So, having been kicked out of my home office because apparently our impending offspring will need somewhere to sleep, my desk has now been moved to our kitchen / dining room. In general, this is no bad thing, as a lot of the time I didn’t like being banished to my ‘box’ when I needed to work, but not at 100% (emails, simple reports etc).

However, there are occasions when sadly I do need to bring work home with me that does require my full attention (like the paper I’m supposed to be writing now instead of procrastinating on here). So, I’m after a very good pair of headphones to isolate me from the wife’s TV and let me get on and arse about on the internet work. Comfiness and sound quality are both important, portability less so.

Thoughts?

Audio-Technica ATH-M50?

I’ve got some of them and they’re very good.

I use Bose QC 15 headphones when I need need to drown out the wife whilst working.

Yep, I’d consider some noise cancelling ones. My current Bose set are very satisfying.

Amazon reviewers seem broadly positive. Might have to see if I can hunt some out to try down here in Oz.

edit: re the Audio-Technika ones

Flashy – how good are the noise cancelling ones? Is the difference noticeable over well padded ones? I’ve yet to try a pair of noise cancelling ones from any manufacturer

Custom IEMs. Take your pick. I had my Ultimate Ears reshelled by unique Melody using these people. http://www.custom-inearmonitors.co.uk/
Of course, you can buy a custom in ear that comes with the drivers, it doesn’t need to be a reshell.
They sounded great before, but now fit perfectly, so I can have them in for hours without any discomfort.

I use a pair of Grado Labs SR80s, lovely but not completely isolating.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SR80i-Prestige-Series-Backed-Headphones/dp/B0055P9K38/ref=sr_1_1/275-5641699-4882864?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1390296024&sr=1-1&keywords=grado+headphones+sr80i

However, I am now in the process of re-arranging the house so I can have a quite space to work, after using the kitchen table for the last 5 years I am now utterly fed up with my day being disrupted when the kids get home from school etc.

If there is anyway you can maintain a seperate place to work then I would do it!

However, I am now in the process of re-arranging the house so I can have a quite space to work, after using the kitchen table for the last 5 years I am now utterly fed up with my day being disrupted when the kids get home from school etc.

If there is anyway you can maintain a seperate place to work then I would do it!

+1000. Or more.

Get a separate place to work, no amount of noise-cancelling headphone technology is going to save you in 12 months time when mini-zokes starts crawling.

If there is anyway you can maintain a seperate place to work then I would do it!

My office at work!!!!

Not that it would matter for the next couple of years, but as sproglet gets older and able to understand more, I was envisioning a pair of bigger over-ear phones as being a good way of getting the message across that when “daddy has his ear-muffs on he needs to work”. Perhaps this just displays my wonderful naïvety regarding impending fatherhood….

Perhaps this just displays my wonderful naïvety regarding impending fatherhood

Yup, that’s pretty naïve.

Yup, that’s pretty naïve.

Guessed as much 😀

In any case, I’d hope that sproglet is more interesting than another tedious draft scientific manuscript on soil. I’m quite looking forward to the re-callibration of my work-life balance, actually!

Another vote for Bose QC-15. Very comfortable and the noise cancelling is superb. Probably not the greatest in terms of actual sound quality, but for removing background noise they are ideal.

At the other end of the spectrum, very suitable for testing the theory, and remarkably good at a cheap price.

Budget? These are ‘posh-ass’, though they’re an open back design, so fail on the isolation requirement.

Yeah, RS, those are possibly a little beyond my budget. But, the budget would certainly cover the Bose / Audio-Technica ones. As with most of my things (bikes included), I tend to buy well, buy once….

If you’re not able to get a separate space then I would massively recommend Sennheiser Momentum over-ears (not the on-ears).

Review Here.

I got goosebumps when I listened to them, just such a massive step up from anything else I’d heard, and when I stop being such a poor bastard from buying a house I shall get some.

