Best available headphones for music?

[TooNice]

I dunno if you can still get them now but i got my Sennheiser HD580 for £55 a few years ago. They were £200 rrp when they first came out, and also got a pair of HD600 for £120 (these were £350 !). For the money i've paid for them, they beat everything under £100, they get even better with an amp.

Personally i would get open headphones, i never got on well with closed, always sounded contricted and too boomy to my liking. The Grado SR60 or may be SR80 might be within your budget, which i would think will be great and better than koss howevere you do pay for it.

Umm, did you buy those headphones new?
AFAIK, they the HD580 still routinely go for closer to £100, and the HD600 £140-ish. As for whether they beat everything in the under £100 range, it still depends on your preference really. The Grado are too different to compare to with Senns. It is possible for someone to dislike the HD600/650 yet like the Grado SR60 (or vice versa). And having tried the AKG K501 with the Senns side by side, I don't actually think the AKG necessarily lose out. Yes Senns wins in terms of bass, but for soundstage, the K501 are pretty much reference class (great mids too).

I won't argue that the SR60/80/MSi are better than the Koss. They better be, considering they cost nearly twice as much. And yes my Porta Pro has been gathering dust since I bought my HF-1 (6x the cost). That said, the Porta Pro are more confortable than the Grado (which aren't known for their confort), and you can't really go wrong with them IMO (whereas you could with a Grado if the sound signature is not for you). Still, keeping in mind the OP has £100 to spend, I would suggest that he tries at least the Grado/Senn (and preferably the Beyer /AKG/AT too) if possible.

And lastly, I agree with your impression on closed phones overall (some are better than others though).

 

[Raymond Lin]

Yeah, i bought them new and boxed, both from Richer Sounds. This was when the HD600 was £300, about 3 years before the HD650 came out. I have musical fidelity x-can to power them should i feel like it which is hardly ever !

 

[TooNice]

That's pretty impressive. Right now the HD595 are at £100 on the said site. But the HD580, when they can be found, tend to be more expensive than the HD595 (since the HD580 is more in common with the HD600 than the HD595). I do prefer the HD580 over the HD595, and £55 is shockingly cheap. Still, I am quite sure that even second hand HD580 go for over £50 nowadays.

 

[Raymond Lin]

That's pretty impressive. Right now the HD595 are at £100 on the said site. But the HD580, when they can be found, tend to be more expensive than the HD595 (since the HD580 is more in common with the HD600 than the HD595). I do prefer the HD580 over the HD595, and £55 is shockingly cheap. Still, I am quite sure that even second hand HD580 go for over £50 nowadays.

ironic thing is that i also paid £50 for a pair of HD495 from a local Hifi dealer for full wack. But i never use them anymore since the HD580 is much better. And since the HD580 is so similar to the HD600, the HD600 is still mint in the box, hardly used them either.

 

[SnipaMasta]

Surround sound headsets/headphones are for gaming/dvds only and do a really poor job with music IMO (the Medusa and Zalmans anyway). A lot of people think they do a poor job with gaming/dvds too

The Medusa 5.1's are great for music, and gaming and DVD's. I'm sure there's better, but they're not particularily bad at it.

 

[fish99]

The Medusa 5.1's are great for music, and gaming and DVD's. I'm sure there's better, but they're not particularily bad at it.

When you say 'great' that is of course a relative term, so what are you comparing them to? Unless you've heard quality headphones you're not going to appreciate the deficiencies of the Medusas. It's not a price issue either, becuase my £15 KSC-75s or my £20 HD433s sound way better for music than the Medusas.

As for gaming, it's just my personal opinion, but I didn't find the surround sound very convincing. The rear channels didn't sound 'behind' they just sounded a bit higher than the fronts, and the fronts are positioned straight left and right as well, instead of front left/front right where they should be. Then the centre channel, which is only slightly more forward than the front left/front right channels, occupies a huge forward arc, but as it's a mono channel it contributes little to position. So the 3d sound field you get is skewed, and the depth from front to back is shallow. They do just about work in giving you positional information, but it's only a poor approximation of real positional audio.

 

[SnipaMasta]

When you say 'great' that is of course a relative term, so what are you comparing them to? Unless you've heard quality headphones you're not going to appreciate the deficiencies of the Medusas. It's not a price issue either, becuase my £15 KSC-75s or my £20 HD433s sound way better for music than the Medusas.

Well, it depends on what music you're listening to. I've heard high quality headphones, and I don't think the Medusas are that bad compared. For pure music quality, higher quality are far better, but for the music I listen to (louder) I think the Medusa's are brilliant.

For games, I agree that it's not the same as having the actual setup, but it helps give you an edge over where the enemy is going. If someone's running past on the other side of the wall, I can hear them and know where they are, which is good enough for me.

 

[fish99]

Can I ask which high quality headphones you've heard, and which music you listen to? I did try my Medusas with music and really didn't like the results.

As for surround sound, an X-Fi can apparently give you a good approximation of surround sound on stereo headphones. I've never used an X-Fi so I don't know how good it is, but I suspect it may be the equal of the surround sound the Medusas produce.

 

[Doohickey]

I know the OP probably isn't considering these any more, but I have to say, I've just got a pair of Alessandro MS-1s, and my word they're good... I was using Sony EX-71s before, and I thought they weren't bad for what I paid, and better than anything I'd used prior to that, but now... The crispness and punchyness of sound (techincal terms of course) are brilliant.

