Headphones

The Northern Monkey

Anyone recommend some headphones?
The over ear ones i'm after, mainly for listening to music in the flat and maybe a film now and then.

Not a clue at all about headphones but i know theres a few av geeks on here (yeehaa? ).

Lets have a starting bid of £30 and go from there...

Muttly1981

I've always found Sennheiser to be fantastic for the money and HMV normally have some good deals on them, i used to have these and they were fantastic but a little pricey at £160 made worse by the ex borrowing them then moving back to America :x

.Brucey.

Bose FTW

eltonioni

Sennheiser always seem to give you a good bang for your buck at the cheap end of the market. I'm very happy with their PMX80's for bike / running.

The Northern Monkey

Hmm... seems I may have been a bit misleading

By "over ear" I meant ones like this...

welshkev

those beats by dre ones have amazing bass response - but they're £150. i have a cheap pair of sennheiser hd202's in work for basic sound monitoring. they're no where near the best but they do the job and they're less than £30

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.210-1332.as ... t=210-1332

The Northern Monkey

hehe yeah the pic was just for reference!

Thats the sort of hedphones I'm after, cheers Kev!

I've seen these for £14 which have a good bandwidth range, but I don't know what makes a good set of headphones other than that!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-MDR-XD200- ... =de_a_smtd

welshkev

one of the lads has these on his computer, they're ok.....if you were monitoring sound then i'd say no...but they're ok for listening to music or watching films

nicklouse

http://www.whathifi.com/review/sennheiser-hd-202

Richie63

I've got the Sennheiser HD 65 TV


Which are great as far as my ears are concerned and are comfortable to watch a whole movie with.

Richie63

oh around £43

The Northern Monkey

Cheers for the review above... they look spot on

Jus a quick one, do you still get the sense of surround sound with these headphones?

nicklouse

just stereo but that can be good. it depends on the recording.

The Northern Monkey

Stereo is fine for music, was wondering about films thats all.

Will have a scan around for some deals I think!

Thanks all!

Anonymous

The Northern Monkey wrote:

i know theres a few av geeks on here (yeehaa? ).

And for that insult, you get zero reccomendations.

nicklouse

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Stereo is fine for music, was wondering about films thats all.

Will have a scan around for some deals I think!

Thanks all!

there are multi speaker headphones to hive the AV track as there is on a multi track movie but they tend to be for PC only

Kaise

I've had a pair of Denon ones for a while now and they are pretty good, these ones

http://www.iheadphones.co.uk/denon-ah-d1001-sv.html

i use them in the office and wandering down to the shops. Good base response, detailed treble etc etc, I'm no expert but i them

projectsome

Anything with Sennheiser on...

losmanos

Grado make the best headphones I've ever used, by miles.

gweeds

Anyone going to be sitting next to you while you're listening?

lancew

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-Monit ... 004UDTM1Q/

In budget, excellent, wins lots of awards.

ben16v

AKG450 or 451(have inline mic for phones) compact on ear Headphone originally sold for £150 but you can get them for less than £40
review here http://www.whathifi.com/akg/k450/review
for movies the Budget sennheiser HD202 (they have a long cable) are a good entry level set
http://www.whathifi.com/sennheiser/hd-202/review
both sets a few years old but have lasted me well

The Northern Monkey

lancew

Holy cow.

How did I get fooled by that. Maybe its time for some new headphones?

ben16v

was waiting for the reply of what OP bought? lol

joelsim

The first rule is to not buy brands that are all style and no substance, ever. You know the brand I mean, voted 17th out of 18 brands for customer satisfaction, and party to many many poor reviews.

The second thing I would say is buy as good as you can afford, you don't get much for £30. Buy well and they will last you for years.

Third, don't just buy willy nilly, either demo a few pairs or ask someone for advice based on your music taste and usage. Sitting at home with a £25k HiFi system will be a far different choice than for on a plane or for DJing. Don't be afraid to ask, the best retailers will always help.

