Topic: reccomendations needed for a 25-50$ pair of headphones. (Read 6389 times)

casull · « **on:** 22 Dec 2006, 04:15 »

Well, my girlfriend has pretty decent taste in music, probably better than mine, by most people's estimation on these boards. She only has a realy bad pair of speakers to listen, though, so I want to get her some decent headphones. 25-50 is the price range, 30-40ish would be great. if you wanna link them from newegg, that would be even better. here's a link to start you off.
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=70&name=Headphone-Headset-Accessories

thanks!

Ernest · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Dec 2006, 04:34 »

What are you, some kind of tool? Make your own decisions, man!

casull · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Dec 2006, 05:05 »

The problem is that I'm no audiophile. Lossy vs non-lossy means nothing to me, I barely understand the concept of clipping, and I'm happy to listen to 128k mp3s on a 15$ gaming headset. I know some of you have considerably higher standards, and I want your input.

pat101 · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 Dec 2006, 05:11 »

there's some website... headphones.com or something like that I can't remember for the life of me. Any ways they always had good reviews of headphones categorized by price. I'd recommend attempting to find this site.

!!!CPAOI!!! · « **Reply #4 on:** 22 Dec 2006, 05:22 »

www.head-fi.org

They can help

Dimmukane · « **Reply #5 on:** 22 Dec 2006, 11:01 »

Sony Dynamic Stereo Headphones MDR-V150, I got them for 25$ US. Pretty damn good for the price I got them for.

kokeyjoe · « **Reply #6 on:** 22 Dec 2006, 18:23 »

I'm no real audiophile myself, but I've been a musician for over a decade, and a radio DJ for about three years, so I can at least say I listen to stuff a lot. Two brands I really like are Jensen... I've been using one pair of their headphones for over five years, and almost two of those years have been at the radio station where I work now. Another brand I saw on that newegg site which I like is Altec-Lansing; I've been using a set of 2.1 computer speakers from them for over seven years. And they still sound pretty darn good, at an original price of only 50 bucks. I recently bought a computer headphones/headset of theirs, though, the wrap-around the neck design kinda thing, and I returned them. They were really uncomfortable. I have a pretty big head, hehe, and I guess big ears, and it even felt like it wouldn't stay on my head. Just bad design. So you might wanna watch for that. Make sure they won't make your girlfriend's head hurt. Hope that helps.

valley_parade · « **Reply #7 on:** 22 Dec 2006, 19:00 »

Quote from: Dimmukane on 22 Dec 2006, 11:01

Sony Dynamic Stereo Headphones MDR-V150, I got them for 25$ US. Pretty damn good for the price I got them for.

Man, where are you getting them? I get them for US$20. I like them, but I think they have just a little bit too much low end.

HFrankenstein · « **Reply #8 on:** 22 Dec 2006, 21:13 »

I'm pretty fond of Sony's Fontopia line. You can get them anywhere between 25 and 50, I believe.

Dimmukane · « **Reply #9 on:** 22 Dec 2006, 22:27 »

Quote from: valley_parade on 22 Dec 2006, 19:00

Quote from: Dimmukane on 22 Dec 2006, 11:01
Sony Dynamic Stereo Headphones MDR-V150, I got them for 25$ US. Pretty damn good for the price I got them for.

Man, where are you getting them? I get them for US$20. I like them, but I think they have just a little bit too much low end.

I got them for 22 after tax, actually, so I just rounded up. Best Buy. But considering they're only ~20$, I'd say they're worth it. a lot of the other ones come with the crumbly foam ear covers and not much in the way of adjustments. These even came with an adapter for the bigger jacks.

IronOxide · « **Reply #10 on:** 23 Dec 2006, 04:10 »

You can pick up some lower-end Sennheiser stuff for around fifty bucks, which isn't too bad. They make good shit.

casull · « **Reply #11 on:** 23 Dec 2006, 13:25 »

Well, I've spent the better part of two days browsing headfi non-stop, and I'm convinced myself that this is something I should TOTALLY spend a ton of money on. I think I'm gonna expand my original price range a bit and grab some Sennheiser 280 pros for christmas, then relearn all the electronics theory I learned to get my ham radio license when I was little and build a portable amp for kicks... then pick up a decent flash player and some nice IEMs sometime later this year.

Haha, learning a new set of abbreviations and acronyms is so fun... reminds me of when I started playing WoW.

jolijn · « **Reply #12 on:** 25 Dec 2006, 10:18 »

Quote from: HFrankenstein on 22 Dec 2006, 21:13

I'm pretty fond of Sony's Fontopia line. You can get them anywhere between 25 and 50, I believe.

Same here, they do a good job of sealing off outside noise and sound really good for the price!

Rizzo · « **Reply #13 on:** 25 Dec 2006, 14:13 »

It really depends on what sort of device she's going to be listening to using these headphones. If it's a CD player or Vinyl then by all means, spend copious amounts of money on the headphones.
However, if it's mp3s/computer then there's fuck all point in spending more than $50 on headphones because realistically you're not going to notice a difference. Even at the highest encoding she's gonna have pretty average sound and serious audio headphones won't help.
For what it's worth I'd recommend cans (ear covering ones) because they generally sound nicer, do less damage to your ears and many people find them more comfortable. Sure they're bigger and can't be stored easily but the sound performance makes it worthwhile.
Another thing to consider is whether she has piercings. This may sound weird but I get incredibly sore ears wearing cans cause they put pressure on my piercings. Plus the hot, sweaty environment of the headphones makes my piercings itch... not so cool.
I really like these ones, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826106324
I had the lower down model, my friend splashed out and got these and they're much nicer sounding.

