That’ll be me then. The nuances of tone, bass and treble are largely lost on me. I just want to listen to music off my Mac or Phone without probing my ear canals with in ear ‘phones. I shall not be walking around rocking the ‘urban can’ look merely listening to my middle of the road rock and pop collection in the comfort of my own home.

So a list of what i DON”t need includes

– folding/portable
– noise cancelling
– some kind of hipster design cues
– a colour other than black or silver
– any controls other than possibly volume
– Bluetooth
– to spend a shed load of cash.

I’m thinking £50-£80 max.

What should I be buying?

AKG K77. Cheap as chips. Sounds brilliant.

Sennheiser, and you won’t need to spend anywhere near £50.

Like the sound of AKGs as they sound like some kind of weapon! Don’t like the look of them much. Which Sennheiser then?

Sennheiser hd 419

Do you really want a “closed” design? or a semi-open design? proper closed cans will warm your ears pretty quick and can be more uncomfortable than is bearable over a long period of time (unless someone is paying you to wear them…) where as a semi-open design will allow more air in and out (and more sound) and is more comfortable.

these guys. seriously great sound and stupidly cheap. they feel sturdy as well.

I’ve got some sony mdr-zx600 for playing my elctric drums with, they’re decent and not too expensive. Definitely not audiophile phones, way too bassy for that, but fun to listen to rock, pop and DnB with.

I’ll try to find the review when I get home, but there were some JVC ones on Flipboard last week that got a very good review indeed. They were about $99, but available for a lot less on Amazon, and probably easily found in the UK, to avoid excessive postage.

Beyerdynamic DT 231

Very cheap but sound great. Ugly though. Have been leaving mine on the desk at work for a decade now and they’ve never been stolen or even borrowed. But they have a clear sound without overdone bass. And as the are closed, I can listen to my music VERY LOUD and still not disturb the rest of the office.

I use a pair of Sennheiser HD 201 (link) which I got for £20. I use them for live audio monitoring and at home on the computer. Not too colourful, and hard to see/hear how I could do better for the money. They’re also comfy enough for long sessions of editing.

Ta all. Only went for closed so I didn’t have to listen to whatever kids were listening too/watching when I’m in the house! Being a fully card carrying yorkshireman I’m finding the £20 quite compelling although I somehow convinced myself that these were worth http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-Closed-Back-Headphones-Outstanding-Performance/dp/B005SNPV94/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1376387513&sr=1-1&keywords=Sennheiser+hd+439 for £70.

However, having checked back at the thread I’m dithering again.

Right, after some considerable time digging around in the morass of articles that exist in the depths of my Flipboard app, I’ve finally found the headphone review I read several days ago:

Can an audiophile find joy in a full-size $40 headphone?
http://iphone5updates.tumblr.com/post/57973713765/can-an-audiophile-find-joy-in-a-full-size-40
http://www.amazon.co.uk/JVC-HA-RX700-Deep-Bass-Headphones/dp/B0019H7S44
£30.32, to you, squire. At that price, it’s almost rude not to. 😀

Sennheisser HD-202 for me. Really comfortable and don’t fall into the trap of overdriving the bass and screwing up your music which has become popular for some reason. Also, they’re really cheap and have a 2 year warranty.

Most phones can’t drive nicer large headphones without current delivery issues and thus weak lows. Sennheiser PX100 have a fairly substantial bass hump when using a good headphone amp but actually sound really good with an iPhone. I’d hope that the better headphone companies have now cottoned onto this but who knows?

Thanks CZ, after all your efforts it seemed rude not to buy a pair 🙂 Most of my listening at home is thru the mac not the phone. Anything is better than a) getting abuse from my kids due to their misunderstanding of what good music is and b) having to listen to theirs!

Ta all.

Cheers Alex! 😀 I was getting a bit miffed, ‘cos I couldn’t find the blasted review, and I was beginning to think I’d imagined it. Glad my efforts weren’t in vain!
I just hope they’re as good as the review suggests, it’ll be a bit embarrassing, otherwise… 😳

I have a pair of JVC HA-SR75S-E that meet pretty much all your criteria albeit at the top of your budget (£76 Amazon). Very comfy, look great in a retro kind of way and sound fantastic; hugely impressed.

Spent years in retail selling Sennheiser etc and these are up there with some of the best I heard and very good value.