 

[SnipaMasta]

Can I ask which high quality headphones you've heard, and which music you listen to? I did try my Medusas with music and really didn't like the results.

As for surround sound, an X-Fi can apparently give you a good approximation of surround sound on stereo headphones. I've never used an X-Fi so I don't know how good it is, but I suspect it may be the equal of the surround sound the Medusas produce.

They're some my friend got, some £80 Sennheiser ones. Not sure of the exact model. On the X-Fi you're talking about the CMSS-3D feature. Personally, I hated it and in general the X-Fi toyed with the audio a bit too much for my liking.

 

[Logsi]

Get some;

Beyerdynamic DT770 PRO

Ace headphones, very robust and great frequency response. They are also closed so theres a lot of bass compared to open headphones.

Just to add i got mine for £70 from millenium music

 

[bitslice]

I've got some really nice Grado SR 80 Headphones (>Ebay)
Perfect sound, but a little hard on the ears. They have open backs, so there is some leakage, but then your parents aren't in the same room.

Otherwise I'd look at some big comfy Sennheiser stuff

 

[TooNice]

One thing that -is- worth keeping in mind is that not all "Sennheiser" are made the same. In general though, they are not very aggressive cans. So for fast/heavy impact music, it is not completely impossible for the Koss, which share more with the Grado to be subjectively better.

I've used my X-Fi Elite Pro with both my Grado HF-1 and AKG K701, and for movies and gaming. To me, AKG's wide soundstage mean that it sounds great, perhaps even better for gaming without CMSS. It doesn't lose anything against surround headphones IMO. For movies however, CMSS is magic; I've yet to hear more convincing surround even from surround speakers. I listen to music in Audio Creation mode, so no effect there (no Crystalizer/CMSS/resampling etc.).

 

[fish99]

They're some my friend got, some £80 Sennheiser ones. Not sure of the exact model. On the X-Fi you're talking about the CMSS-3D feature. Personally, I hated it and in general the X-Fi toyed with the audio a bit too much for my liking.

The OP is after headphones for music, and IMO the Medusas just don't qualify. They fundamentally don't have a high quality sound, which is what most people want from music headphones. I've used the Medusas with music, and I've used plenty of other headphones with the same music, and that's my opinion of them.

 

[SnipaMasta]

Well, for plain out music quality they definitely aren't the best, but they're not terrible quality.

 

[Spyhop]

I agree. The Medusas are not bad if you have them set up properly, i.e. a stereo signal going to both the front and back internal drivers and bass being split off to the appropriate port on the Medusa amp and in turn the headphones. Pretty comfortable too. You will probably get better bang/buck going with stereo headphones though. Good tip on the MS-1s.

TooNice - I got some AKG K701s today. They're great. So much detail and the fit and finish is supremely comfortable.

 

[Scott Salisbury]

Hey all.

After reading through all your replies and doing research into all your suggestions, specifically Grado, I decided to settle for the Sennheisers. My original choice was the 515's, butt changed my mind to the more expensive 555s, as most of the reviews I found about the 515s recommended to pay the extra and go for the better 555s.

They just came and I'm currently listening to them now and I have to say they are bloody fantastic. I've tested them on all my types of music, mainly trance and hard trance and some ambient chillout, they work very well with all of them.

What TooNice said, you are right in saying that these aren’t particularly aggressive cans, but I'm actually glad, as they do my music so much more justice elsewhere other than just the heavy bass.

Another reason why I went for Sennheiser is something else TooNice mentioned, that they “lend” more towards classical. I quite often like to listen to (not classical) but electronic chillout, which can be very tuneful but not too heavy.

As for an amp? Definitely not, they’re so loud as they are. I’ve even tried them on my Creative Zen:M for the hell of it and they’re impressive even on this (many reviews said they were almost useless on mobile devices). Though, I won’t ever use these cans outside the house

Thanks for all your help and input, I am very impressed by these and definitely recommend them to anyone who is looking for something similar.

Main disadvantage, holy hell do they leak! Definitely NOT for public listening, lol. I knew this before I bought them and it doesn’t concern me, but if you don’t want to annoy other people in the room then don’t go for these.

Other than that I’ll give them 9/10 (the last point for the leakage) and they’re definitely worth the investment.

Comfort: 10/10 (had thme on 2 hours now and I forgot I was wearing them)

I also tried them with low quality mp3s too, and I bearly notice they're low quality.

 

[TooNice]

TooNice - I got some AKG K701s today. They're great. So much detail and the fit and finish is supremely comfortable.

Ah, welcome to the club. Great that you enjoy them out of the box. For me it took a little get used to, but I now find them excellent complement to my Grado.

@Scott: To be honest any of the ones suggested probably would've provided a similar level of satisfaction if you've not tried many cans before. Enjoy those cans

 

[Curio]

Thanks for the replies

How do you mean exactly?

Good choice on the Sennheisers What I meant by "running in" is that all speakers and headphones don't sound at their best when you first buy them. The drive units, the bits that vibrate and create the sound you hear, are a bit tight at first. Once they've loosened up they sound much better. How much better varies - my Sennheisers actually sounded awful when I first got them - took about a month of solid use for them to sound sweet.

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Sennhesier HD25 (or the cheaper SP version)?

EDIT - should've read the thread :O