These are amazingly good value:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monoprice-Premium-Hi-Fi-Style-Headphone/dp/B007SP2CO2

They often drop to around £17 if you keep an eye out. As recommended by Bobby Owsinski (music producer / engineer)

http://bobbyowsinski.blogspot.co.uk/2012_11_25_archive.html (bottom of page)

A friend has a set of Shure SRH440. He says the isolation on them is fantastic.

Gofaster, those portapros won’t block anything out, great headphones for the price though!

I use a pair of Grado Labs SR80s, lovely but not completely isolating.

+1 for excelent sound for the money, but not very isolating (they’re open backed so if you sit near a solid object you can hear the eco in one ear) and you can hear almost everything outside, and everyone can hear what your listening to. I bought them when I lived in a shared house and wanted to listen to music, but the Hi-Fi seemed too obnoxious.

About to buy my 2nd pair (foam’s gone funky and the cables past it’s best after 8 years).

+1 on finding somewhere quiet to work, I hate working arround the house. Missus is even worse, she’ll get distracted and do nothing, then bring her laptop to bed when I’m going to sleep!

I rely on using volume to cancel things out 😉

your kid will sit on your lap at every given opportunity and try and pull your headphones off and listen themselves and use then to store yoghurt/sweets/snot/drink/toys when you are not looking.

this will go for your computer as well. may as well get started on the cbeebies games now…

get something robust you dont mind replacing or becoming gooey

I rely on using volume to cancel things out

good strategy – it should help mask your impending tinnitus as well 🙂

The noise cancelling headphones are only really good if the background noise is constant, like a plane.

Transient sound sources, like voices, crying kids, etc, aren’t handled so well.

The gadget show did a test in a warehouse with a blindfolded stooge (that bald bloke) in the middle with some headphones on and and some increasing background noise.

They fired tennis balls at him and he had a shield to block the shot. Just before the shot he was told through the headphones which side the shot was coming to so he could block it.

He remained protected for longer using the IEMs compared to the over-the-ear noise cancelling ones.

The noise isolation of the IEMs can vary according to the choice of ear piece.

For cheapness you could try the Sennheisers with the Comply earpieces.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-Precision-Isolating-Ear-canal-Phones/dp/B001EZYMF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390299810&sr=8-1&keywords=Sennheiser+cx300

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Comply-T-400-Isolation-Earphone-Medium/dp/B002NUJ2RM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390299845&sr=8-1&keywords=Sennheiser+cx300+comply

For quality I recommend the Shure SE535s – I listen to mine for hours a day when working. Maybe with some Complys or custom ear moulds for a better fit.

And the advantage of IEMs is that you will have the volume far lower as they ‘couple’ so well to your ears, so you are less likely to damage your hearing.

I have some Bose QC15’s and love them. However, you have to be aware of what they do and don’t do. Dull drone/whine (regardless of how loud) of an aeroplane they cancel amazingly well, virtually silent. However, screaming babies 2 rows back, no 🙁

So, in your instance, I would say that the Bose aren’t what you want, you want something which will block as opposed to cancel.

Cheers, Rich

i have a pair of Sennheiser HD 212 Pro’s. for the price they are awesome!!

Just bought some Takstar pro 80 from mp4 nation and for the money they are absolutely brilliant. Check out the reviews on headfi.

As mentioned above, the Grado SR80 would be pointless for you as they leak sound like a sieve and offer no isolation at all, really natural sounding headphones if you have a decent quiet space to listen in otherwise i wouldn’t bother with them – i don’t use mine that much these days but i really should as they are such a decent headphone for the price, i guess you either want full sized on-ear headphones or perhaps something like the Etymotic ER4-P, the ETY’s are fantastic at isolation and one of the best, if not the best for complete aural isolation, i have a pair and think they are brilliant but the sound signature is not to everyone’s liking as they can sound rather trebly to some users but there is a sweet spot when it comes to learning the knack for insertion – not the most comfortable for hours at a time but you could always get personal moulds taken.

I also use the Sennheiser HD-25 Amperior which is an on ear cup headphone, one the best headphones bar none for sound quality but perhaps not offering full isolation – the mention above of the sennheiser momentum is a very good choice – full ear cup coverage and a sound that’ll never leave you wanting more – very good headphone!,
.

