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Ask Slashdot: Best Headphones, Earbuds, Earphones?
alexbgreat writes "What do you think is the best set of head-mounted loudspeakers for the money, with a cost of less than $50? Here are some featuresthat would be stupendous to have (in descending order of importance): noise isolation (not cancellation), flat/near flat response (I need to be able to hear bass, but I don't need my eardrums blown out), long-term comfort (earbuds usually hurt for me), and durability. Over-ear is preferred to anything on- or in-ear. Boom mics are permissible, as I may well use it as a broadcast intercom headset."
If you have experience using headphones from different price ranges, feel free to share that as well.
Downside: almost transparent to sound. People can hear what you're listening to and the isolation you get is next to none. Still, audio quality is great for the price, they're light and very comfortable.
I bought two pairs of Monoprice 8323's and I think they are fantastic. I keep one at home and the other at work.
I've never been disappointed with anything I've bought from Monoprice.
These same headphones are available from other people (Kicker and others) for significantly more money.
oh, and 10 shitloads = 1 fuckton, just so's ya know.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Monoprice's $23 headphones have gotten some pretty good reviews:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-57337747-47/how-good-can-$21.59-headphones-be/?tag=mncol;txt)
http://www.head-fi.org/t/608453/monoprice-dj-headphones-8323-review
They sound good to me, but I'm not a serious audiophile, I just use them to cover up background office noise. I think the sound is comparable to the $80 Sennheiser's I use at home. (which, a friend tells me are completely unbearable compared to his $500 Sennheiser HD650's, so I refuse to listen to music through his headphones, 'lest some of his "golden ears" rub off and I find myself needing more expensive gear)
or Head-Fi. They aren't audiophile dumbasses but also they aren't the broke neckbeard losers that inhabit slashdot listening to their $5 Jensen headphones.
I know this will sound petty, but I'd rip my intestines out with a fork before buying something branded with Sony, given their recent history of putting out crap hardware, screwing customers over, distributing malware, suing music fans, losing online customer's data, etc.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. "But that wasn't their headphone division!" Still, I don't want that company seeing one red cent of mine. Sorry headphone division of Sony, but your parent company is scummy, so you have to pay the price of their shenanigans. I'm hopeful that there are plenty of alternatives for 20 bones that are just as good or better.
To anyone reading this, please remember all the times you've read an article here about Sony and though, "Wow, that's bad." Please don't fall into the "But their [whatever] is pretty good, so I'll make an exception and buy it." It's putting money in their pocket that they use to keep screwing people over so that we can see even more articles here about their spectacular douchebaggery.
HeadRoom tests more headphones than probably anyone. They're unbiased enough to say when a $40 pair is better than $100 pair that they sell.
If you want comfort and ultimate noise blocking you can do a DIY version. I made a pair and they were fantastic and comfortable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmk-y_9exJ8&feature=player_embedded
Just pick up a set of decent earbuds, I used skullcandy ones when I did mine, and a radians custom earplug kit ($11).
http://www.amazon.com/Radians-Custom-Molded-Earplugs-Red/dp/B002XULPSQ
http://www.head-fi.org/
Koss Porta Pro don't just look retro, they're the real deal. They've been mostly unchanged since 1984, and Amazon has sold them since 1990 (up to 1,200 reviews now). It's nice to see a company stand behind a product instead of cycling them every 6 months.
I was under the impression hardly anyone could tell the difference between lossless and a v0 mp3 on even pretty decent gear....
Sony is a large company and they put out many things. If you have a beef against them for whatever reason then more power to you. However the question was posed about sub $50 dollar head phones and I happen to have picked up a pair of Sony's for a road trip and I was very impressed with the quality, fit and portability. If your still upset about the rootkit and the removal of PS3 Linux that's fine. That doesn't apply to me however and I'm just giving advice and the OP can use it or lose as he or she chooses.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
The lower end Etymotic earbuds are also around $100 and much better than the Bose.
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
Part of the method used to protest bad corporate behaviour is to boycott them. The other part is to spread the word. Only being boycotted by the people you've screwed over probably wouldn't even do much damage to Sony, (although it would be much more than most)
To stay on-topic, my favourites headphones are these JVCs at about $50, They have a cheaper pair for about half the price (HX-33s?) that are almost as good. They isolate noise enough tthat I wear them while woodworking or mowing the lawn. Great sound, and I can wear them comfortably all day. You can actually get them on sale for about half the price listed on occasion. They seem quite sturdy, but I'm not that rough on headphones despite wearing them so much.
I used primarily the HD-580 for about seven years, until I switched to Stax electrostatic headphones (Omega 3, that cost about $5000). The 580 were around $250 when I bought them new on eBay and one could probably find them now for $200. Over this time period I auditioned several dozen headphones (I don't have speakers as I move frequently) and in the under $250 range there's nothing that compares. It's a sort of a sweet spot. Anything above that price point is an incremental improvement; most things below are a significant degradation. Even the $5K Stax are not that greatly better (but hey, felt good to buy myself a little present, and it was an excuse to build a high voltage hybrid solid state/tube headphone amp instead of plunking another $5K after one... http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/bluehawaii_moda1.png )
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
Get Ety HF series that work with phone OS you use. I bought a set of the HF2's for my Droid and love them. They're crisp and clear, without the artificial overpowering bass that most earbuds on the market have. The sound seperation is excellent as well. I have a set of Audio Technica NC cans, which are nice headphones, but I highly prefer the sound of the Ety's over those.
