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Headphones & Earphones : what is your choice ?

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PhilippeC

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http://www.headfonia.com/philips-fidelio-l1/

Costs 150 Euros right now. Warm, not completely neutral, very well manufactured (leather / aluminum). Ear cushions not replaceable. Cable replaceable. Very easy to drive.

http://eu.skullcandy.com/shop/headphones/over-ear-headphones/aviator

Cool looking, good built quality. Might not be the best fit for big ears. Sonic signature tends to focus on bass and treble, otherwise fairly balanced. Undifferentiated (because of the clear plastic caps). Tried it, sent it back (my head seems to be too big). Can be bought for roughly 80 Euros right now. Worth their money and definitely better than their reputation. Not the loudest though.

http://en-de.sennheiser.com/over-ear-headphone-momentum-stereo

Beautiful headphones with aluminum and leather. Right now costs roughly 220 Euros. Still too expensive. Nice, warm sound signature. Cable and cushions replaceable. Ignore the on-ear version, the over-ear version is superior. Easy to drive.

http://en-de.sennheiser.com/noise-cancelling-headphones-audio-stereo-bass-closed-hd-449

Plastic everywhere. Warm sound signature, not enough treble resolution on occasion. I own the predecessor and love it (apart from design, the HD-448 is exactly the same). Easy to drive but not the loudest.

http://europe.beyerdynamic.com/shop/dt-1350.html?SID=23d820197e4728271b54a463ff01f4b0&___store=en&___from_store=de

Don´t like Beyerdynamic but many others do. Not neutral, focuses on bass and treble. Very dynamic headphones. Good built quality, everything is replaceable. Easy to drive.

These are all closed headphones so you won´t hear much when walking outside. In case you´re listening exclusively at home, don´t connect them to a stationary device as those will have a high output impedance and will probably distort these headphones' sound signature. In any case, if it´s possible, listen to them before you make a decision. Headphones are highly subjective. What I like might be horrible for you and vice versa.

I can´t recommend IEMs since I always want to tweak how they sit in my ear. IEMs depend so much on correct placement... I hate them.

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Hey what about the Grados MDietrich ?

Don´t you like them too?

I generally use them at home but did some train riding with them too.

You need to know these were open Headphones so disturbing your neighbor is inclusive :P

I can speak for the (Koss) Porta Pro too. I like how easy they can be arranged and how they sound as well.They were also quite affordable.. i think 40-50€.

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I second PunkRockAddicit's choice - with a bullet! I have both the Grado 60i and the 80i. The 80i model is $99.00 and the 60i model is $79.00. I personally don't hear much difference between the two.

Don't let the relatively low price decive you. They are without question the best sounding headphones I've ever used. For one thing, they don't color the sound with emphasised highs or lows. You get a very transparent listening experience and somehow a 3 dimentional effect on certain recordings; as if you were in the studio or at the concert during the performance. There is no special circuitry built in for that effect; it's just how good they are.

The design styling is definately not up-to-date, (who cares?), and they don't fold up but, I often carry a pair for on-the-go MiniDisc listening with no problems / they don't have huge cans and aren't heavy. Very comfortable to wear, and for a long time if so happens.

I do have a pair of AKG K81DJ headphones that I use for subway travel listening because the closed back doesn't disturb other people and the ear cups are more isolating. They fold up to some extent and they sound pretty good, (w/ some low end emphasis), but not up to the sound quality of the Grado headphones.

Just my two cents on the question and I acknowledge that which headphones sound great to any particular individual is very subjective.

One piece of testing advice: don't listen to too many different headphones at one time. After about 10 minutes or so of listening to music your ears ability to hear certain frequencies accurately tends to deminish. Listen to a few, then take a break to let you ears recover. I know this symptom well from years of shopping for cymbals.

-ja

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Hey what about the Grados MDietrich ?

Don´t you like them too?

I generally use them at home but did some train riding with them too.

You need to know these were open Headphones so disturbing your neighbor is inclusive :P

I can speak for the (Koss) Porta Pro too. I like how easy they can be arranged and how they sound as well.They were also quite affordable.. i think 40-50€.

Erm... I don´t like Grados very much I´m afraid. Their sound signature favors treble too much for my taste (at least with the one I´ve heard... I´ve forgotten which model it was. One of their more expensive ones, that I remember). To me this headphone sounded brittle and aggressive.

