Headphone/earned advice

After my last thread, and Fiio purchase, looking for recommendations, I’ll try some over ears in Richer Sounds.

Links to reviews etc ideal, rather than “I have these => they are awesome” 🙂

£80 to spend

http://www.whathifi.com/sony/mdr-ex650ap/review (assuming earned was a typo that should be earbuds.)

AKG K99’s. Very good value. As good as several sets of more expensive cans’.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/436698/review-akg-k99-hidden-gem

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

I have these => they are awesome

Grado SR60 from amazon

(joking aside they are very very good, but “leak”sounds massively as they’re open backed so best for private use)

Ignored details of OP request – check
Recommended whatever I own – check
Over OP budget – check
Broken, not entirely functional link – check – link fixed itself

Have I missed anything ?

LOL

I’m in the smoke next week, any shops there that allow you to try earbuds?

Should have said Sennheiser balance or a little more forward/mid-bandy.

Also a decent guarantee, I tend to kill earbuds within months

Al,

I’ve had a pair of Sure SE215 in ear headphones for a few years now and they have been excellent. They also have a neat design in that the cable can be removed from the ear buds.
Review
Link to a pair in your price range

Can you still get Sony MDR V6’s a no nonsense classic for a reason.

I know Sony recently put more fashionable exteriors on their old pro range and doubled the price, progress I guess!

Superlux do some good knock off’s (AKG and Sony) for peanuts. You can afford to buy 2 or 3 pairs.

If you frequently kill bud headphones (as I do / did)! Can I recommend one of those dodgy extended warranty type deals from Currys, PCWorld, whatever as long as it has accidental damage.

Bought mine on chance, now used twice to get replacements, excellent value on that basis alone.

Oh and trying earbuds is a nightmare, got lucky one day with a demo in a store of all major companies otherwise doomed it feels.

James

Two links for ya.

V6 Head-Fi

HD661 Head-FI

Sony MDR-EX650 review

Can’t fault mine, cable feels robust too. Sound just as the review above says. Got mine for £38 but currently a few quid more on Amazon.

OK guys, THREAD RESURRECTION (SP)!

I finally got round to trying a few cans out, up to some £125 AKG. None sounded as amazing as I’d hoped! £70 Sennheiser 461s seemed to stand out in VFM terms. As ever, What Hifi’s “go to” choice the £80 AKG50 (now £50) were pretty poor.

I think I’ll try some more expensive ones, and take my current ones along too. This is with FLACs on a Fiio player, am I going to need something better.

I’ve got a pair of Ultimate Ears triple fi 10s and they’re great, but if I was earbud shopping again I’d be looking at a pair of Shures. Something like the 215, or if I could afford it the SE535s but I appreciate that they are way over budget. Sound nice though 🙂

Bought some for my OH a couple of years back. Auditioned listened to a load in shops, ended up with the catchily-named ATH-ES7 from Audio-Technics. They’re truly fantastic.

A quick Google would suggest that they’re discontinued but the ATH-ES700 looks broadly comparable.

I meant to say, I’m not buying ANYTHING I’ve not heard.

This rules out earbuds as there appears to be nowhere you can try them.

It also limits me to on/over-ears that I can listen to – so far about 6 sets in Edinburgh. I’m going for hifi brands like AKG, Sennh., AT, etc not beats etc,

Is Glasgow likely to be any better?

I got some sennheiser momentum 2.0, if interested. They are on ear closed design. Only used once to try, but cant get on with them.

Is Glasgow likely to be any better?

http://www.richersounds.com/stores/glasgow ❓

(Though their cheapest A-Ts are £500…!)

just buy any pair you might like online, try it, and send it back if you don’t like it (doesn’t really apply to buds, but over-ears should be fine).

the sennheiser outlet has healthy discounts normally

Even cans are unhygienic to swap, think about how much your lugs sweat whilst they are on your head

I have some Audio Technica ATH-M50 and they’re rather good indeed. I use them for general listening (from brass bands to heavy D&B) + home DJing and I’ve yet to find anything that they can’t handle. Added bonus is the screw-on 3.5mm – 1/4″ jack convertor, which means I can use them in my phone and my Hifi.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/audio-technica-ath-m50x-review

How long is the cable, Ox? I use the Kitsound replicas of those but the cable is fixed, about 2.5 m long, it’s OK for serato but if you’re digging in boxes for vinyls, you’ll know the score

There’s a wiki on /r/headphones which I found quite useful as a starting point:

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/wiki/recommendations

Only problem I had is finding places which actually stock them and allow you to listen to them with your own music.

There’s also a weekly daily recommendation thread:

Daily Headphone Purchase Advice thread (2016-09-18) from headphones

(But you’ll have to be a member to post.)

There’s also a ‘wizard’ which kind of guides you through the recommended stuff
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOang5LBtvpqjPY81uBkPjf-erPTeug5PUWkQ0fM7lhKYk0g/viewform

How about a pair of AKG K550 headphones, I’ve had some for a while and am liking them, they sound good off the hifi, laptop and my android devices.

How long is the cable, Ox?

