Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions? (Read 23196 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

My Budget is under $90. (Use them for mainly music and occasional fps games)

Here are the headphones I’m considering to buy:

Sennheiser HD 419 Headphones, Black

Sennheiser HD 429 Headphones Black

Audio-Technica ATH-M30 Professional Headphones

Could you guys tell me which of these sounds the best? (Usually listen to mainly pop and occasionally soft and rap)

(I don't listen to dubstep or other heavy bass needed music)


It'll be great if you give me other suggestions

Thanks! Sorry I'm  Completely new to buying headphones

--------------------

Also if you have time which is better?

Sennheiser HD 449 Headphones Black VS

Audio-Technica ATHM50S Professional Monitor Headphones


Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #1
Sennheiser HD 419 Headphones, Black
http://www.head-fi.org/search.php?search=HD419

Sennheiser HD 429 Headphones Black
http://www.head-fi.org/search.php?search=HD429

Audio-Technica ATH-M30 Professional Headphones
http://www.head-fi.org/search.php?search=ATH-M30

Take some time and have read
Who are you and how did you get in here ?
I'm a locksmith, I'm a locksmith.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #2
I really advise against buying any pair of heaphones without trying a ton of them in the store.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #3
I really advise against buying any pair of heaphones without trying a ton of them in the store.


If the stores near you are anything like the stores near me, their facilities for auditioning headphones are very poor. I've been buying well-reviewed headphones (mostly Sony, Audio Technica and Sennheiser) for years sight unseen with good results. 

One key to this strategy involves the use of music players with built-in equalizers. The actual sound of headphones is very dependent on how your ears are made and sit on the side of your head. If you can't fine tune them to suit you, your options are terrifically limited.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #4
[/quote]One key to this strategy involves the use of music players with built-in equalizers. The actual sound of headphones is very dependent on how your ears are made and sit on the side of your head. If you can't fine tune them to suit you, your options are terrifically limited.
[/quote]

I'll second this - The whole idea of upgrading your gear is to make music sound better to YOU! Who cares what the 'purists' say about equalization or any other signal processing for that matter.

To my ears, Sennheiser's sound is best. Tried Grado, Sony, Beats, AKG, and a bunch of others, and Sennheisers almost always win for me... I started with a pair of HD485's a few years ago and have purchased PX100's, HD595's, and ultimately HD600's. There was a notable difference as I worked my way up their lineup, but I was also upgrading my source and DAC/Amp equipment simultaneously.

With the right EQ settings on my PC, I can get the old HD485's to a point where I enjoy listening to them almost as much as the HD600's. I also borrowed some Grado SR80i from a friend, and could tweak those to near perfection as well... If you have a 7+ band EQ in your source, you can make any middle-line headphone sound awesome.

If your player doesnt' have this feature, check-out the Sandisk Sansa 4Gb player - sells on Amazon.com for about $40 and has a Micro-SD slot for expansion. Has a 7-band EQ and it plays ogg, FLAC, APE, and most other lossless/compressed formats. A very surprising little machine for the money.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #5
Grado SR-60 will beat any Sennheiser in the "under $90 price range" - except maybe if you listen to heavy bass hip-hop/rap music.
There is nothing out there to compete with Grado-SR60 in this price range. SR-80 adds nothing to sound quality, they have a slightly better cord. They are open-back, I don't know if that is an issue... to me is not, closed back adds coloration to the sound.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #6
Most of the time I tend to agree with this TOP list of headphones. http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/headphones

I love Sennheiser phones but there are much better alternatives for  under-140$ price.
Those are Audio-Technica ATH-M50S(135$), Audio Technica ATH-AD700(100$) and unbelievable Superlux HD-668 B (aka Samson SR850) for 50$. All these phones should beat handy any Sennheiser HD4xx for sure.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #7
FWIW I bought a pair of these from Fry's for $18 only because they were so insanely cheap.

http://www.headphone.com/headphones/sennheiser-hd-201.php

What I didn't expect was to like them quite a bit. They're a bit 'thin' on the bottom because the seal around my glasses isn't the best. If the budget is really tight these merit a serious listen.


Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #8
Most of the time I tend to agree with this TOP list of headphones. http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/headphones

I love Sennheiser phones but there are much better alternatives for  under-140$ price.
Those are Audio-Technica ATH-M50S(135$), Audio Technica ATH-AD700(100$) and unbelievable Superlux HD-668 B (aka Samson SR850) for 50$. All these phones should beat handy any Sennheiser HD4xx for sure.


Ironically, I own all three of those non-Sennheiser phones you mention and like them, but don't own any HD4xx series to compare them to.

I wonder if the headphones that Sennheiser wireless phones are built on are similar to HD4xx series models.

The Superlux Hd 668b are known for their alleged similarity to the highly-regarded Beyer DT 990.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #9
Save some more money and purchase something decent.
For $90 all your going to get is a pair of $90 headphones.
Asking the opinion of other for a 'which is best' comparison is an exercise in futilityas no one else can tell what your ears hear.
If you were to able to trial a pair of the above mentioned Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250 Ohm (which are awesome) headphones on a quality souncard
with quality amplification using a quality recording such as Dire Straights - Greatest Hits, Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream, Roxy Music - Avalon,
Soundgarden - Superunknown, to name a few you would quickly realise that $90 doesn't buy you very much headphone and all the advice offered
about which $90 headphone is mute since all $90 headphones sound like $90 headphones.


NOTE : The below is no more than a tool using sarcasm and humour to convey it's message and not my personal opinion.


People unfortunate enough to be currently suffering ownership of $90 headphones are now at this very moment formulating a defensive/counter offensive
strategy in defence of this sudden full frontal assault.
Sadly for you though i will end now crush all your hopes of a quick a decisive victory by say, unless you have actually experienced quality audio playback
in an enviroment specifically tailored for the purpose of, and i don't mean your mates $5,000 home theater purchased from a big brand name retail outlet.
I'm talking about hardware used by people who make their living from recording, producing, mixing, ect.
Until that realm is part sphere of knowledge then much to your detriment i have to tell you that you have no practical awareness of what a quality recorded
sound actually sound like as you have never heard one.
We only able to make comparisons on those things which we ourselves have knowledge of.


So, now that part is over i hope that the example provided will help you to realise that spending a bit more money as Arnold .B directly above
has suggested to procure a pair of Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250 Ohm headphones is the smart thing to do.
I myself spent years trapped in Logic Audio programming Drum'n'Bass with a pair DT990 Pros permanently attached to my head but i now use Beyerdynamic
DT770 Pro 250 Ohm for general PC gaming (BF Rules) and audio of course.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #10
Save some more money and purchase something decent.
For $90 all your going to get is a pair of $90 headphones.
Asking the opinion of other for a 'which is best' comparison is an exercise in futilityas no one else can tell what your ears hear.
If you were to able to trial a pair of the above mentioned Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250 Ohm (which are awesome) headphones on a quality souncard
with quality amplification using a quality recording such as Dire Straights - Greatest Hits, Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream, Roxy Music - Avalon,
Soundgarden - Superunknown, to name a few you would quickly realise that $90 doesn't buy you very much headphone and all the advice offered
about which $90 headphone is mute since all $90 headphones sound like $90 headphones.


Been there, done all that.

If you use your logical mind and presume that some notion of accuracy is in most headphone designer's minds, then you would realize the obvious logical flaw in the comments above.

The more expensive headphones are more likely to be perfected, and since there is only one perfect sound, they will tend to sound more like each other.

Similarly, cheap headphones are less likely to sound like each other because their poorly-controlled imperfections tend to fall at random locations on the planes of performance parameters and therefor sound more dissimilar from each other.

Saying that all $90 headphones sound like each other is therefore illogical, and oh by the way actual listening follows the logical trend.

If you dissasmble a lot of headphones, you see that superficially their components tend to be of a common kind but with geometric and character differences (e.g. more or less dense foam), but also embody some common trends such as larger drivers being more frequently used in higher priced products. The decision to use neodynium magnets costs money so the relationship between quality and weight may be reversed.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #11
Despite desperately needing a book on grammar for the holiday season, he said that $90 headphones sound like $90 headphones.  He did not say that all $90 headphones sound the same.

HTH

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #12
he said that $90 headphones sound like $90 headphones.  He did not say that all $90 headphones sound the same.
HTH

BTW: here they think they could make nearly any headphone sounds like nearly any other else!

