Hi Chaps,

I’m after a set of decent, but not very expensive headphones – I’ve limited myself to £50 max.

I want some over the head for sticking on in the office when drawing boxes and lines.

I’ve been looking at:

Reid and Head SA800
Pioneer SE-MJ31
Sony MDRZX300W
Creative Aurvana Live
AKG K 430
Audio Technica ATHWS50

Anyone audiophiles have any suggestions? I’ll be pushing out mp3s at a high bitrate from a Sansa Clip… so not massive quality, but the high end of MP3 quality.

Cheers chaps

Ricks

Grado labs SR-80, slightly over budget, but very good.

[edit] price seems to have gone up, I’m sure mine were only about £80.

My Grados were about £80, they’re amazing. BUT, open back which means they don’t block any sound and everyone in the office can hear what you’re listening to…

Cant’really help much more than that!

Ultimate Ears 400.

Cheers Chaps, £80 is a bit too much, and the UE 400 are IEMs…. I’m looking for some over the head….

Hmm….

you might be able to get some grado sr60s for a bit less, mostly the same as the sr80s but some downgraded bits

How about Marley Positive Vibrations?

AKG K450 are £50 at Amazon if you’re quick (only 2 left) What HiFi thought they were good but some other reviews are less gushing.

I saw this on a site I keep an eye on – Hotukdeals.com and it might be worth you reading the thread as other cans like Goldring DR150’s.

Actually my Grados might be SR60s. They’re not here. Same reservations apply though, and they’re still around 80 squid.

Sennheiser px100’s. I have had several pairs, very good lightweight folding headphones. For the size they have good clarity and bass. Price around £30, got mine for a tenner brand new!

Sansa Clip – very good quality sound (if you don’t use the equaliser) but not too much grunt from the amp (which is why you can’t use the EQ).

These cheap Koss give a surprisingly good and very listenable sound:

a quote from an amazon review:

“The sound is really really good. Absolutely unbelievable for the price”

and for £12.39.

I have the Sennheiser PX100s and they might be a little more accurate than the Koss’s, but the Koss’s are much more enjoyable (think tube amp versus solid state as they have a slight bloom in the bass).

The Koss Sportapros sound very similair, or the same, but they have an over the head OR round the back of the head band, for a couple of quid more:

DONT be tempted by the Koss Portapros, even thought the reviews are good:

they are WAY too bassy, completely mess up pianos, etc.

Sennheiser px100’s. I have had several pairs, very good lightweight folding headphones. For the size they have good clarity and bass. Price around £30, got mine for a tenner brand new!

+1 – they are my reference point. Bought originally for £27.99 a few years back having heard a colleagues, worth it I think. If you can get them cheaper, brilliant.

Rickon – I have a pair of these that you can have if you make a donation to Help For Heroes, shall we say £10? They are closed back and actually really rather good. If you don’t like them, you can do what you want with them but you’re money wouldn’t have been wasted:

Review here

cheers very much for the offer Gee, not quite my style though.

I’ve had a set of Sennheiser HD202s and didn’t get on with them, and I’m not a fan of Koss.

Grado S60s look bang on, but over budget. The AKGs do look really good, but the quality seems to have issues after a few months which is disappointing.

Anymore for anymore?

+1 for sennheisers

tbh id go for comfort if using for long periods

Good website with some unusual phones.

http://www.audiocubes.com/index.php?cPath=23_26

Ive always been very happy with their service and delivery times.

Wife has the Creative Aurvanas. They are similar to Denon AHD 1001’s but half the price.

+ points; Good range, spacial feel and clarity, very musical and genuinely enjoyable. Excellent value too.

– points; Wouldn’t be great in a very noisy environment and flimsy cables need care.

I ‘borrow’ them from time to time and can hear subtleties not normally heard through our other ‘phones.

I’m not a fan of Koss

what’s wrong with Koss – the build quality is a little lower but then again they are cheaper.

Nicer sound than the PX100s – my normal phones are Shure SE530s for reference.

the build quality is a little lower but then again they are cheaper.

You answered your own question TG 🙂

You answered your own question TG

however I have gone through several sets of sportapros/KSC-75s as they have worn out, whilst all the time having a set of PX100s that I don’t listen to much as they don’t sound as good.

Those Koss ones clip over the ear.. I find those totally annoying.
PX100 is a ‘normal’ headphone, lightweight, folds up into a little case (i.e. small enough and protected) for travelling and just fine for listening to AAC music or films everywhere I’ve tried them (planes trains and autmobiles :-)) .. but the OPs ruled them out too anyway 🙂

I have the in ear variants as well as they are even easier to slip into a pocket, but again I just don’t find them comfortable for more than a few minutes.

I have a decent set of IEMs, but after a couple of hours they do get a bit sore – that’s the reason for wanting some over the ear / on the ear.