I’ve got the straight cable, 3.5m long. I’ve not suffered any whiplash yet 😆

Might need to look at them, the Kitsound are 7 year old and the ear cups are just starting to perish

Thanks all, Simon, YGM

ulysse – Member

Even cans are unhygienic to swap, think about how much your lugs sweat whilst they are on your head

From a 5 minute listening “session”?

H&S namby pamby attitudes like this make me despair.

If you aint been made aware of an issue, you can’t make reasonable informed assessments.
Now you’re aware.
In DJ booths it’s a massive no no to borrow cans, not saying I ain’t done it, but it’s normally someone I knew.

H&S namby pamby attitudes like this make me despair.

Spin it the other way around, would you shrug it off if you got a wart on your earlobe from your ‘new’ headphones?

I have these => they are awesome

Grado SR60 from amazon

(joking aside they are very very good, but “leak”sounds massively as they’re open backed so best for private use)

Ignored details of OP request – check
Recommended whatever I own – check
Over OP budget – check
Broken, not entirely functional link – check – link fixed itself

Have I missed anything ?

+1 for SR60’s

Other downsides:
The foam is a bit short lived, but yellow senheiser foam fits.
The cables look cheap and about to snap, but haven’t yet in ~10 years.

Audio Technica – higher end models (bought as recommended on a previous STW thread) come with 3 replaceable cables. And they sound brilliant.
I can’t rely on reviews after those shitty AKGs were “product of the year”.
Although Amazon reviews of ATs are mostly all good (some idiots on there obviously)

How Beats get good reviews is also beyond me. They’re terrible things

Try out Audioquest and B+W.

ulysse – Member

If you aint been made aware of an issue, you can’t make reasonable informed assessments.
Now you’re aware.
In DJ booths it’s a massive no no to borrow cans, not saying I ain’t done it, but it’s normally someone I knew.

Posted 6 hours ago # Report-Post

thisisnotaspoon – Member

H&S namby pamby attitudes like this make me despair.

Spin it the other way around, would you shrug it off if you got a wart on your earlobe from your ‘new’ headphones?

Fair enough re DJing, this is way different, shops could easily clean pads after trials…and use disposable buds for trying earbuds, or ask for the 1p they must actually cost to make, of the £ they buy them for.

Warts…really? Can you even get a wart on your ear?

SR60 get my recommendation also.

Ordered 3 pairs from the outlet.

Hope no one catches warts from the 2 I send back…

How Beats get good reviews is also beyond me. They’re terrible things

Actually, they’re not ‘terrible’, they’re biased towards a very specific customer whose taste tends towards bass-heavy EDM, for which they are, clearly, ideally suited.
However, used in company with a sophisticated EQ app on a smartphone, the bias can be altered, losing some of the bass emphasis, and giving a lift from around 2kHz, where the vocals are most obvious, up to 20kHz, they aren’t bad at all, they’re comfy to wear for extended periods, the ability to fold them and replace cables easily, is also very handy.
I picked up a pair from eBay for about £70, £100 less than new, and they’re absolutely fine with the EQ tweak.
Various IEM’s I’ve picked up over the last few years have all benefited from custom EQ curves, apart from my TripleFi 10’s, which I use with a flat setting: few audio devices are absolutely perfect.
I’m currently looking at getting a pair of Mee Pinnacle P1 IEM’s, to replace my Shure SE215’s, which have been playing up recently, one earpiece keeps cutting out, despite having the cable replaced at a cost of £40, so I thing the fault lies internally.
The P1’s have been getting amazing reviews on headfi, so I’m going to take a chance.
http://www.head-fi.org/products/mee-audio-pinnacle-p1-high-fidelity-audiophile-in-ear-headphones-with-detachable-cables/reviews/16704
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01A60I4P6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474124805&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=pinnacle+p1&dpPl=1&dpID=41mRZqaMClL&ref=plSrch

In all seriousness, if you can live with the noise leakeage (EVERYONE around you can hear what you are listening to – it’s not subtle) and are happy with over-ear phones try some Grade SR60 (or one of the higher ranges of course – they go all the way up to several thousand quid whilst still looking more or less the same).

Run off a decent source they’re head and shoulders above anything suggested above in terms of sound quality.

Agree re comments re foam durability and cables looking cheap – mine are 8 years old and I replaced the foams once (cost GBP2 off amazon) – the cables are doing just fine.

Grado SR60s here also. Love them.

CaptainFlashheart – Member
http://www.whathifi.com/sony/mdr-ex650ap/review (assuming earned was a typo that should be earbuds.)

POSTED 3 WEEKS AGO # REPORT-POSTI’ve had a couple of pairs of them, good ear phones, but the connection at the jack is dodgy as hell, both pairs failed within a few months. leaving me with 1 ear phone(mic side in both cases.)

Sorry to hear that. Mine are still going strong, with daily use.

If you are still demoing, I would try to find the Focal Listen model.
It’s a bit dearer, but they are superb. Should be plenty of Focal hi-fi dealers around.

I use and love OPPO headphones, but they start at £2xx
My old Beyerdynamic are still among my favourites if second hand is an option.

Good luck! – there’s nothing like getting a pair of headphones that you love. They become a companion.

Oppo worth a listen for sure.