Some good brands are Sennheiser, Sony, Panasonic, Jensen and Koss. My Jensen headphones are fucking killer. I also have Sennheiser in-ear buds and while they sound killer they're actually way too loud and kill my ear drums so I'm gonna investigate getting some decent cans.

Ernest · « **Reply #14 on:** 19 Sep 2007, 18:19 »

Guys I just met casull. Turns out we go to the same college, though I wasn't there yet when I made the first reply in this topic

3Z3VH · « **Reply #15 on:** 19 Sep 2007, 20:44 »

Shure E2C. It is a kick-ass $100 headset that they are discontinuing for the new model, the E2C-n, that is the same thing, only black to match the rest of their line. So Amazon is selling the rest of their stock for half-off ($50). Even NewEgg still lists them at $100.

Buy it while it's there !

Ernest · « **Reply #16 on:** 19 Sep 2007, 21:17 »

Quote from: Anyways on 19 Sep 2007, 18:23

Man, fuck all of you people living near each other.

Oh, we don't. We just happened to decide to go to the same school

Melodic · « **Reply #17 on:** 19 Sep 2007, 23:00 »

I want to go around recommending the Sennheisers I'm wearing right now, but if you can't spare $300 for ear-love, try these (I got em on sale) or these.

onewheelwizzard · « **Reply #18 on:** 19 Sep 2007, 23:34 »

Every time I put on a pair of Bose headphones, part of my brain does a double take because my ears are signaling "orgasm!" and nothing else is agreeing with them.

3Z3VH · « **Reply #19 on:** 20 Sep 2007, 00:44 »

Quote from: Melodic on 19 Sep 2007, 23:00

I want to go around recommending the Sennheisers I'm wearing right now, but if you can't spare $300 for ear-love, try these (I got em on sale) or these.

By the specs those seem like great headphones, but damn, that is one hell of an impedance ! Can your typical iPod even drive those without burning up it's internal amp ? I guess that is why they call the Studio Monitors... they are only meant to be used in the Studio.

Quote from: onewheelwizzard on 19 Sep 2007, 23:34

Every time I put on a pair of Bose headphones, part of my brain does a double take because my ears are signaling "orgasm!" and nothing else is agreeing with them.

I agree, many do sound quite good, as long as you aren't trying to listen to music with one of their noise-canceling headsets while the noise-canceling circuit is turned on. Last time I tried that it distorted the sound so badly I couldn't listen to it. Once I turned it off though, the music sounded really good again. Still won't get me to give up my Shure headphones though

Melodic · « **Reply #20 on:** 21 Sep 2007, 19:56 »

They're 100% compatible with iPods (I run the MDR-XD200s on a 2nd-generation Nano with no troubles), but they're truly larger-than-life headphones. Even the MDR-XD200, which is significantly smaller than the 300 series, are huge: they have over a meter of cable length, and the headphones themselves will absolutely dwarf your ears, and your head. Which you may see as a positive or negative.

Phaedra · « **Reply #21 on:** 21 Sep 2007, 20:30 »

http://www.headphones.com.au/

The prices are all in Australian dollars, but I'm fairly sure these are brands that be found worldwide. It also ranks items by price, portability, open/closed-ness, etc.

muteKi · « **Reply #22 on:** 21 Sep 2007, 22:46 »

Quote from: Dimmukane on 22 Dec 2006, 11:01

Sony Dynamic Stereo Headphones MDR-V150, I got them for 25$ US. Pretty damn good for the price I got them for.

MDR = Full of win. I have a MDR 210, and the low end those things produce is just absolutely INCREDIBLE!
Plus they're small headphones, too, which just impresses me all the more.

öde · « **Reply #23 on:** 22 Sep 2007, 09:02 »

Quote from: Rizzo on 25 Dec 2006, 14:13

However, if it's mp3s/computer then there's fuck all point in spending more than $50 on headphones because realistically you're not going to notice a difference. Even at the highest encoding she's gonna have pretty average sound and serious audio headphones won't help.

FLAC.

I have MDR-XD200's and they are very nice (as for as I know, I'm not a headphone connosseiur).

pentaen · « **Reply #24 on:** 22 Sep 2007, 12:19 »

get a pair of Seinnheisers, i have lived by them for a year and they have never let me down. They are also useable as speakers due to their loudness. they are amazing

StaedlerMars · « **Reply #25 on:** 23 Sep 2007, 02:37 »

Quote from: Dimmukane on 22 Dec 2006, 22:27

Quote from: valley_parade on 22 Dec 2006, 19:00
Quote from: Dimmukane on 22 Dec 2006, 11:01
Sony Dynamic Stereo Headphones MDR-V150, I got them for 25$ US. Pretty damn good for the price I got them for.

Man, where are you getting them? I get them for US$20. I like them, but I think they have just a little bit too much low end.

I got them for 22 after tax, actually, so I just rounded up. Best Buy. But considering they're only ~20$, I'd say they're worth it. a lot of the other ones come with the crumbly foam ear covers and not much in the way of adjustments. These even came with an adapter for the bigger jacks.

Oh man, the cheapest you can get these in belgium is 30 euros (I'm probably not looking in the right places). Now I wish I had bought them while I was in the states.

But they're excellent low cost headphones.

casull · « **Reply #26 on:** 23 Sep 2007, 21:43 »

Hah, thanks for the advice, but I actually picked up some grados several months ago, and they are currently serving both my music and style needs with their awesome black-plastic-retro-ness.

PS flaming ostrich's hair really is flaming red.

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Author Topic: reccomendations needed for a 25-50$ pair of headphones. (Read 6389 times)

!!!CPAOI!!!

kokeyjoe

jolijn

muteKi