My ancient Sonys have fallen apart, I need some replacements.

Nothing too flash (the posh cans stay at home) – they are to live on my desk at work.
Nothing open back (cause, its at work).
I don’t want earbuds.

Hive mind, what’s good for ~£50?

TIA

I don’t want earbuds.

Weird how things have turned around. Wasn’t that long ago that most would say they don’t want full headphones as they just weren’t trendy, earbuds were the thing. Now it’s the reverse and kids now look like kids in 80s films 😀

Though I still highly rate Shure in ear isolating foam buds. Passive isolation in that they seal off the ear canal. They’re great for flights to cut out the noise, and great at work for ignoring people trying to talk to you 😀 . Get the ear seal right and bass is awesome.

Not done full enclosed ear headphones since the 90s.

I hate earbuds, either I have really small ear canals or I’m allergic to the plastic, but after a couple of songs they all feel ‘hot’. Earphones work, but mostly fall out running or are too cleverly shaped for their own good trying to fit, and just don’t.

Nothing open back (cause, its at work).

Grado labs, and work harder until you get your own office :-p

I recently got some Philips wireless headphones from Argos, they’re pretty nifty for the price. You’ll need a bluetooth enabled device to send from – any phone and most laptops these days, or get a bluetooth transmitter for ten quid off ebay.

AKG Y50’s £49 at Richer Sounds

WillH, thanks they look spot on. Bluetooth no problem they’ll be run from the phone all the time.

Mmm, AKGs.

Decisions.

Weird how things have turned around.

Yeah I know.

I should also have said ‘nothing with Dr Dre stuck all over it’.

My ‘not earbuds’ reason is pretty much what TINAS posted.

Grado labs, and work harder until you get your own office

They look pretty flash.

My headphone budget topped out ages ago with a pair of HD600s. These days I’m on a fairly small toy budget.

I have my own* lab, does that count?

* not strictly just mine, but restricted access, etc. However then I have to leave my desk full of monitors behind and work on the laptop. Which is urgh.

If the AKG’s take your fancy I have some that I will selling soon that are mint condition complete with box. Only selling as I’ve gone for the bluetooth versions.

Open backed and over budget, but SR80 do sound very good, IMO a much nicer sound than any of the mainstream brand headphones I tried and very light too.

Downsides:
The foam falls apart, can be cheaply replaced with senheiser yellow foam.

Cables aren’t the most robust (the outer has split where it enters/exits at the ‘T’) and is a bit long for listening to an iPod in a pocket. Planning on taking mine apart and sorting it at some point with a new shorter cable. But in fairness they are now 10 years old and get used a lot!

Those of us who were actually cool in the late 90’s early 2000’s donned big **** off headphones back then as well.

#trendsetter 8)

Don’t want to ruin craigxxl’s chances of a sale (this isn’t the classifieds after all), but I bought some Y50s based on the recommendations and they were bloody awful. The bass sounded crap.
Got some Audio Technicas – my son’s just got the £40 ath-m20x model from Amazon and they’re great. Maybe a bit hot on the ears for all day wearing.

I’ve got a set of these Headfi reviews

I really like them, very impressive sound and separation without the overpowering boom you get with a lot of cans that spoils the soundstage.

About £45 on amazon

I have these for out and about/non-posh. Apologies if you’re not looking for wireless units.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jabra-Move-Wireless-Bluetooth-Headphones-Black/dp/B00NHSFWG4

Price seems to fluctuate, I paid £55 when I bought them, so might be worth keeping an eye on….or get the red ones.

As an aside, and apologies to Craig, I also was surprised with the AKGs. They get consistently great reviews from What HiFi, which makes one raise their eyebrows, yet I really didn’t see anything about them when trying several of their models out.

Do bluetooth headphones use the phones DAC or does the bluetooth transmit the compressed file to the headphones with their own DAC?

Just wondering because my phones audio output is crap and I’d like to bypass it.

The AKG’s I’m going to be selling are the K451’s not Y50’s. I’ve not tried the Y50’s just going off reviews of them plus my experience of the quality of sound from the K451’s and now their Y45BT bluetooth replacements.
Surprised that some are knocking the Y50’s when they are getting such great reviews from What Hi-fi as well as people who bought them on Richer Sound and Amazon.

Just bought some Audio Technica ATH-WS77, Reduced from £100 to £30 at Richer Sounds. I went there to get some AKG Y50’s but after spending 10 mins demoing each, the Audio Technica’s definetely sounded better. An absolute steal too.

AKG K-451

I had the same work headphone dilemma:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/recommend-me-some-headphones-2

A year on follow up: still good, still not died a coffee related death.

Surprised that some are knocking the Y50’s

I was surprised how noticeably bad they were. The bass was all squidged, strangled sounding… Got some cheapo Philips Bluetooth ones that sound a hundred times better. (They really leak sound though, so can’t recommend them).

Weird how things have turned around. Wasn’t that long ago that most would say they don’t want full headphones as they just weren’t trendy, earbuds were the thing

Big headphones at work are to signify “**** off with your inane chatter im busy working cant you see”

I also want to insert the gif of bernard black putting the post it of “on phone” on his forehead when a rude customer starts talking to him while in a call …but i cant find it

headphones at work are to signify “**** off with your inane chatter im busy

Combined with plausible deniability – “what!? No, didn’t hear the phone. Did you not see me with my headphones on? Sorry you had to come find me”

gentlemen, many thanks for recommendations

craigxxl

how much are you looking for on the akgs?

£30 posted buyer pays paypal fees. Let me dig out the box for them and I can send you some pics.

ok, done

my email is in profile

K451s here. Very happy with them.