I’ve also got the Bowers & Wilkins P3, i used to have the P5 but i sold them to finance the smaller and more portable P3 – nice n’ warm sounding headphone for portable use and not really suitable for noisy environments or isolation but if you could stretch your budget the Bowers & Wilkins P7 is phenomenal to listen to, very comfortable for long periods at a time and a decent level of isolation being a full ear cup design.

Etymotic ER4-P canal phones
Sennheiser Momentum headphones
Bowers & Wilkins P7

The above are my recommendations but what i consider to sound good in a headphone, someone else may consider something else entirely – I can only offer advice on what i own or have listened to.

Have a look through the Head-fi forums and be prepared to mire yourself in a world of geeks.

be prepared to mire yourself in a world of geeks.

and STW isnt?? 😆

Headphone geeks are a special breed of geeks, headphone’s can either sound good or bad to my ears – very simple!, but some of the descriptions and personal reviews of headphones/canalphones on that site make me laugh sometimes.

I’ve got a pretty decent knowledge regarding sound/music and sound engineering variables and pretty decent hearing – i can tell what key a song is in and can pick out various frequencies etc, but the folk on that site must have super sensitive hearing (if they are to be believed with their descriptions) as i’m sure they’d happily describe hearing a mouse fart at 200 yards and feel able to pick out the pucker of the arse cheeks as the air passes through a sphincter the size of a grain of rice.

It’s an amusing site and often very informative but it’s like any forum – some folk just talk shit 😀

I just want some which don’t turn the cable into a massive knot of spaghetti every time I pick them up

Entropy, I’m afraid,

http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/1257/why-do-earphone-wires-always-get-tangled-up-in-pocket

Rather difficult to avoid 🙁

From the title I was hoping for something more like this (but posh):

Am currently considering some rha 750i in ears for my commute, made in UK, look great, apparently sound great too for the money. Already got some audio technica ath es55 for use at home, great clean sound.

I’m astounded at the sound quality of my Shure SE425’s.

Noise isolating, no cancelling, iPhone lead available as an extra that you can use to take calls on.

In ear things, not over the ear so your ears don’t get hot and there’s no noticeable weight on your head.

I’m with sam_underhill and TurnerGuy, a decent pair of IEM’s, either with full custom eartips, a full reshell, or just using triple-flange eartips, will give much better sound isolation, usually around -26dB, which is industry standard for hearing protection. I actually use mine for that purpose, when I’m using noisy machinery at work, where noise levels get up to around 91-92dB. I can listen to music quite happily at a reasonable volume. I use Shure SE215’s, Ultimate Ears SuperFi 3 Studio, UE TripleFi 10 Pro, and Mee Electronics M6P Sports, and all work beautifully for cutting ambient noise right down, with no distracting bleed for anyone nearby. Of them all, the Shure SE215’s are probably the optimum choice, you can get them easily for around £75, and the cable is easily replaced, or swapped for one with a remote. Superb sound quality, from all sorts of music sources.

I hated my Etymotics but have loved all my Shures…

Had to use lots of EQ to get the Etys to sound balanced to me.

Funny you should mention Etymotics, I dug mine out tonight, I bought them some years ago, after lots of people recommended them on here. Got them from eBay, fortunately, as I was really disappointed with them. I even went as far as getting custom eartips made. I guess they’re fine for people who only listen to jazz, or music with a relatively narrow dynamic range, ‘cos there’s little real bass there.
The Shures, though, are superb, really love them, no EQ needed at all. If I can scrape the funds together, I might get them reshelled, maybe with an extra driver.
Can’t recommend them highly enough for the money, especially with replaceable cables.

Not noise cancelling, but a semi closed design on the AKG K 450, which is good enough for me to listen to stuff whilst the kids do kid things, and the wife watches the box.

http://www.whathifi.com/review/k450

You can pick them up on ebay for ~£30

Sennheiser HD-25 – they get my vote too, love mine & keep the noise out well (very popular with DJs for excellent sound quality & isolation reasons).