You can also still go wrong with a good brand if it doesn't match your music taste. Grado as someone mentioned are a great brand with excellent sound quality but they wouldn't be the best choice for drum and bass.

And finally as with anything decent you need a good source, no point in paying £300 for headphones and then listening to 92kbps MP3 tunes. That would be like buying a 4k TV and then using it to watch pixelated YouTube clips all the time.

Clockworkmark31

Interesting,

My opinion, Musical fidelity X-CanV2 paired with some Grado's can't get better. For monitoring Sonys MDR-V700DJ, or in ear flavor B&W C5.

All I have as I am an AV geek, but it depends on your usage. A dedicated headphone amp with some decent over ears is amazing.

joelsim

Clockworkmark31 wrote:

Interesting,

My opinion, Musical fidelity X-CanV2 paired with some Grado's can't get better. For monitoring Sonys MDR-V700DJ, or in ear flavor B&W C5.

All I have as I am an AV geek, but it depends on your usage. A dedicated headphone amp with some decent over ears is amazing.

A very nice combo which I suspect will be beautiful for vocals and strings. However, if your thing is dance music then Grado is perhaps not the right brand.

Clockworkmark31

Thanks, but more has yet to come from the x-cans with some rock grotto upgrades.

I used to drink and DJ (pun intended) the sonys would go as loud and as deep as I wanted them to, after a 2 hour set my ears would be buzzing all night. A bit like Frankie Wild (Its all gone Pete Tong Film). Amazing for monitoring, could be in a club, and slip the headphones on and that is 90% of what you hear. Hence they are for monitoring.

The Grados are good by themselves, but to really appreciate them you need a amp, anything from dark side of the moon to moonlight sonata and even some walkmen and they sing.

But it does really depend on price and budget, eg, I have a Xperia Z3 with the noise cancelling earphones that come standard with the phone, and I swear they rival my Bowers & Wilkins C5s, but that is due to the trickery of the noise cancelling.

But as with anything it is all subjective.

joelsim

Clockworkmark31 wrote:

Thanks, but more has yet to come from the x-cans with some rock grotto upgrades.

I used to drink and DJ (pun intended) the sonys would go as loud and as deep as I wanted them to, after a 2 hour set my ears would be buzzing all night. A bit like Frankie Wild (Its all gone Pete Tong Film). Amazing for monitoring, could be in a club, and slip the headphones on and that is 90% of what you hear. Hence they are for monitoring.

The Grados are good by themselves, but to really appreciate them you need a amp, anything from dark side of the moon to moonlight sonata and even some walkmen and they sing.

But it does really depend on price and budget, eg, I have a Xperia Z3 with the noise cancelling earphones that come standard with the phone, and I swear they rival my Bowers & Wilkins C5s, but that is due to the trickery of the noise cancelling.

But as with anything it is all subjective.

Have a look at these. Just released. Modular construction so can either buy one of four 'preset' models or you can configure your own with a choice of 3 headbands, 4 drivers, 5 earpad types and 6 cables. Haven't been this excited about a launch before. I've got the outgoing TMA-1 Young Guru myself and love them.

http://www.musictoyourears.co.uk/acatal ... tma-2.html

Clockworkmark31

Interesting, I can honestly see the appeal of these.

BUT

Looking at it from a purist point, you aren't getting a 100% reproduction of the original source instead you are manipulating the original material to suit your needs.

Then looking at it from an engineering point, you are introducing so many anomalies that could go wrong and will go wrong.

My moto has always been buy right, buy once.

I would love the idea of one does all, but it is not the case.

If I use the B&Ws on a ride, they are perfect for that moment, if I use them in a domestic situation they are not fit for purpose.

Don't get me wrong I would love a one for all solution, but in this instance I will say you have to buy specifically.

If I use the B&Ws on my Z3 it is perfect for that situation, If I use the same ear phones in home I am missing out.

Honestly a headphone amp in home with some decent headphones is a truly positive rewarding situation rather than making do with what you have. Just my thoughts.

If I use monitor headphones or in ears on my home setup, I can instantly notice the difference.