I would have recommended the PortaPro (bit too bassy and coloured - but it´s still one of the best portable headphones) too but he said that he wants to use them outside and so I only looked for closed headphones. The Koss SportaPro might have been a good idea but since I´ve never heard it I cannot comment on its sound.

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I have already a Koss Portapro. So what is realy better in sound quality (headphone open or not) ?

Depends. I know many excellent open headphones as well as excellent closed headphones. As I said, listen to headphones before you buy them as they are a very subjective experience.

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I've been using the AudioTechnica M-40fs headphones for years. They are flat response and designed specifically for honest reproduction which you need for serious studio work. If I remember correctly their freq. response goes from 2-10Hz up to 22kHz. You can really crank these things up too! Enough so that even a kit drummer could use them for playback and recording monitoring without distortion or blowing the drivers up. I'm unsure if AT still does, but they used to offer replacement parts for them and they can be disassembled and rebuilt easily. I really wouldn't recommend them for travel or walking around though. AT has been making this model for approx 20 years with no changes they're that good and very modestly priced at 60-80$(us)

My only complaint about them is that they tend to make vocals sound a bit hotter in a mix than they will sound on your nearfield monitors or on the end users home stereo, so it's always wise to switch over to your monitors and give a little extra boost to vocals and in some cases you lead/solo instrument. Otherwise they do an excellent job when used for balancing your instrument mix, very accurate stereo sound field reproduction.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I also have a pair of Audio Technica headphones - ATH-M50's. As per the previous post they have a flat response and are very detailed. Quite a large headphone so a little cumbersome when walking the dog! Comfortable headband and large over-ear cups. If you are looking at something more portable then I would suggested getting a lighter headphone for day-to-day commutes.

Large over-ear cups are nice in winter but certainly give you hot'n'sweaty ears during summer!

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Just read your headphone reviews MDietrich, very interesting. I've heard the Momentums and I wasn't really that impressed. They came across as having a very "nice" sound, possibly tuned to appeal to the masses and somehow justify the price? But they certainly don't have an accurate, detailed sound. Now I can see why, looking at the graph the Momentum's have an awful lot of roll-off at the top end. I also noted your comments about the earcups being too small, couldn't agree more.

I'm currently using some Shure SRH440's which I know aren't everyone's cup of tea but there's loads of top end detail which I like. Seems the majority of headphones these days have rolled off top ends, I'd be interested to hear about any others apart from Shure that keep the high notes (full size, closed back).

As portable MD's have a bass boost function you can always compensate a little if your headphones are a bit light in the bass department but if the treble is lacking you're more or less stuck with it.

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Just read your headphone reviews MDietrich, very interesting. I've heard the Momentums and I wasn't really that impressed. They came across as having a very "nice" sound, possibly tuned to appeal to the masses and somehow justify the price? But they certainly don't have an accurate, detailed sound. Now I can see why, looking at the graph the Momentum's have an awful lot of roll-off at the top end. I also noted your comments about the earcups being too small, couldn't agree more.

I'm currently using some Shure SRH440's which I know aren't everyone's cup of tea but there's loads of top end detail which I like. Seems the majority of headphones these days have rolled off top ends, I'd be interested to hear about any others apart from Shure that keep the high notes (full size, closed back).

As portable MD's have a bass boost function you can always compensate a little if your headphones are a bit light in the bass department but if the treble is lacking you're more or less stuck with it.

Judging from its frequency response, the Shure wouldn´t be my cup of tea I think. It has a very prominent and fairly wide peak around 10 kHz, muted deep bass and slightly diminished mids.

In comparison, it´s no wonder that the Momentum ends up muffled. The Shure has too much treble, the Momentum not enough.

Today, headphones are engineered differently compared to several years ago. Reason is that several companies have started to incorporate recent 'discoveries' regarding headphone sound. People experience playback over loudspeakers less direct and more muffled. Headphones now tend to include that experience into their sound design. It all started more than 20 years ago when Sennheiser first introduced the HD-580 to the market. Several people regarded (and still do) it as 'veiled' sounding when it actually sounded balanced and leveled out. But people were so used to the sound of other, treble-heavy cans that the sound of the HD-580 felt muted to them. Harman Kardon has done important work regarding this.

But if you want to stay with Shure, you could try the SRH-840, that headphone is famous for its balanced sound signature.

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