On top of that, the sound isolation is excellent and I find them to be some of the most comfortable in canal phones I've used. Plus, for and additional $100.00 you can get fitted for custom buds that are molded for your ear canal.
Amazon carries them for $120.00 or so. Well worth it.
So we shouldn't even try, right?
Just sit back, drop another Xanax and keep blindly handing money to the people that are actively trying to screw us because, hey, it's unavaoidable, right?
You can take it that I disagree with your view of things.
A big +1 on the cheaper Grados.
As a non-audiophile I was blown away when a friend lent me his backup pair of SR-80s. I didn't know music could sound like that...
If only they didn't leak sound... but the open design is exactly what makes them sound as clear as they are.
Best sub $100 purchase I've ever made.
In that price range you'd be hard pressed to beat the Koss Porta Pro. Very old-school styling, on-ear, and no isolation, but the sound is really good for the price.
My upscale headphones are AKG 501s, driven with a homemade PPA amplifier with a custom bass-boost filter designed to compensate for the bass rolloff in the headphones themselves.
If you want isolation, you're either looking at DJ-style headphones or else isolating earbuds. I can't help you there.
There are a ton of companies out there that make headphones.
How about picking one that is not extremely well known for fucking over consumers, sticking their noses where it does not belong (my home), and sponsoring (read purchasing) legislation that fundamentally violates our rights to Freedom, Privacy, and Anonymity just because they are loathsome greedy pieces of shit?
Last I heard.. Denon, Coby, Bose, Urbanwear, etc. did not have any financial interests in copyright specific IP law, content creation, and content distribution.
I understand your point that all companies might be objectionable in some ways, but some companies are clearly and flagrantly, objectionable in so many, many, ways.
I very much agree with you. The entire *reason* that those companies have so many divisions is that they want goodwill you feel towards one of their products (say, the Discman of old) to transfer over to other lines of products (say, their headphones).
However, what this means is that when one division (or, in this case, several) radically screw the pooch, a lot of people associate the negative experience with the company as a whole. Ergo, due to the CD / DRM issue almost a decade ago, I won't buy a Playstation, a VAIO, or a $20 pair of headphones that say Sony on them.
It's not just *GOOD* feelings that transfer over, Sony.
Not as good as $200 Bose
Just something to consider... I know what you're saying, but "good" of course has different meaning for different applications. I've never heard Bose headphones, but I have heard other Bose audio, and while it sounds very nice, for what is popular today in what people want to hear, in my experience, Bose can almost never actually be considered having fidelity, that is, faithful to the actual audio that is being amplified... because I have discovered they are always incredibly bass heavy. In a studio, this might be fine for cans for a drummer... if an expensive option. For purely enjoying music, they are pleasant I have little doubt, Bose does some pretty incredible things. But you're hearing more than the artists intended, FWIW. I'm no Bose expert, haven't listened to any of their headphones, but I would expect if you tried to mix music with them, all your music would end up sounding weak in the low end... because you're mixing with a heavy bass handycap. If the music you listen to is traditionally bass heavy anyway, I wouldn't expect Bose to be considered good for that application, unless you just really love low end and don't mind that you're hearing more of the headphones and less of the music.
Again, I am no expect, but I would consider the best headphones those that faithfully reproduce music flatly, in all its gory sonic imperfection, and not try to boost any frequencies because the sound of it happens to be popular right now.
I like Bose radios for their compactness... big sound, small box... but I have no delusion as to whether the audio coming out of it is actually really what I am listening to... if that makes any sense (how much is the artist, how much is Bose?). Most people would hate the way studio monitors sound, but if Bose made such a thing in a compact box that didn't boost frequencies and faithfully reproduced the signal no matter what it was, I'd be all over it.
...just my uninformed $.02... YMMV
The Admin and the Engineer
You don't need to state that. Of course it's a metric fuckton, everyone knows an imperial small fuckton = 6.235 imperial large shitloads.
A million times no! When I got frustrated with the headphones that came with my phone because the buds kept falling out, I replaced them with some earbuds from Sony. The sound quality would basically qualify as what I call Brittney Spears quality. In other words, they have no bass, the treble is hissy, the sound is static-ey and unclear. To me, the represent another low-quality piece of crap from Sony made with the slogan 'rush it out and try to make as much money as possible.' No quality, no value, nothing. I can't imagine a $5 pair sounding worse. I knew it was a mistake to buy from Sony, but I gave them just one more chance. Not doing it again.
Personally, I got a Sennheiser HD 202 for $20 and they're quite simply the best value you can possibly get for headphones. For the price, the sound is impressively rich, clear and well-rounded.
I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
I know what you mean about the exaggerated bass, that's is exactly what I experienced with their speakers in their show room. However, I purchased their original noise cancelling head phones ($300) when they first came out because my cubical was immediately below the heating and air conditioning system. The head phones DID NOT exhibit the same bass boost that their speakers did and the noise cancelling ability was outstanding. I've tried other noise cancelling head phones just as a point of comparison and none did as good a job. The tonal range seemed to be evenly distributed and the ability to reproduce sounds accurately was good as near as I can tell. Also, Bose will (or at least did) give you a $100 credit if you brought in an old pair for replacement. Seems like an absolute necessity if you work in a cubical environment.