Disclaimer: they sell an iOS app (there is also a free version) which implements their algorithm, which all in all seems to me a simple application of adaptive controls, and I'm in no way connected with this site. Myself I'm just giving a try to the free one.
... I live by long distance.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #13
Despite desperately needing a book on grammar for the holiday season, he said that $90 headphones sound like $90 headphones.  He did not say that all $90 headphones sound the same.


If all $90 headphones sound like each other or share a common fault, how is that saying that they all sound totally different?

So you're agreeing that every pair of $90 headphones has a severe common kind of audible fault, but they all have vastly different severe audible faults so they sound nothing like each other?  Aw, come on! ;-)

Reality is that there is a heavy dose of "what the traffic will bear" in headphone pricing. The difference in functional materials costs are far less than the differences in asking prices.

It can be argued that high development costs justify high prices for highly developed products, even though the differences in the materials costs don't. Problem is that headphones are relatively simple devices so reverse engineering them is not all that difficult. The high development costs are thus eventually circumvented.

In the end saying that "For $90 all your going to get is a pair of $90 headphones." ignores many realities of both commerce and audio technology. Just at the retail level, discounting via web stores, grey market etc.,  versus list price sales at boutiques can easily create a 2:1 difference in price of the same identical product. So, for $90 you might get either $45 headphones or $180 headphones.

I've personally purchased $300 headphones or their clones (I couldn't tell the difference even after disassembling them) for under $50. I just wish they had been Sennheiser audiophile phones rather than Sony DJ phones! ;-)

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #14
I have the cheap Superlux HD668B, and to me they are very good. I personally prefer the Grado sound however, and use a SR80i for listening enjoyment (which I even prefer to my 1000€ STAX electrostatic headphones. I use the STAXs mainly for listening tests).
Judging from my old SR60s I guess the Grado SR60is are fine, and they are below 100$.

But as always concerning sound, it's a question of personal taste.
lame3995o -Q1.7 --lowpass 17

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #15
(which I even prefer to my 1000€ STAX electrostatic headphones. I use the STAXs mainly for listening tests).

If it's not secret what is model of STAX?

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #16
It's a SR-202.
lame3995o -Q1.7 --lowpass 17

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #17
This thread is getting a bit old, but on the 90$ range, the brands Koss & Superlux are usually recommended.
The cheap koss ksc75 (hey 15$), has a sound regularly praised by audiophiles , that enjoy it , even after having much more expensive headphone. There's also the more expensive koss dj 100, that was hyped at head-fi as being "budget king".
Personally , I  find you get the best sound for the buck with IEMs.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #18
I personally can recommend the KRK Systems KNS 6400s (about 90$ on amazon.com), got them after I read the review at headphone.com.
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #19
At least don't buy the low end of sennheiser, this brand want you to spend some serious bucks before offering something interesting. And Sennheiser is better known for open headphones , rather than closed, with some exceptions like the hd25 II  1.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #20
Aw, come on! ;-)

Sigh.  Whatever it is you will find a way to argue.  Do you have any idea how petty you look?

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #21
unless you have actually experienced quality audio playback
in an enviroment specifically tailored for the purpose of, and i don't mean your mates $5,000 home theater purchased from a big brand name retail outlet.
I'm talking about hardware used by people who make their living from recording, producing, mixing, ect.


FWIW, most people at the classical radio station where I do some database work use Sony 7506 for studio recordings, editing, etc.  That is available under $100.  I have the similar Sony V6 at home.  They are a lot more comfortable to me than Grado's (most commonly criticized as a tight fit.. if that doesn't  bother you, then they should be in the running)




Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #22
My suggestion? Koss PortaPro.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #23
My suggestion? Koss PortaPro.


But the cheaper ksc 75 use a more recent driver, and have better sound quality (at least according to many review).
It's possible to mod them in order to have a headband, search on head-fi.

Comparing Headphones Which Ones Are The Best? Suggestions?

Reply #24
You reeealllly should try headphones out in person and compare. It's such a personal preference! If can't try them out in a shop, why don't you order all the models you're thinking about from Amazon (or wherever), and only keep the pair you like best?

Personally I have 2 pairs of Sennheisers under that price point, and I'm very happy with them!