Headphone help

I want to buy some headphones have about 60 or 50 USD to spend on them but i'll increase my price range if necessary, and need some help. I want some headphones that are very good, by which i mean no tinny sound, or being easily breakable. It could be noise canceling, but if it muffles the sound that wouldn't be cool. Also want it to be comfortable for long wear, but if it's not that's pretty ok, as long as it doesn't start to hurt as soon as you put it on. I don't care about look, but if it looks cool that's cool. I just want some to make my sound experience better, and not annoy the neighbors with my tunes since I don't want to get kicked out of my apartment. I'd appreciate any help, since choosing a pair of phones is hard unless i have heard how they sound. Thanks.

 

check this thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=168360

 

I found that the Sennheiser PX 100 is a much loved pair of phones, but i read in a review by one dude that it's not good for listening to things like rock, heavy metal, or hip-hop. I don't listen to hip-hop but the other two are pretty much the only types of music i listen to so i'm on the prowl once again.

 

Well, you can surely listen to rock with PX100, it just does not have punchy bass. If you like punchy bass, you can have AKG K26P for similar price. I use K26P for portable - although I don't like strong bass, I do like its good seal (closed Senn PX series leaks too much for my liking). Or, you can extend your budget a bit and get Grado SR60, highly regarded "rock' headphones.

 

Punchy bass? What band is that? Anyway, i seriously don't get punchy bass. Can you explain it? I'm searching for reviews for the other two you mentioned. Also when i said rock, and metal i meant those two and many other variations like alternate rock, and alternate metal, and some others in case your just going by that one song selection. Thanks for your help Woodgypsy. Greatly appreciated.

 

Have you considered Shure E earbuds?

http://www.audiolines.com/product.php?productid=18694
http://www.compuplus.com/i-Shure-E2...?sid=92yt0xm4o60i0r0&mfr=Shure&category=AUDIO
http://www.compuplus.com/i-Shure-E2...?sid=92yt0xm4o60i0r0&mfr=Shure&category=AUDIO

 

The Sennheisser CX 300 is an option, if you are looking at earphones.

 

I'm not too fond of earphones at all. I hear too many people saying earphones come out, and that if you turn the sound up you go deaf.

 

The Shure E series is truly excellent, one of the most comfortable earbuds I've ever used. And the beauty is that you don't have to turn up the sound as loud. Also, you won't have to worry about noise leaking.

 

So, i can just poke it in my ear listen to my music, movies on my comp and even if my mum is in the room (where the comp is) she won't hear a single peep? I'll definitely look into this a lot more. Thanks man. If this turns out to be the headphones for me then i'll owe you.

 

PX100 is the "open" headphones - don't get open headphones if you don't want someone sitting next to you to hear what you are listening to.

If you don't like in-ear headphone like Shure, then AKG K26P is good choice, as it has very little leak.

 

Well he said that they were good earphones, and didn't deaf you or anything so i'm doing some research on it. I think i'll use the PX100 as a backup plan if the others don't come through. I really appreciate all your help guys.

 

one of the best pair of headphones ive heard is the Logitech Premium headset. their about $25-$30.
The only problem is that they'er a headset rather than just the headphones. which means ull have an extra jack dongaling around. but the mic isnt that intrusive and it probably will give you some nice bang for the buck.

But then i will say that i have never heard anything that great in terms of sound as well. so all i can say is thier about the same as my desktop speakers. when pluged into my laptop.

 

I have a pair of PX100's and I don't know why people say that you can't listen to metal or hip hop or whatever, I listen to all kinds of music including those and I absolutely love them. I also sit in a room with 5 other people, and none of them seem to complain about hearing my music, just as long as you don't turn it up to extremely high volumes then they can't really hear it. I take them off my head at my casual listening level and I can't tell what song it is from 6" away.

 

It wasn't the PX that was leaking it was the Grado. I'm going to be looking at the PX, AK, and Shure. I hope i can narrow my choices down, thanks for the leads guys. I really appreciate it. Also Syndrome, Woodgypsy said that you could listen to rock but it wouldn't have punchy bass. Now i don't knows if punchy bass makes a difference since my Realtek HD Audio manager has an equalizer for rock, but i guess having punchy bass makes it sound better. Also did you mean 6in, or 6ft?

 

I meant 6 inches. I don't understand what they mean by not having punchy bass... I'm actually kind of a bass head and they sure seem to have enough bass for me..

 

I think AKG's bass is bit too much, although its nothing offensive (many cheaper headphones (and BOSE) have insanely loud, and muddy bass, which I find tasteless and downright offensive). There's nothing wrong with listening to rock with PX100, and I myself prefer these "classical" sounding headphones too (and I mostly listen to rock -well, progressive rock, but still).

About sound-leaking, well, let me just say that i came from a rather crowded country, so my standard for leaking is maybe bit strict.

 

So the PX 100 doesn't really leak that much? They are open ended, so i expect them to have more leak that the Shure E, but a little is ok.

 

I still think PX100 leaks fair bit....But I guess that is my personal opinion.

PX200 is sealed, but it doesn't have very good sound.

 

You might want to look at the Etymotic Research ER6i earphones. I recently also had to find a new pair of headphones and these were the best I could find. They're only 75 bucks from Amazon which is pretty good. The foam earphones covers they come with both feel great and isolate sound pretty well. I also have not had any problems with sound leaking out. They do require a slight break-in time and you also have to learn how to put them in correctly. Many people who complain about earphones don't seem to have them put in correctly. About the punchy bass stuff and about the X sounds crystal clear etc., you can't really explain it. It's just something you'll know once you hear it. When I stepped up from a pretty good pair (for the price) of Sonys to the ER6i, the ER6i just seemed more lively. It's really hard to explain. That said, don't get the ER6i if you want a loud bass. The ER6i accurately reproduces music, so they don't artificially turn up the bass much if at all.

