using Grado SR80s here, but the reviews I’ve seen of the SR60s seem very good. Excellent, but for home use only, as the open back means you can hear what’s going on – and others can here your music too.

I use them for listening to vinyl and also for monitoring in my home studio. Really clear sound that replicates very clearly what’s going on musically. No obvious colouring of the sound, and definitely no horrible bass boosting (yuck!)

Please don’t buy beats headphones. If you appreciate good music quality then avoid them. Sennheiser are highly recommended. I use HD25’s for music production and DJ’ing. They are expensive but something similar in budget would be good.
I use Sennheiser Cx 400’s for general listening to music purposes and the sound quality is fantastic.
Don’t know how they manage it but you can feel the bass .

Depends what you use Beats with. It’s entirely down to the way they’re set up for the target market. With a suitable app, they can be made to sound any way you want them to.
Construction-wise they’re well made, they’re dead comfy, and they have easily replaced cables. I use EQu on my phone, and my Solo HD’s sound easily as good as my Shure SE215’s.
They only cost me £70 from eBay, bought knowing I could tweak them. Etymotic ER6i’s have always been highly rated, I even bought a pair on the strength of reviews on here, I hardly used them because they were so bass light, with EQu I’ve got the bass back, so Beats are just at the other end of the spectrum as far as the chosen sound shape goes.

This is the curve I’ve set up in EQu for my Beats:

Also means that anyone who breaks out in hives when using iTunes on an iDevice doesn’t need to use it any more… 😉