Headphones?

WeepingMoon

Member
Jan 21, 2005
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Louisiana, USA
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Greetings,

I suppose there is some kinda general forum on Ulitmate Metal that this would fit nicely under.... but I know a lot of you in this forum might not venture anywhere else on Ultimate Metal, and I trust most of your opinions here since we listen to the same music.


Anyway! I'm fed up with my cheap Sony godforsaken headphones. And would like to purchase some budget hi-fi sounding ones..

I've heard about Grado SR60s and SR80s and some Sennheiser's , but I'd like some of your opinions on some quality cans under 100 bux

Maybe you know some random ones I've not come across yet.

Thanks:loco:
 
Mine are this crappy pair from Maxell, lashed them on my iPod and spent about week thinking these things are so fucking quiet! The realised there's a second volume control on the wire and now they are very loud, the sound isn't as crisp as on the proper iPod headphones everything melds together a little (which arguably is better) but they are very loud and only £7.99.
 
Sennheiser HD 497 is a great pair of affordable headphones but they appear to have been discontinued. Mine broke a few months ago and I bought a pair of HD 437's instead. They look and cost about the same so I figured there would not be too much difference, but the sound quality on them is not nearly as good. They're quite bassy and muddy.

I'm also in the market for a good new affordable pair so I guess I'm keeping an eye on this topic.
 
Sennheiser HD 280 professional.
hd280_280.jpg

Got them yesterday, awesome.
The price is around $133 from where I got them.
 
I don't even know what kinda Sony headphones they are :lol: some kinda 17 dollar special. My old cans took a crap on me so I just wanted to get a quick replacement pair.

I've heard about the Sennheiser HD 497, and that the Grado SR60's are the same if not better than those. :D

As for those professional ones someone posted... looks nice :lol: but a tad outside my price range... I'd love to spend however much it takes for the best headphones ever, but I don't have too much money to lay down.

Thanks for the help so far tho :)
 
I have Sony MDR-V600 for in-house listening purposes and Sennheiser HD 202 for any other use...Both of them are closed so no outside noise interferes with my music listening experience! I bought Sennheiser for about $26 and love how they sound! Sony costed me $198 5 years ago and they still sound great!

Good luck!
 
dcat said:
These are they...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....20011495475&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

Watch item to see what they go for, and start savin your dime's.

:)

haha, yeah those Stax are pretty insane... :( i can't afford that right now tho

It's hard to just read reviews and take their word for it sometimes, if i was spending over 100 dollars...even 50 dollars I'd like to listen to them all first before. :D cuz i'm sure headphones come down to personal preference in the end once u get into the higher quality ones..
 
You usually get what you pay for in audio.

If you care about sound quality, dish out a few hundred bucks for the higher-end Sennheiser cans. I had a cheap set (I think around $175 or so) that didn't sound half bad but broke real easy.

Make sure they are comfortable to wear for long periods and don't fatigue your ears too much. Also helps if there's some material on the inside that absorbs sweat, especially if they hug your ears real tight.

Looking away from consumer-end, you might like some DJ headphones, depending on what you're after. DJ headphones usually have pretty good isolation and very strong bass response, so the DJs can hear what they're mixing in a noisy club environment. I'm assuming they wouldn't go down half bad at home.
 
:) thanks moonlapse...

Yeah, i'd like to say i'm really after high quality, but right now..I think I could suffice with a pair that were around 75 dollars. 175 seems a bit steep for me at the moment. I'm sure down the road I could pick up some real nice cans.

Anyway, basically, I dont really care whether they are enclosed studio type cans or open air ones... I listen to most of my collection on computer and my mp3 player. Not interested in portablity at all really...not a huge concern.

DJ ones would be interesting to test out..I don't like a huge amount of bass tho soo lol

feck the city I live in probably has a shit supply of headphones to try out...I'd hate to buy something online w/o trying. I'm sorta interested in those grado sr60's but the sennheiser px100 seem nice aswell... :lol: decisions decisions
 
Whatever you do don't get Sennheisers unless the model is a 500 or above. Not good for listening to metal The upper end is quiet and low quality while the bass is usually augmented so much it results in your head blown off if you're listening to metal.

Grado's are a good choice, 60 and 80 are both better than any lower-end Sennheiser. Consider also the Alessandro MS-1's which are an altered Grado-125 but cheaper. The dynamics are the best i've heard in a budget headphone, it feels like you can actually hear the sound of the pick against the guitar string.
 
hibernal_dream said:
Whatever you do don't get Sennheisers unless the model is a 500 or above. Not good for listening to metal The upper end is quiet and low quality while the bass is usually augmented so much it results in your head blown off if you're listening to metal.

I didn't find that to be the case with my Sennheiser HD497's, but I do with these 437's. So it seems hit and miss as far as the 4xx segment is concerned. I recommend if you are looking at a low-end Sennheiser to just go to a store and try them out. They are well known enough that every decent audio store should have a few lying around. I bought my HD437 from a store where you can't try stuff out and quite regret it now. If I'd known they were this muddy and bassy I would have gotten something else.

Right now I'm looking at an Alessandro MS-1. They are a modified Grado SR 125 apparently. You can buy them for $99 (with free shipping) from http://www.alessandro-products.com
 
CAIRATH said:
I didn't find that to be the case with my Sennheiser HD497's, but I do with these 437's. So it seems hit and miss as far as the 4xx segment is concerned. I recommend if you are looking at a low-end Sennheiser to just go to a store and try them out.

That's definitely good advice, but testing can be difficult. When I bought a pair of HD212's (awful phones, I returned them the next day) I listened to them on the test stand which, of course, was playing poppy and bassy R'n'b music. The bass was really loud but I thought that was due to the music and not the phones. I was wrong... popped in a metal cd when I got home and all I could hear was the booming double bass kick. :erk:
 
^^
I was able to make do after changing the equalizer a bit, and after a couple of weeks listening I guess I kinda got used to the sound.

Scourge of Malice said:
Sorry, this is completely off topic, but looking at your current top favorites, that red sparrowes song is off the new album, yes? Has it leaked?

Not as far as I know. It is the song they've got on myspace.