About the PX100s, those are great headphones. Not as good as the non-collapsible version, but that version has really bad sound leakage problems.

 

The ER's are IEM's which are a total different style than the PX100's and I've found that with the ER's then I can't wear them a fraction of the time that I can wear my PX100's(I can wear them all day without them hurting my ears). If you want IEM's then ER's are at the top of the list. I just tested my PX100's for sound leakage, in a quiet room, listening to my music at a decent level, if I take my head phones off and put them 6 inches from my head, then I can't even hear them. But I know that if your riding on a bus or something with alot of noise where you have to turn them up, then they do leak some.

 

have a look at the sennheiser HD215s,they are a quality pair of budget headphones-the sound out of them is solid and clear,the headband and cup padding is soft and-very comfortable for extended wearing.
the lead on them pulls out and can be replaced if damaged,this is a problem have always had with headphones,despite having looked after them, cables always eventually pulled out of the cups,but with ones like these that isn't a problem.
have put them through a lot of use-used daily with laptop and a psp,and also when out,for a long time,no degrading in them as yet apart from some of the curls on the wire straightening out and twisting.

 

I think i'll stick with IEM's for now so i think i'll get the Shure E2c, but i'll look into the Er's. The reason i'm sticking with IEM's is because of the noise isolation features, and the advanced sound experience.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by 'advanced sound experience', but yes, my E2c's isolate noise well.

 

I noticed that with most reviews for IEM's they said that the sound experience was much richer than that of actual head phones because it was right in your ear, with no noise from the outside world coming in, you would just kinda feel the song in your head. Now that's what i call a pretty darn good song experience.

 

I challenge you to define 'richer' in acoustic terms.

In any case, yes the E2c's are good enough that the sound will be clear, given decent source material plus the isolation feature.

 

I accept your challenge. They mean richer in the sense that they heard things, or notes they didn't realize existed with headphones, and noticed with these because it was so close to their ear drums with no other noise it just delivered an experience that they said was just stunningly amazing. Also think of it in the terms that you have an image in a bad resolution. If you opened up paint.net you would be able to sharpen it and it would look a lot more defined, and much richer than before.

 

Well, paint.net won't make a bad source image look much better.

Same thing with music, bad quality mp3's won't sound better with better headphones, besides hearing more of the flaws. Unless your previous setup included absolutely horrible speakers/output device, you won't hear anything new. Given good source material, however, and what is there will definitely sound better.

This is based on my experience using Sennheiser HD280's/Shure E2C's on an X-Fi/Creative Zen: M, so if by chance these components are actually lacking, then I'm wrong.

 

The Shure e2c are amazing. However other headphones like the Koss 'Plug' and Creative Zen EP630 are similarily good too with the same 'in-ear sponge plug method' at more than half the cost. The wire on the Koss are a bit thin though. The wires for the Shure's are nice big thick ones, but mine have started to crack and split during this past winter, fortunatly they are covered by the two year warranty. Here's a link for the Creative Zen's, appears they're on sale again, dunno if you have them available in the US though.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10082591&catid=24921&logon=&langid=EN

 

Thanksfor the info Knight i'll be sure to read up on the Zen's. Also Ichigo the thing is, i will have most if not all of my music in 320kbps. I heard some dude say noting less than 250kbps. So it'll still sound good.

 

I'm going to throw my 2 cents in even though my recommendation is expensive. I use the Bose Quiet Comfort 2. They are over the ear, noise canceling headphones. They do block out a lot of sound and I find the sound quality very good for gaming and music. I also use them on airplanes to cut the engine whine.

One potential down side, they use one AAA battery. It lasts for a fairly long time.

 

Bose is a good call. I have the QC3's and they're rediculous on an airplane. It's really an awesome experience. The QC3's are more expensive and are On the ear with a very comfortable material used to form to your ears. This pair includes a rechargable battery rather than the AAA's. The battery hasent died on me yet since I've gotten them and I've had them for a couple months. I mainly use them when I really need them. The battery is supposed to last about 20 hours on one charge.

 

Hmm hmm i agree, i need to start importing my CDs again.....

UE Super.fi3 FTW!

 

Thing is i don't go the way of noise canceling because from what i've heard people hate it because it just blocks out other noises by adding it's own whine. I go the way of noise isolating.

 

Yes, I would think that passive noise isolation is best if the headphones you are using fit properly.

And Bose...

 

If you can live without the noise cancelling/isolation, I would suggest the Koss PortaPro headphones. Absolutely outstanding sound for the price, and it comes with a lifetime warranty.

 

All Koss headphones have lifetime warranty, but you have to pay for return shipping , other than that, Koss heaphones are a great option

 

Sennheiser CX 300 or get the Razer Pro Solutions Pro Tone M100 which are EXACTLY the same only re-branded , cheeper, and come with a carrying case i own a pair and there just uber due to the price for what your getting... only complain is that the left side is shorter than the right, aka the type where you put the right wire across the back of your neck... also due to then IEM it blocks out as much as noise as some noise-canceling headphones

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826153010
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=22357&vpn=RP04-02010102-R1M!&manufacture=Razer

 

The Shure E2c link that Odin gave me was selling them for $50, but it was by a strange manufacturer i don't know. I know newegg will deliver, and fast but i've got to research those phones before i buy them. Thanks Neezee, Foxstick, and Pinoyknight. I really appreciate the help.

 

The E2Cs are very nice! I tried them once and was very impressed, the noise isolation is excellent, but i ended up buying the Super.fi3 grabbed a bargain from ebay

 

I was really impressed with the CX300's for the price.

 

Yeah, but i heard that they have a very tinny sound, or something of that effect.