But also, because I’ll be coming from decent IEMs, I’ll notice a poorer set of headphones.

Some good suggestions so far though.

Try the iGrado’s.
They have the same driver unit as the SR 60 and they sound brilliant.
At £45 they are within budget.
iGrado

Those Koss ones clip over the ear

not the sportapros – over the head or round behind the head.

you could try some different earpieces on your IEMS.

I have the soft silicone ones on my Shures and wear them all day, all week.

the triple flange ones are intrusive compared.

Cheers Turner,

I’ve got about 10 types of tip! Comply style ones, silicone, foam, doubles, singles…. They’re all fine, but it’s the weight pulling down on the ear that gets me after an hour or so, unfortunately.

I’ve got about 10 types of tip! Comply style ones, silicone, foam, doubles, singles…. They’re all fine, but it’s the weight pulling down on the ear that gets me after an hour or so, unfortunately.

Turn the phones so that the cable goes up over your ear and down the back; look at any band on Later… and see how they wear IEM’s. That way the cable doesn’t ‘pull’ on the ‘phones causing discomfort, and there’s less microphony through the cable as well. I’ve been wearing mine like that for several years since getting some UE’s, and it makes a huge difference. I often wear my UE’s or Shure’s for a whole working day, no problems. I have triple flange tips on the Shure, double flange on my UE TripleFi 10 Pro’s and a sort of shiny black foam tip on my everyday UE SuperFi 3 Studio’s. Try it, it really does make a difference, although some phones are designed to be worn like that. My SuperFi 3 Studio’s only cost me about $35, and they really are excellent once you get the hang of wearing them.

Turn the phones so that the cable goes up over your ear and down the back

+1

and if there is a band tightener type thing then use it – the thing that pulls the cables together behind the head.

Ok, an update to this. I spent a while looking into headphones, and have a good idea now on what decent pairs there are about in the market.

The two best for under £200 are the Koss DJ100 and the Creative Aurvana Live! (sic).

The Koss would have been my first choice, if it were not for the low impendence – requiring it to be amped, the coiled cable (which can easily be replaced) and the poor ead pads – which again can be easily replaced by Sony V6 pads, or ATH-M30/50 pads.

I ended up buying the Creative phones, they’re identical internals to the Denon D1001, just in a shiny black casing.

If anyone wants a detailed review and comparison of phones, check out the Headfi.org forum thread here:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/433318/shootout-95-portable-headphones-reviewed-denon-ah-d1100-added-10-30-11

Cheers Ricks

Not sure about that site – his review of the KSC75 seems about right but his comparisons against the PX100 and Koss PortaPro seem in many ways to be the opposite of what I hear. Maybe he uses an amp that drives them differently.

Yep – most of the reviewers on there will have used a DAC amp, or have modified the phones; there are discrepancies in build and batch, and whether the phones have been burned in or not (although debatable, it does seem to make a big difference to some headphones – the DJ100 being a big candidate).

I have Sennheiser PX200, they’re good. Make sure you don’t buy fakes though, apparently there are quite a few around.

Anyone use a headphone amp?

Yep – I used a Fiio E5 amp – cheap, but works really well as a headphone amp. You could go a bit more expensive with the E7 and have a DAC also….

How about some lovely electrostatics. Might be a little over budget though…

You won’t get any audiophiles stepping in at that budget. Just those with pretentions to audiophilia. I’m not actually being that snobbish….not a high budget for headphones.

I suggest keep saving for some Grados, I have a set with over a decade of heavy use. Buy cheap buy twice etc.

Re: Audiophiles, have a look on headfi.org…. a lot of members on there with a lot of sets of phones, and most of them use cheaper (i.e. RRP £100) phones as their workhorse.

Grados are great, but at the £100 price point I’m restricted to open back – which isn’t good for the office.

After quite a lot of research I’ve found you can buy some decent phones that retail at around £100 that will be very good quality – enough to rival sets at more than twice that price.

If you’re willing to mod, then the Koss DJ100 I’ve stated above will be better than most the phones out on the market under £300.

As long as I’ve got a warranty back-up, I’m not hugely fussed about durability – as long as they don’t break from general use then that’s fine with me.

I’m a big fan of Sennheiser Hd25-IIs, lots of sound isolation, minimal leakage and pretty much completely rebuildable with spares. There are usually a fair number on ebay so you can probably get some for about the fifty quid mark.

Hd25-IIs were on my list, look like a nice bit of kit.

Received the Creative Aurvanas today, amped them with the Fiio E5 – really clear mids and highs, and a nice warm bass. The soundstage is really good for a closed can, although the isolation is pretty poor if the office wasn’t quiet they’d be a bit annoying – probably why the soundstage is good.

Definitley better amped, they just feel smoother and warmer.

I’ve got HD25-SPs, they’re fab. That better type are often used by DJs due to good isolation & bassy-tone presentation, which suits me.